Switzerland -  Irish design consultancy Frontend.com and IOM’s Future Vision of Migrant Healthcare concept has been selected as a finalist in two categories for the 2017 IxDA Interaction Awards. These latest nominations come soon after the concept was also shortlisted for a 'Collaborative Design' award and 'Public Choice Award' by Institute Designers Ireland (IDI) at the recent Irish Design Awards.

This is the first time a UN-related agency has been nominated for the prestigious awards, which celebrate innovation and excellence in the field of Interaction Design and will take place in New York on 8 February 2017.

The collaboration was inspired by the use of mobile technology by Syrians fleeing the conflict in their country and the design team looked at the provisioning of healthcare for migrants and refugees, particularly those in transit. As part of their user-centred design process Frontend.com mapped the experience of the displaced people, which highlighted a number of areas where aid agencies could modernize their approach.

Re-imagining Medication Labelling for Migrant Healthcare, the project nominated at these awards, was a major part of the outcome from the IOM-Frontend.com collaboration.

“When we spoke to the IOM, we realized that some of their challenges boiled down to two things; the dynamics of movement and communication. Currently with the complex migration flows in Europe and elsewhere around the world, migrants are moving from one area to another, making it difficult to provide continuity of care. We needed to open up communication between agencies, migrants and healthcare systems,” said Frontend.com Director Frank Long.

Frontend and IOM, working with Masters design students at Trinity College Dublin, the University of Limerick, Institute of Technology Carlow and the National College of Art and Design, responded by developing a standardized medication label concept.

In many cases, people receiving emergency healthcare are not provided with full information when they receive that care due to various constraints, this was identified as an area ripe for change. The team designed a computer application which allows aid workers on the ground to generate medication labels which convey key information visually with local languages, and links to full product information.

"The current refugee and migration flows to and within Europe, as well as humanitarian emergencies in many other parts of the world, pose a real challenge in terms of accessible healthcare and our task, along with our partners such as Frontend, is to come up with good and innovative solutions. In this instance, good design and effective use of technology can help resolve some of the problems that affected people are facing,” said IOM Migration Health Emergency Operations Coordinator Dr. Teresa Zakaria.

Founded by the Interaction Design Association (IxDA) in 2010 and first presented in 2012, the annual Interaction Awards celebrate design thought leadership and innovation around the globe. Each year, award recipients comprise a showcase demonstrating how interaction design impacts and improves human lives.

For further information on the collaboration between IOM and Frontend, please go to www.frontend.com/futurevision or watch this video: http://bit.ly/2gtqIhm. A downloadable version of the video can be accessed here: http://bit.ly/2gtlQcs.

For further information, please contact Dr. Teresa Zakaria at IOM HQ, Email: tzakaria@iom.int  or John Buckley at Frontend.com, Tel:  +353 857067012, Email: john@frontend.com