Dining with dignity: Craft and Design student project poised to improve eating, nutrition in care settings nationwide

Food only provides nutrition if it's eaten, and new tableware designed by a Sheridan student is poised to ensure hospital patients and long-term care residents across Canada are better nourished by a hot entree, comforting soup or refreshing cup of juice.

Burlodge Canada, a manufacturer and supplier of food equipment used in hospitals and other public facilities, has launched a new cup and bowl system that Tobin Nickle-Lott conceived while he was a third-year student in Sheridan's Honours Bachelor of Craft and Design (Industrial Design) degree. The new system reimagines cups and bowls that have been staples of the healthcare system for more than 30 years, and includes such features as lids that are opened with minimal force and a lift-away motion; ergonomic shapings that improve grips for patients with weakness, arthritis or tremors; larger fluid capacity; and hydration marks that make it easier to monitor user consumption.

Nickle-Lott's design was created through an industry collaboration organized by long-time Industrial Design professor Scott Currie, who routinely involves real-world employers in his second-year Human Factors 2 course. Burlodge Canada President Paul Gauntley challenged students to explore fresh, human-centred design solutions to improve the everyday cup and bowl, and Nickle-Lott — the course's Teaching Assistant — also participated in order to provide students with better feedback on their projects.

"I thought it'd be best if I was doing similar work to them so that I could speak from experience, rather than making assumptions," says Nickle-Lott. "I started with some broad and unconstrained ideas, stuff that looked pretty but didn't really serve any purpose. But then I started to get into it a little more than I expected and became really happy with the design, especially after I had also conducted more research into the users' needs."

Nickle-Lott's design shattered any expectations that Gauntley had of the collaboration.

"I thought the biggest thing we were doing was providing an opportunity for students to learn firsthand what it's like to work and engage with industry. I didn't think we'd actually get a final design," says Gauntley, who provided feedback to students throughout the design and prototyping process along with Neil Sapra, President of Oakville-based Versatile Packaging Solutions, the product manufacturer that also helped with engineering and product development. "But Tobin's final product was essentially ready to go. It was so close. We tweaked the size of the lid so it would still work after being expanded and shrunk through multiple uses, added drain holes to the bases and added the hydration marks."

Currie, a 2000 graduate of Sheridan's Craft and Design (Furniture) program who went on to earn a master's degree in health science education, understands the value that design and innovation can bring to the health care sector.

"Collaboration with real-world employers provides our students with industry-based feedback and critiques of their work that are the most honest and critical for success. Typically, Industrial Design students in the program will develop designs that have conceptual value but they may not actually come to fruition," he says. "For an industry partner to want to launch a student project, especially when it's an international partner of Burlodge's magnitude, is a really big deal."

Nickle-Lott received financial compensation for transferring the design rights to his project. Earlier this month, he and Industrial Design technologist Mickey Wang — who helped Nickle-Lott create prototypes using 3D printers at Trafalgar Campus — got their first look at product samples that have already received interest at various industry conferences across Canada and are also being considered by Burlodge offices around the world.

"I think the most important part of the cup is the handle. It's something that is easy to grab with just one hand, it's big enough that it doesn't require fine motor skills, but it also doesn't look like a therapy device," says Nickle-Lott, a 2024 Rocket Awards finalist who graduated last spring and now teaches software classes at Sheridan.

The handle and other aspects of the cup and bowl design were informed by extensive research conducted by Nickle-Lott, including bringing prototypes to a Toronto diner where his girlfriend works and asking people for their opinions of the cup.

"The big thing I learned in Sheridan's program was the importance of communication. You can't have empathy or user understanding without good communication and listening," he says. "Receiving real-world feedback through industry collaboration was valuable as well. They would plainly say what was wrong or point out why something wouldn't work, which taught me that I have to serve the problem, not my ego. It's important to remove yourself from the art. In craft and design, if we're being pragmatic, we're problem-solvers first and artists second."

Sheridan's Honours Bachelor of Craft and Design (Industrial Design) program arms students with the tools to create smart, innovative and meaningful design. In addition to working with the latest technology used in the industrial design industry, students work with peers from across other craft and design specializations on projects that explore the potential of contemporary art, craft and design. Other recent Craft and Design industry collaborations and community partnerships include creating custom-designed furniture for the Thunder Bay Public Library's Indigenous Knowledge Centre, international field study trips to Guatemala, and supporting development of an animated virtual agent that could provide COVID-19 screening and user interaction without requiring the touch of a button.

— Pictured in photos are (top to bottom, from banner) Sheridan Craft and Design graduate Tobin Nickle-Lott and Burlodge Canada President Paul Gauntley looking at the new cup and bowl; Nickle-Lott holding a sample box of his cup and bowl system; Versatile Packaging Solutions President Neil Sapra, Nickle-Lott, Gauntley and Sheridan Craft and Design Professor Scott Currie displaying a product sample; Currie with Nickle-Lott; and a product sample box signed by Burlodge and Versatile Packaging Solutions staff that was given to Nickle-Lott as a keepsake. Photos by Marianne Sy-Lucero, Sheridan Digital Communications Officer