Concept Bid Proposal - Process
MMEK' EMA Experience
Positive-ly Big 'PHARMA'
As part of an open call for design work for the new European Medical Authority, we conjured up an expansive 'cloud' concept to energize the narrative between the public and the pharmaceutical industry.
Experience Urban Design Medicine/Tech
Specs
IN A NUTSHELL
Context
Zuidas Creative Development Bid Opportunity (near European Medical Authroity) | MMEK' | Spring 2018
Creative(s)
MMEK' (Martijn Meeske & Erik van Kuijk) & Victoria Flores
Process
Contextual Research > Design Research > Ideation > Prototype Sketching > World Health Organization Data Visualization > Design Research
Tools
Design Thinking, Adobe CS, WHO ATC Index & D3.js
Concept
'PHARMA' is a cloud of complexity. We proposed an AR and material-ly responsive manifestation of pharmaceutical history.
Relevance
The pharmaceutical industry is poised for innovation and with EMA next door, this space/place can inspire its resident scientists every-day but also engage with and inform passers-by on the complexity of 'PHARMA', and provide clarity in a much needed time of confusion at the precipice of innovation.
Deliverable(s)
Formulated installation concept direction for handoff to industrial designer for bid refinement.
Overview
Birds-Eye
Challenge
This was an extremely open-ended design problem, with unlimited contraints on what creative solution we could present. In the process of asking "What is 'PHARMA"? with the team, during my research I realized that no one had ever built a visualization of the World Health Organization index of pharmaceuticals considered 'essential' to life. I created the dataset from scratch, and coded a simple yet 'large' data visualization in order to really see and explore the complexity of this finite yet expansive system. This data visualization ended up forming the basis of our cloud concept.
Approach
Following group creative strategy sessions, I delved deeper into concepts discussed, conducted thorough exploratory research, needfinding, and design research for further ideation. After honing-in on our 'cloud' concept, we then began ideating how we could actually build a responsive physical installation, and through this, started defining prospective user interactions to create an experiential narrative of 'PHARMA'. Finally, we moved to material research (here the project was handed off to engineering).
Goal(s)
Spark a new dialogue between the 'public' and 'PHARMA', an industry on the precipice of innovation.
Impact
My visualization and drafting of the 'cloud' WHO index concept made it's way through MMEK' and connections. To my knowledge the 'bid' of this project was rainchecked and maybe has taken on a life of its own.
Link
Force-directed viz, pressing the 'gray' central dot labeled 'PHARMA' will expand the tree; with roll-overs you can explore connections and zoom-in/out with the mouse.
WHO ATC VisualizationContextual Research
What and Where?
At the start of the project I first researched the context of the bid (location, purpose, and opportunity). This set the stage for further research in asking: Where was EMA going? What creative work would help its transition? What concept would be successful within this dutch bid? What innovation/intervention could play a positive role for the community?
Context
As the European Medical Authority (EMA) relocates from London to Amsterdam in 2019, the Zuidas district is staged to become an attractive hub for the pharmaceautical industry. ~ The Netherlands EMA Bid Book
Location
The Vivaldi area is located at the eastern entrance to the Zuidas business district. It is a mixed use area incorporating housing, cultural facilities and hotels. The surrounding area at walking distance from EMA is the Amsterdam Rai Station (for easy commute) and Amsterdam RAI Convention Centre, which hosts up to 500 large international (medical) conferences and exhibitions each year. The Beatrix Park and Amstel Park – both a 5-minute walk – are green spaces for leisure and relaxation. The area is also home to Amsterdam’s oldest football club, a bilingual (English/Dutch) primary school, Amsterdam World Trade Center, and the VU University. In the coming years a new residential area will be developed just south of the plot, including facilities such as a school and small retail units as well as offices for (small) businesses.
Previous EMA London (UK) Site
New (EMA) Zuidas (NL) Site
More about EMA
The mission of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) is to foster scientific excellence in the evaluation and supervision of medicines, for the benefit of public and animal health in the European Union (EU). EMA protects public and animal health in 28 EU Member States, as well as the countries of the European Economic Area, by ensuring that all medicines available on the EU market are safe, effective and of high quality.
EMA pools resources and expertise, ensures independence of its scientific assessments, strives towards being as open and transparent as possible, and publishes a large amount of information in lay language about how medicines work.EMA also plays a role in supporting research and innovation in the pharmaceutical sector, and promotes innovation and development of new medicines by European micro-, small- and medium-sized-enterprises.
Exploratory Research
What is PHARMA?
After investigating the context of the bid, I conducted exploratory research for the team to supplement our forthcoming ideation. Some themes emerged, notably a focus on the impact of cloud technology within pharmaceutical research, the notion of complex analysis and collaboration leading to its innovation, and finally consumer reputation of the industry.
Defintion
Pharmaceutical: A substance used in the diagnosis, treatment, or prevention of disease and for restoring, correcting, or modifying organic functions.
Inspiring Tidbits
> Chemical reactions in the human body (order of a million) and only .025 right now (250) are targetable through lock and key mechanism.
> Creating new medicine takes more than ~10 years (over €2 million), from drug discovery to drug design and production.
> Pharmaceutical companies using cloud-based analytics noted their dev. cycles dropping (50-77 to 20-40 days).
> Collaboration is essential in the development of medicines during R&D due to company size and expertise.
> Early advancements in pharmacy came from interaction with chemical technology, creating drugs that prevented growth of pathonogenic organisms. [aniline dye, 1856; aspirin, 1899; 606 (aresenic derivative), 1910; Protonsil, 1935; Penicillin, 1928]
Challenges/ Improvements Needed
Closing the gap between the 4000 diseases whose molecular causes we know and the 6% we have a safe effective treatment for, due to cost of development.
Encouraging researchers to publish ALL clinical results, not just positive. Publication bias leads to negative results being covered up, as a result 6/50 Nature articles are replicable.
Streamlining, improving and rethinking the way we test pharmaceuticals (i.e. stem cells to replace animal testing).
Pharmaceutical companies can and should use such “green” chemical techniques to design drugs that biodegrade quickly in the environment (environment being drugged)
Combat physician burn out ( 42%) -> importance of art and creativity in leading a more balanced life.
Saving the rainforests that are endangering possibly life saving species.
Big pharma's storehouse of trouble has fostered consumer mistrust. How does the industry go about restoring its flagging reputation?
Male only testing leads to 80% of recalls due to side-effects on women.
Less than 10% of all drug candidates make it from phase one human trials to approval, and only 31% at mid-stage testing bottleneck.
Future Innovation
Sex and gender focused treatment.
Personalization of medicine per genomics and cellular/organismal/immersion therapies.
Big Data usage in studying medication interactions.
3D printing medicine (blueprint for molecules and chemistry inks)
User Friendly Medicine (child friendly etc)
Alternative therapies (games etc).
23&ME Sequencing and advanced chromosonal/dna markers screening.
CRISPR
Medicines delivered through patches/puffs/jet injected/inhalable/dissolving pills
Open-sourcing research (advancement in Cancer treatment made)
Wearables for illness tracking/management and do-it-yourself tech
Using Machine Learning and AI to simplify R&D and drive insight.
Strategy Session #1
Ideation
Look & Feel
We wanted our proposal to have humanity, ingenuity, mimic nature, encourage transparancy and reflection with awe.
Possible Goals
> Create an inspiring workplace for health industry employees.
> Educate the public on pharma design/discovery process.
> Communicate and reframe innovation in the field.
Possible Themes
> One discovery can have an exponential impact.
> Nature is all around and within us.
> Medicine is always evolving.
Strategy Session #2
Concept Refinement
What should the proposal accomplish?
The pharmaceautical industry itself and ideas associated with 'PHARMA' is a complex and often convoluted subject. As the industry evolves, the public, looking from the outside in, can benefit from clarity on what vastness 'PHARMA' really is in practice and experience an illumination of information in its discovery and development.
proposed CONCEPT
PILLAR OF KNOWLEDGE - this space/place serves as an access point to interfacing with a cloud of knowledge complexity.
proposed GOAL
Create a functionally and aesthetically 'public-positive' environment for the people and ideas of the 'PHARMA' industry.
possible EXPERIENCE
Communicate and illuminate the complexity of 'PHARMA'.
Guiding Concept Questions/Thoughts
> What is the industry? How does it work?
> If it is a center, it should help 'people' feel themselves supported/relfected.
> 'No Hot Air' or preaching to the choir in attitude.
> Artist installations to carry the narrative ambiantly?
> Understand how complex the world we live in is...
> Maybe stop saying 'Pharma' as a unity.
> We can show 'diversity' to de-unify 'Pharma' as an overarching category and illustrate connectedness.
> Over time the 'place' should be supportive of Pharma and attractive to all public (by connecting with the arts for nuanced narrative expressions).
Strategy Session #3
BIG (style) Concept Exploration
After settling on a direction (Pillar of Knowledge with a Cloud of Complexity) MMEK' tasked me with exploring the concept in the narrative-illusrative style of the Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG). How could this cloud manifest architecturally? How much presence would it take up? What functionality could it bring to its context? We settled on three key dimensions: knowledge, time, and perspective and asked how can these dimensions be embodied in the scheme and accent the experiential installation?
Notions float above a concrete truth...
Strategy Session #4
Concretizing PHARMA
After visually exploring and mind-mapping the 'cloud', we settled on three key dimensions (knowledge, time, and perspective) to model the cloud around; asking, how can these dimensions be embodied in the scheme and accent this experiential installation? And finally, what concrete element can represent these dimensions altogether to describe PHARMA?
Discovery (What is PHARMA?)
As I searched for a concrete element to visualize the industry, I came upon the WHO index. I could find no diagram or visualization of the index that could help us understand its size and complexity. If we were to create a 'cloud' from this concrete data we needed to know how big it was, how it could grow in size, and what information was available/helpful to our concept to portray. At this point I decided to build up the data structure (JSON) by hand from the WHO Index.
Learn more about the WHO ATC Classification System (Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical Classification) WHO Index | EU Index
Guiding Thoughts
> 'PHARMA' encapsulates a sphere illustrated by diverse perspectives: Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental, Legal.
> Few Pharmaceautical companies are housed in architecturally attractive buildings that would draw the public to interact (such as public space, leisure, seating, courtyards, and open entry. At the same time, very few interactive and informative experiences exist that seek to inform the public on what the Pharma Industry is and how it works.
> A 'co-working' like hub for pharma-focused companies would complement the industry's push for collaboration.
Visualizing PHARMA
Live Link: Cloud Data Viz of WHO ATC Classification
This data visualization of the ATC index is a force directed graph with a single central 'gray' node tagged "PHARMA"; The 14 main categories in the index are then linked to this central node, each node being connected to its siblings down the tree. With increasing complexity of over 1,000 child nodes being in the last branch of the tree, I chose to omit the last layer for visual simplicity and time. Each node can be hovered on to find its name. The visual is also so large that you can zoom in or out of the perspective box. If one holds down the central node, the tree forms with agility.
Condensed Viz
Expanded Viz
Learn more about the WHO ATC Classification System (Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical Classification) WHO Index | EU Index
Ideation #2
Form & Function
After visualizing the cloud's complexity and settling on the dimensions we wanted to portray as "time, knowledge, and perspective', we then explored how it could possibly take form and inhabit a space, whether digital, physical, or a mix of the two. Would the cloud be abstract or exact in form, but represent distinct data?
What can the cloud express/impart? (Interaction)
> Respond to ambiant movement/temp/humidity/noise in building
> Show complexity, light up each section by unique color/category.
> Log unique interactions (end of day shows directly how many were 'read' through a cycle animation).
> Show (through color & intensity) each drugs consumption by country.
> Show which products share 'active ingrediants'
> Animate medicine invention timeline.
> Have cloud 'grow' during the day.
> Drill down of information with dot through interaction.
Exploring Space (Digital | Mixed | Physical)
All Digital
Digital | Physical | Mixed
Half Digital | Half Physical
Wrap-up
Remarks
This bid project was my first time working with an independent experience design agency with its own holisitc design style. The ultimate challenge was how broadly scoped the proposal was at the start, from the infinite nuber of themes to choose from and type of propsoal (whether an entire complex, building, or instalation). I thoroughly enjoyed concretizing focus, exploring the problem space, and designing for futures.
My visualization of the WHO ATC Index turned out to be a side project within this concept proposal. It was the most valuable deliverable in that it created an easy reference for the entire team to conintually go back to while ideating the physicality/digital nature of the design.
Ultimately, the bid was postponed so I never got to see how this project panned out, but I did hand off all my resources (this page) to the staff industrial designer. At the end, it was clear MMEK' was aiming at a permanent architecturally embedded installation with a digital/physical cloud (AR + Cloud + Floor Reactivity). A lot of the final inspiration/precedent rested on the work of Studio Drift and BMW's Kinetic Installation.
