Jeanne shares the necessity of pursuing a non-academic passion and how it enriches her studies, work, and mental health.
Working with Wellbeing in Mind
Call for Participants: Tell Us About Your Experiences With Mental Health
In partnership with Health & Wellness, the Innovation Hub is interested in hearing about how you are taking care of your mental health. We are looking to hear perspectives and understand student needs to better inform health supports and programming at U…
Project Insights: Future of Dining at Chestnut Residence
Eli 
Kimberly 
Yin Chen 
Bo
Written by Eli Rose, (Design Research Team Lead), Bo Phi, Kimberly Mak, Yin Chen Wan (Design Researchers)
In this project, we partnered with Chestnut Residence to gain a deeper understanding of the student experience at the dining hall and help Food Services build a positive and collaborative relationship with students and staff. In this work, the Food Services Design Research Team reflects on their experiences.
What’s Your Why: Personal Connection in Stories
In this installment What’s Your Why, a blog series aimed at highlighting the importance of connecting back to the “why” that drives you and the work you are involved in. Our Digital Content Writer, Katherine, reflects on the importance of…
Commuter Experience: The Magic of Transit
Written by Katherine Zheng, Digital Content Writer; Illustrations by Tehseen Sarwar, Digital Storyteller There is something almost magical about the transit of Toronto, where it becomes a journey to and from campus that frames a shared sense of appreciation. The…
Tech2U – Humanizing Classroom Technical Support
Written by Sanskriti Maheshwari, Senior Research Assistant, Transforming the Instructional Landscape
The Tech2U program launched in the fall of 2021 with the goal of humanizing classroom technical support to foster innovative teaching and learning in an increasingly technological classroom landscape. The initiative was launched as part of Transforming the Instructional Landscape (TIL). Tech2U is a partnership between Learning Space Management and the Innovation Hub.
What’s Your Why: Co-Creation
This blog post is the fourth installment of What’s Your Why, a new blog series aimed at highlighting the importance of connecting back to the “why” that drives you and the work you are involved in. Our digital storyteller, Vlada,…
What’s Your Why: A Curiosity for Human-Centered Design
This blog post is the second installment of What’s Your Why, a new blog series aimed at highlighting the importance of connecting back to the “why” that drives you and the work you are involved in. Each post is a…
Researchers Reflect: The Impact of Small Interactions
This blog post is part of Researchers Reflect, a series where we embark on the journey of a design researcher at the Innovation Hub. Each post will spotlight a different design researcher’s experience, stories, and learning moments throughout the course of their research.
Written by Sabrina Wu, Senior Research Assistant
In the past, I often associated research with substantial findings and grand theories. But the key to needs-finding and design thinking research can actually lie in what is ordinary and familiar – small daily interactions. My work at the Innovation Hub allowed me to closely experience and hear the impact small interactions have on students and researchers.
Project Insights from ‘Celebrating International Students: Being Brave Away from Home’
Written by Robin Martin, Serena Tran & Yuwei Jiang, Design Research Assistants for the Celebrating International Students Project
Illustrations by Nikhil Pawar & Marielle Dilla – Digital Storytellers
The international student experience at the University of Toronto (U of T) is anything but homogenous. The Celebrating International Students project began during the 2019-2020 Design Thinking Experience Program (DTEP), and quickly took off after recognizing just how complex, and at times similar, the challenges of being an international student truly is. Over the last year and a half our research teams have delved into our archive of more than 600 interviews to get a broadened sense of the international student experience from before and during pandemic. We were also grateful to have interviewed several U of T staff in October to round out the data even further.
In this blog post, we will be sharing the main insights we have uncovered after interviewing and carefully analyzing our existing data, as well as our team members’ personal reflections from this project. We also share Building Bravery Design Principles to empower one another in celebrating international students at U of T, and a link to our report.