Oh, Poop—The Colon Cancer Prevention Design Lab Experiment

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Who knew design students would get excited about creating solutions for poop collection? In 2024, a novel partnership between NSCAD University and Nova Scotia Health (NSH) got a third-year design studio class to shed light on the provincial Colon Cancer Prevention Program (CCPP).
Designed as an academic investigation, the course asked students to develop a thoughtful assortment of holistic solutions that integrated systems thinking into the traditional design process, thus exposing both students and the NHS to new ways to work with ever-changing systems. In addition to further graphic design training, the goal was to introduce students to complex problem-solving and explore the possibilities offered by human-centered design.
The course’s two instructors—Schultz and deWolf—divided the coursework into two deliverables: an analysis of the existing products and related programs and the development of options for its improvement. Students conducted an analysis of the CCPP system, identifying key players, mapping out their interactions and analyzing how multiple factors influence patients’ outcomes. After identifying gaps and opportunities, students made recommendations on how to move forward and proposed a variety of ways to enhance the CCPP home test kit and related products.
The success of this undergraduate course was such that the students’ work was featured on local news, including radio and TV shows. While we were clear that this was an academic exercise—none of the designs were meant for immediate production—the proposed solutions helped the NSH team see their product from different perspectives and opened the doors for future in-class partnerships.

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• Education