The paradox of personalising wearable health design: from ostomy to fashion accessory?

This research paper explores the challenges of combining personalized design approaches with industrial production of wearable health devices, which are associated with taboo, stigma and a need for discreteness. Current research states that becoming a user of a wearable medical device significantly compromises the sense of identity (Kelly 2014). Jacobsen (2014) demonstrates that assistive products are considered material for defining, constructing, shaping and expressing the self. Responding to this, several scholars call for a need to address individual wearable health design (Royeen 2015; Bush 2015; Pullin 2009). Based on a case study of the Danish medico-company Coloplast’s development of SenSura Mio, a design- awarded ostomy bag created for individual fit, the paper presents how the designer involved was highly inspired by fashion and textile design to work with ostomy wearers’ sense of self. Involving feedback from wearers of SenSura Mio ostomy bags, the case conveys how personalized design could contribute to individual qualities by exploring how functional and expressive drivers can heighten the experience of wearing an ostomy bag. The paper finally discusses if an ostomy bag can be considered as a fashion accessory?