Accelerate partners, ATiC, are working with The Mullany Fund to educate students about user experience research in the life sciences sector.
ATiC team members Tim Stokes, Yolanda Rendon Guerrero and Dr Caroline Hagerman recently ran a series of workshops in collaboration with The Mullany Fund. The Mullany Fund is a social mobility charity that works to engage young people with life sciences, and to provide tailored advice, guidance and support to help them achieve their goals.
The ATiC team led small groups of students through an example project exploring user experience research for mental health apps. The students explored the competitive landscape, interviewed potential app users, and developed a vision for a new app which would help users manage their mental health.
Feedback from the students showed that they very much enjoyed the workshop, with many expressing how it had helped them to gain an understanding of user experience and healthcare research.
One of the students said:
"I enjoyed discussing mental health apps with a small group since everyone had the opportunity to say something. I felt very involved. But I think my favourite part of the workshop was interviewing the staff (who were playing the users of the app) with open ended questions about their mental health to determine the best features and what to include."
Another student explained:
"The workshop was very interesting. I gained lots of new knowledge about upcoming technology and about mental health. I really enjoyed the interviews we had to do — they were a fun challenge."
ATiC Innovation Fellow Caroline Hagerman said:
"It’s been great working with these groups of students. What we do within ATiC isn’t a ‘normal’ job, so it’s nice to introduce them to an interesting area of research they might never have heard of. It’s really inspiring hearing from the students and thinking through these problems with them."
Cross cutting themes
As part of the Accelerate mission, the programme aims to address cross-cutting themes which include:
- Equal Opportunities and Gender Mainstreaming
- Sustainable Development
- Social inclusion and tackling poverty.
If you have a project you think would benefit from collaborating with ATiC, or Accelerate, get in touch at:
Email: atic@uwtsd.ac.uk Phone: 01792 481232
This project is part of the Accelerate programme which is part-funded by the European Regional Development fund, through Welsh Government.
