Wearables design and development in a shifting public health domain towards the “fifth wave”
Sarah Kettley · Digital Health · 2021
Wearables are often ergonomically skin deep, and while technologically proficient, may lack the spectrum of user needs to be truly effective. To discuss the extent of this problem, this chapter situates design and health paradigms in relation with each other, and discusses conceptualizations of wearability as a criterion for wearable technologies. It describes key practices in the landscape of design approaches (philosophies), and presents two innovation case studies to illustrate the key points made. Finally, it summarizes the relationship between design and health as informed by proposals for a “fifth wave” in public health.