Minza Shadid
Taubman College of Architecture & Urban Planning, Master of Urban Design
︎
#HealthbyDesign is ...
Health is how our physical, mental, and social well-being are supported or sometimes undermined by our surroundings. The choices we make every day, like whether we drink water instead of soda or take the stairs instead of the elevator, are rarely made in isolation. They’re shaped by our context. The
Point-of-Decision Design research on campuses shows this by placing subtle cues at the exactmoment of choice, students are nudged toward healthier behaviours almost effortlessly. It shows that health is not just about discipline or personal responsibility, but about how environments are
designed to support or hinder us. In this sense, health can be seen as a dynamic relationship between individual behaviour and environment.
Design is the tool through which we can create environments that promote healthier, more balanced living. The “Home as a Health Care Hub” project reimagined the home as an active site of care, where layout, devices, and usability work together to make health management part of daily life and showed how design decisions carry real consequences for how people move, eat, heal, and thrive. In many ways,
for me, design operates as an invisible partner in health that does not force decisions, but gently steers people toward better outcomes by making those options easier, clearer, or more natural. When I see it this way, health and design feel inseparable, two sides of the same coin that together
shape how we live day to day.
Feature Project
︎Power Plate Pathways
︎DECLUTTER
Taubman College of Architecture & Urban Planning, Master of Urban Design
︎
#HealthbyDesign is ...
Health is how our physical, mental, and social well-being are supported or sometimes undermined by our surroundings. The choices we make every day, like whether we drink water instead of soda or take the stairs instead of the elevator, are rarely made in isolation. They’re shaped by our context. The
Point-of-Decision Design research on campuses shows this by placing subtle cues at the exactmoment of choice, students are nudged toward healthier behaviours almost effortlessly. It shows that health is not just about discipline or personal responsibility, but about how environments are
designed to support or hinder us. In this sense, health can be seen as a dynamic relationship between individual behaviour and environment.
Design is the tool through which we can create environments that promote healthier, more balanced living. The “Home as a Health Care Hub” project reimagined the home as an active site of care, where layout, devices, and usability work together to make health management part of daily life and showed how design decisions carry real consequences for how people move, eat, heal, and thrive. In many ways,
for me, design operates as an invisible partner in health that does not force decisions, but gently steers people toward better outcomes by making those options easier, clearer, or more natural. When I see it this way, health and design feel inseparable, two sides of the same coin that together
shape how we live day to day.
Feature Project
︎Power Plate Pathways
︎DECLUTTER