According to SACAP (2018), “As many as one in six South Africans suffer from anxiety, depression or substance-use problems”. Other illnesses overlooked include diseases such as cancer, which causes more deaths in South Africa than HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and malaria combined (IOL, 2018).

Most of these illnesses are controlled but not cured; a major motivation as designers is to make their everyday life easier and more comfortable as well designing to ensure the person feels as humane as possible. Designers often focus on designing for age, gender, culture, size etc; however most designers don’t confront harder, more meaningful topics such as illness and mental health. Illness can be a touchy subject that majority of people do not want to confront. It has challenged us as designers to cater for those who don’t have a voice.