The Core77 Design Awards Health & Wellness category features consumer products or services designed to aid users in matters of health or in achieving an enhanced sense of well-being.

Industrial Designer Paul Danial's body of work might be considered work of the body. Paul brings an academic background in human kinetics and industrial design to his role as UX-HF Ergonomics Expert III with Noble-Metaphase, part of Aptar Pharma. There, he consults and designs hand-intensive products with a focus on medical devices, optimizing user experience through human centered design. He approaches his work with curiosity and creativity, offering solutions that improve patients' quality of life and practitioner effectiveness. In his efforts to understand how things work, Paul likes to take things apart and reimagine them, covering any available surface with sketches and doodles in the process. He also looks to the skies for motivation, with a keen interest in aerospace and aviation that has led him to pursue his private pilot's license.

Health & Wellness category Jury Captain Paul Danial

Patient impact is the driving purpose behind Paul's work. He considers bettering people's quality of life one of the core pillars in the health and wellness industry, and he maintains a constant focus on "fostering a symbiotic and purposeful connection between people and products" through human centered design: "When considering the impact some of these health products have on people's lives, every care and attention to detail is weighted heavily and keeps the passion and motivation alive."

Medtronic Vasao High Speed ENT Drill, designed by Metaphase

If Paul has any concerns about the state of the industry, they center around the growing emphasis on speed and quantity, which often come at the expense of thoughtful, high-quality design. He cites the rise of AI and the resulting shifts across industries as designers "navigate the new paradigm of high efficiency and instantaneous thought." In Paul's opinion, the most effective, thorough designs are produced by human processes that can often seem tedious and meticulous. But as he said, "Any innovative method that wants to thrive in today's world will encourage designers to use emerging technologies, AI included, without neglecting their own intelligence and innate human ability to solve users' problems."

Paul's advice to entrants in the Core77 Design Awards includes focusing on a clearly defined problem statement. "Designers working on making their designs feasible need to define the who/what/why behind the conception and evolution of their ideas," he said. He also encourages designers to remain expressive, thoughtful, and compassionate in their work, reflecting his belief that a designer's ability to exhibit those traits will connect with users and "further elaborate on the problem statement."

The Uplyft system, designed by Pathway NPI

The 2023 winner in the Core77 Design Awards Health & Wellness category was UpLyft, a system designed to help people with limited mobility transfer themselves from a horizontal position to an upright seated position, as in a wheelchair, in just two minutes – an innovation that helps patients and caregivers alike.

If you have a design that might improve the quality of life for some lucky user(s), submit your entry to the 2024 Core77 Design Awards.