Over the last century, public health and design have each evolved in response to social, technical, and economic transformations, including the rise of mass production and the seismic challenges it brought to people, organizations and the natural environment at large.

The tremendous success of public health has been driven by science and the rigorous analysis of economic, demographic, environmental, and medical information. It has saved the lives of hundreds of millions of people by influencing public policy and making recommendations for large-scale impact.

Design creates and applies frameworks and methods that support organizations to pragmatically solve specific yet complex challenges in people’s lives by shaping new livelihoods. More recently, organizations from many industries have used design to cope with challenges fraught with uncertainty due to social, emotional, and cultural factors. 

We investigate whether design can furnish frameworks and methods for rigorous immersion in seemingly intractable public health problems related to behavior that continue threaten the well-being of three continuencies: people, organizations, and the natural environment.