dutch design week, 17-25 oktober 2026 eindhoven

Designing Equitable Healthcare

How do we design for women's health? Through a feminist design lens, women's lived experiences can change how we deliver healthcare for women.

Hosted by Noa Smolenaars

Log in to save this programme item to a favourite list.

Login
This project is part of
Red Box

Entrance fee

Free access

Accessibility

Dogs are allowed
Free wifi available
Toilets available
Partially wheelchair accessible
Wheelchair friendly toilet available

Opening hours

11:00
-
18:00
11:00
-
18:00
11:00
-
18:00
11:00
-
18:00
11:00
-
18:00
11:00
-
18:00
11:00
-
18:00
11:00
-
18:00
11:00
-
18:00
Designing Equitable Healthcare joins the movement to close the women’s health gap. As graduation project at Catharina Ziekenhuis Eindhoven, Noa Smolenaars developed a practical feminist design approach so healthcare designers can challenge, change and improve how women’s healthcare is delivered.

Designing for Women's health

Although awareness of women’s health is growing, healthcare is still built on knowledge that rarely included women. Designers can challenge that!

With a Feminist Design Lens, Noa reimagines how care can be designed and delivered for women. Building on the work of feminist scholars and activists, she translated six feminist values (power, knowledge, plurality, care, liberation, and community) into a practical tool for designing care pathways in hospital practice.

At Catharina Ziekenhuis Eindhoven, Noa applied this lens to design visual care pathways to improve information for women. Her mission: to bring equity and empathy into healthcare by making women’s experiences visible, discussable, and actionable.


The feminist design lens is not just a framework, it’s a movement towards care that listens, includes, and transforms. Let's call to healthcare designers to question norms, confront bias, and co-create a healthcare system that truly cares for women.

Ready to visit?

Come to Dutch Design Week and make this project part of your visit.

Buy tickets
How to design with Care?
How to design with Care?
Noa Smolenaars
How to design for Plurality?
How to design for Plurality?
Noa Smolenaars
How to design with overlooked knowledge?
How to design with overlooked knowledge?
Noa Smolenaars

By

Noa Smolenaars

Hosted by

Katja Lucas, Wisse Trooster en Alieke Geerts
noasmolenaars@icloud.com
+31620853208
Visit website
Download press kit

programme.hosted_by.about Noa Smolenaars

Noa is a feminist healthcare designer at Catharina Hospital Eindhoven, (re)designing care pathways to improve patient experiences. She co-founded Tromboseoverlevers.nl, a community for young thrombosis patients, and leads her own studio, Studio Smolenaars, turning design into real-world change.

Colofon

Supervisor Industrial Design, Eindhoven University of Technology Daisy O'Neill
Supervisor Industrial Design, Eindhoven University of Technology Tilde Bekker
Supervisor Catharina Ziekenhuis Eindhoven Eva Deckers

Partners

Sponsored by Designing Equitable Healthcare
Sponsored by Designing Equitable Healthcare

As featured in