Teksin works as a Lecturer of Product Design Engineering at the Cardiff School of Art & Design. She is a design researcher and lecturer and has 10+ years of hands-on product design experience in the industry with an MSc on defining user requirements early in product development, and a PhD on design for patient empowerment.
As a design researcher, she is passionate about bringing the power of design to improve people’s health and well-being. In her PhD studies, she worked with people living with chronic conditions and their healthcare providers. Her studies contributed to a better understanding of how to support people towards empowerment in their healthcare. Prior to PhD, she worked in the industry as a product designer. She has experience in all stages of product design from the inception of an idea at the strategic level, until validation and delivery of the final product. She conducted user studies and transferred these insights into products, in both academic and commercial contexts. She started her career as an in-house product designer in Türkiye. As a part of large interdisciplinary teams, she designed electronic devices (laptops, computers, hand-held system control devices etc.) for professionals working in extreme conditions. She was responsible for the user-centred development of many hardware and software products that are in use at the moment. She also conducted her MSc studies, while working full-time at that role. Her MSc case study was on the determination of user requirements of software for controlling robots, which was implemented by the company she was working with and their team received an award at an international competition. Then in 2013, She moved to the USA and started working as an independent product designer with consultancies, start-ups, and entrepreneurs. She contributed to the successful launch of numerous products. Being a freelance designer, she liaised every aspect of her projects directly with clients, which allowed her to gain experience in the business side of design. In 2017, she moved to Cardiff where she started her PhD studies at PDR (International Centre for Design & Research) and she has been working as a lecturer at CSAD since 2020.
Design for Patient Empowerment: Teksin’s PhD focused on design for people living with chronic conditions. She worked with people living with chronic conditions and healthcare providers and explored their self-management experience with the use of design probes. The results presented that, the self-management transition was multidimensional and dynamic. Patient support needs were changing depending on where in the self-management transition they were. She developed a framework distinguishing the stages of that self-management journey. Hence, it allows for providing tailored support to facilitate patient empowerment. The framework guides the design of self-management support systems. The study was conducted specifically for the chronic condition of lymphoedema. Lymphoedema is a progressive condition of swelling, particularly in the extremities. However, the approach could potentially be implemented across a wide spectrum of chronic health conditions. She is interested in exploring the further implementations of her research in the wider context where people face life-changing events.
Self-Monitoring Health: Teksin is looking into ways to challenge the perceptions and assumptions about 'monitoring health' by design: Are we empowered in our healthcare by knowing more? Should we make the invisible visible and how? She is exploring the relationship between patient empowerment and self-monitoring.
People Powered Prosthetics (2019): A Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) project, in collaboration with PDR (International Centre for Design & Research) and Southampton University. We facilitated co-design workshops to explore the needs of lower-limb prosthetics users. The priorities of the participants (amputees & their families and clinicians & researchers) have been gathered and analysed to guide future research projects.
PhD Thesis: Kopanoglu, Teksin (2023) Design for empowerment: Supporting the self-management of people living with a chronic condition (lymphoedema) by design
https://figshare.cardiffmet.ac.uk/articles/thesis/Design_for_empowerment_Supporting_the_self-management_of_people_living_with_a_chronic_condition_lymphoedema_by_design/22117967
Peer Reviewed Conference Paper and Presentation: Kopanoglu, T., Beverley, K., Eggbeer, D. & Walters A. (2022). Design for Patient Empowerment: Guidelines to Design for Supporting the Self-Management of People Living with Chronic Conditions. DRS. Bilboa: Design Research Society.
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2022.530
Published Impact Cards: Kopanoglu, T. (2022) Design to support the transition towards self-management. in Rodgers, P et al. 2022,
What Design Research Does ... 62 Cards Highlighting the Power and Impact of UK-based Design Research in Addressing a Range of Complex Social, Economic, Cultural and Environmental Issues. Glasgow, Lancaster.
Journal Paper: Kopanoglu, T., Eggbeer, D. Beverley, K. & Walters, A. (2019) Uncovering self-management needs to better design for people living with lymphoedema, Design for Health, 3:2, 220-239, DOI: 10.1080/24735132.2019.1686326. Access online:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/24735132.2019.1686326
Showcase: Teksin Kopanoglu (2019) Design to Support the Transition towards Self-Management. Exhibited at the `Design Research for Change` Showcase at London Design Fair. Featured in Design Research for Change 2019, p.36. Access online:
https://www.designresearchforchange.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/DR4C_Showcase_2019_Catalogue_digital.pdf
Peer Reviewed Conference Paper and Presentation: Kopanoglu, T., Eggbeer, D. & Walters, A. (2018) ‘Design for Multi-Dimensional Stages of Lymphoedema Self-Management’, Proceedings of the Design Research Society 2018: Design as a Catalyst for Change. International Conference 25 – 28 June 2018, Limerick, Ireland. Volume 6, pp 2459-2473. ISBN 978-1-912294-21-3. Access online:
http://www.drs2018limerick.org/participation/proceedings
Conference Proceeding and Presentation: Kopanoglu, T., Eggbeer, D. Beverley, K. & Walters, A (2018) Towards Lymphoedema Self-Management: A Qualitative Systematic Literature Review: Proceedings of ILF (International Lymphoedema Framework Conference) 2018: p 59. Access online:
https://2018ilfconference.org/fileadmin/user_upload/CAP-Partner_ILF2018_FULLprogrammeA4_finalWEB.pdf
Poster Presentation: Kopanoglu, T., Eggbeer, D. & Walters, A. (2018) Uncovering Self-Management Needs of People With Lymphoedema Through Scenario-Based Probes. In ‘Embracing new design technologies: enabling equitable access to health’, hosted at the Central University of Technology 3-8 December 2018. Free State, South Africa.
Conference Proceeding and Presentation: Kopanoglu, T. & Unlu, C. E. (2012) A Cognitive Analysis on Human Robot Interaction: Determining User Requirements in the Early Phases of System Development, Proceedings of SAVTEK.
MSc Thesis: Kopanoglu, T. (2011) Determining User Requirements of First-Of-A-Kind Interactive Systems: An Implementation of Cognitive Analysis on Human Robot Interaction (Masters Dissertation, METU).
