Sheridan Student Reimagines Healthcare Tableware

Photo credit Marianne Sy-Lucero

The best industrial design often solves problems so seamlessly that users hardly notice them. For Sheridan Honours Bachelor of Craft and Design (Industrial Design) student Tobin Nickle-Lott, that meant reimagining one of the most familiar objects in healthcare: the drinking cup. Developed in partnership with Burlodge Canada, Carefull is a collection of thoughtfully designed vessels that help older adults maintain independence and dignity at mealtimes. Selected by Burlodge Canada, the project demonstrates how empathetic design can have a profound impact on everyday life.

Applied Arts spoke with Tobin about the research and collaboration behind Carefull, the importance of designing for ability rather than limitation, and how a seemingly simple object can make a meaningful difference in people's daily lives.

Can you walk us through your design process for the Burlodge Canada Care Ware System? 

My first steps involved collecting info about traditional cupware and bowls that would be more familiar to older patients, as that would be the largest user base for my product. From the beginning of the project, my brief focused on solving dexterity issues without using a design language that was visibly therapeutic.
 
To understand the older demographic I was making the cup for, I would visit the diner my girlfriend worked at on weekends to chat with her senior regulars. They loved the opportunity to talk seriously about their gripes with the cups they were used to, and some even had things to say about hospital cups. I would take their behaviours into consideration as well, looking at how they held their cups and how they rested their hands on the sides.

Once I began producing physical models, we had weekly critiques that flushed out my design thinking. Most of the feedback I received from the start was critical of the health care sector, with the patient as the main stakeholder. Sheridan's Human Factors course provided me with the insight and knowledge to research how the lower two fingers could be better supported in a passive resting position while holding the cup in one hand. This would go on to inform the ‘S’-shaped handle that allowed less capable hands to hold the cup in a familiar way.
 
To start, rough shapes were made using foam and lathe work, just to get familiar with which shapes I liked and how my hands would sit around the required cup size. From there, I moved on to sketchwork, taking cues from china and porcelain tea sets and getting feedback from my peers in Sheridan's ceramics studio.

Once the final shape became more apparent, my method changed to one that relied on tactile feedback. Using a 3D printer allowed me to sketch, model, and test all within the span of a few hours. It meant I could act on a realization regarding hand proportion or a better way to shape it for storage or heat distribution. Sketching with that new change in mind allowed me to focus on really dialling in on what parts of the mug were still just shaped by my uninformed assumptions. It meant that my model would always be a step up in user consideration from the previous iteration.

Photo credit Marianne Sy-Lucero

What were the challenges? 

The largest challenge was making something that tackled practical medical needs with the intention to make a product that didn't read as medical. Many of the objects and environments that a patient or long-term care receiver experiences are sterile both in cleanliness and, unfortunately, design language. The people using this mug can appreciate design as much as anyone else, and I did my best to treat the dishware as a familiar and fun design — something to make the hospital stay feel less like a solely medical experience. 

There was also the issue of a hangup I had with a teacup motif. It was a bit of a roadblock for me that I really latched onto, and I would have pursued this to the end of the project. Thankfully, my professor Scott Currie and Burlodge Canada President Paul Gauntley provided weekly feedback with constructive criticism like "That might be popular in Italy, but not here," and “Shapes were too unstable both in the base and in the handle”.

Initially, I was crushed, as I had spent a little too much time getting excited over this concept. But that honest feedback saved me; from then on, I ignored the pull to work on pretty artifice-style pieces and started from scratch with a hand-first mindset. Every sketch needed fingers wrapped around it, or a hand reaching for it. Nothing would be considered without human context. The dainty teacup echoes are still somewhat apparent in my final design, though they are very withdrawn for the sake of better grip, base stability, and to achieve the correct liquid volume.

Photo credit Marianne Sy-Lucero

What are your future goals? 

I’d like to develop the design a bit further to see if there are better shapes for commercial use. The main goal now is to slip cast a ceramic version of my original design, as the current product is a slightly altered version of my model made for injection molding. Being able to produce my own personal rendition to keep is going to be a nice keepsake.

My career goals right now are to stay as a teacher at Sheridan, where I have been teaching CAD for two semesters now. I am also planning on shifting my industrial design knowledge into film work and looking at becoming a production designer. That will involve applying to the DGC and working my way up to becoming a full member of their union.

I have always wanted to be part of the design team that works on a film's props and costumes, and I think approaching it through the lens of industrial design would lead to some really believable work. 

Who is your creative hero? 

My main inspiration would have to be Syd Mead, especially for his sci-fi work. I love industrial design and the methods it uses, but my creative heart will always belong to design within a fictional context. Syd Mead is definitely the master of the pairing; his ability to build so much world depth with every single illustration is really my main aspiration. The pre-production story of Ridley Scott asking for a painting of what Syd Mead thought the streets of Blade Runner might look like, and being so floored that he then based so much of the movie on Syd’s creative direction, really resonated with me. This was a man who had been a successful designer for years, who was now painting post-apocalyptic pitch decks. This showed me a designer can apply their methodology to any project as long as they take the time to research and understand the demands of their work.

This idea of a well-designed setting or object informing so much of how the characters and plot play out really inspires me to make props with that same mindset. By respecting your script, you can produce an item that reads as necessary to the character, and as a byproduct, it elevates the suspension of disbelief for the audience. In a way, my own designs for purely industrial design problems, like the cup, are better informed by my narrative considerations. I want the user to feel a certain way, to believe the object is suited for its purpose, and to feel that they are able to use it properly.

With Carefull, Tobin Nickle-Lott demonstrates that meaningful innovation doesn't always require complex technology—it often begins with empathy. By designing for ability instead of limitation, the project transforms an everyday object into one that promotes independence, confidence and dignity. We look forward to seeing how Tobin continues to apply this thoughtful, human-centred approach to future design challenges.

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