HealthiAir

A pop-up event to create smoke-free comfort zones

Center for Social Design at Maryland Institute College of Art
Client: Baltimore City Health Department
Skills: Design Research, Facilitating Workshops, Design Strategy
Fall 2016

Summary

I worked with a multidisciplinary team in the Center for Social Design and we collaborated with Baltimore City Health Department’s Tobacco Free Baltimore initiative to address the impact of smoke exposure in homes and design a behavior change communication (BCC) to promote positive behaviors.

Problem

The main question that we started with was how to prevent youth tobacco use. At the same time, 50% of Baltimore middle schoolers live with a smoker and children living with smokers are more likely to smoke even after accounting for other sociodemographic factors. So we asked:

How might we ease the pathway to creating smoke-free homes in Baltimore?

Process

I worked in the design research team and met with health professionals to understand the problem, interviewed families to understand the culture and context, and facilitated brainstorming workshops to generate ideas. We did a phenomenological study and asked the experience of smoking, collected the significant statements and organized in themes.

We reached out to three main types of families in Baltimore. Among the families, 62.5% of parents are single-parents and some families live with grandparents. We realized that besides unawareness about the effects of smoking inside, there are some barriers. For example, single parent moms smoke at home because they are stressed and they can not leave their kid alone to smoke outside. Indeed for making changing this habit, they need support from the family and community in a judgment-free zone.

Intervention

Based on the collected insights, we set up our design principles:

  • Honor stories and experiences.
  • Acknowledge the reality of addiction.
  • Make knowledge actionable.
  • Engage the whole person (physical, mental, emotional, social)
  • Ease the pathway

Through several brainstorming sessions and prototyping, we developed HealthiAir; a pop-up event helping families create smoke-free comfort zones in their homes. HealthiAir identifies practical ways to get started and connected to the resources they need.
HealthiAir is designed to meet participants where they are on their journey in creating a smoke-free home. So we aligned our intervention with the transtheoretical stages of health behavior change; those who are smoking inside and exploring these opportunities, people who have already made this decision but occasionally smoking outdoors or those who are committed to smoking outdoors at all times and need support to maintain this habit and even need to extend the smoke-free rules to their guests.

Each stage of HealthiAir features different prompts and activities aligned to the transtheoretical stages of health behavior change:

  1. Sharing Stories (Precontemplation): Creating an open space to share and connect with others about how smoking has affected them on a personal level.
  2. Exploring the Opportunities (Contemplation)
    Imagining, through drawing or writing, what the ideal smoke-free comfort zone
    would look like and how it would feel.
  3. Accepting the Challenge (Preparation)
    Discovering the benefits and challenges of creating smoke-free comfort zone and
    identifying the first step by signing a family pledge.
  4. Continuing the Process (Action)
    Celebrating where they are on the journey and finding ways to keep themselves on track by creating House Promises that are realistic and achievable.
  5. Supporting the Journey (Maintenance)
    Connecting to additional resources that will ultimately help quit smoking and give the opportunity to continue sharing the experience by becoming a HealthiAir Community Advocate.

HealthiAir believes:
If we ease the pathway to creating smoke-free comfort zones and engage people where they are on their journey, every home and family in Baltimore will breathe happy and healthy.

HealthiAir has also been recognized with a notable Core77Design Award in the category of Strategy & Research.

Team: Practice-based Studio team: Denise Shante Brown,, Amanda Buck, Hayley Frazier, Mihoshi Fukushima, Jenny Hung,  Smile Indias, Christy Tang, Naeeme Mohammedi
Instructors: Mike Weikert, Director, Becky Slogeris
Images via MICA Center for Social Design