Dr Clara Watkins

Overview

Clara is a Senior Lecturer in Product Design and Head of Department CSAD’s BA, BSc and MSc Product Design and BA and MA Fashion Design programmes.

Clara completed her post-doctoral studies in 2017, which aimed to understand the impact of social, economic, political and cultural elements on the use of medical products in low-resource environments. She is a member of Cardiff Met’s User Centred Design Research (UCD-R) group and works closely with Cardiff School of Medicine, University Hospital Wales. Using the findings from her PhD studies she is working on a number of projects in collaboration with Cardiff Medical School, the National University Hospital in Wales and Cardiff Universities Phoenix Project (winner of Times Higher Education, International Collaboration of the Year Award, 2017). The aim of these projects is to improve patient care through increasing the usability and accessibility of life saving equipment. She is currently collaborating on a range of products for users including: the British Ministry of Defence, the International Community of the Red Cross, the Zambian Ministry of Health, the Welsh Ambulance Services, the NHS, and The Namibian Police Force.

A key element of her research involves the creation of low-cost, fit for purpose, sustainable medical products that enable universal access to life-saving medical equipment. A key outcome of the research has been the development of a low-cost user friendly Trauma Pack for use in low-resource environments. The Trauma Pack was included in Cardiff Met’s REF 2021.

In 2019 Clara took up the role of project lead for Phoenix Arts, a newly established sub-project under Cardiff Universities Phoenix project. Through this project Clara has been working with Cardiff University, The University of Namibia and the Namibian Ministry of Education to review and develop the Namibian curriculum for enterprise. This project is focused on enhancing the countries innovation sector through implementing a new curriculum that supports the delivery of a STEAMD curriculum, design thinking, circular economy and social enterprise.

Clara has also been awarded commonwealth funding, to explore methods of strengthening the health communication amongst marginalised populations in Zambia by developing non-invasive, human-centred, participatory approaches to visual communication. The approaches align with the WHO’s guides for effective communication: Accessible, Actionable, Credible and Trusted, Relevant, Timely, Understandable.

This Research strongly informs her teaching. In 2018, Clara graduated with a Post-graduate Certificate of Teaching in Higher Education (PgCTHE) and became a fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).

Research Publications

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