About: Margaret Alrutz

Website: http://www.nurture.com

Profile: Margaret is currently Manager, Strategic Marketing and Experience Design at Nurture by Steelcase. She holds an M.Des., in Human-Centered Communication from the Institute of Design, IIT, and a BA in Comparative Literature from Brown University. Margaret was a senior researcher from Steelcase's WorkSpace Futures department who contributed to the original user-centered design research that eventually led to founding of Nurture. Key topics of interest include chronic conditions and long term care. She resides in Grand Rapids, MI, and loves to spend as much time as possible on and around the many beautiful area lakes.

Recent Posts by Margaret Alrutz:

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Social Media Usage

Ed Bennett (@EdBennett) runs a great blog that successfully brings the worlds of social media and healthcare together. He provides social media resources to healthcare professionals, and can be counted on to provide the latest statistics on what hospitals are doing what when it comes to social media. I found some of his recent postings particularly [...]

Remodeled Waiting Room 2

CBS, Nurture and Mike Ty...

On Sunday, July 24, CBS premiered a new show called Same Name. Running for six consecutive Sunday evenings, the show features celebrities who switch places with regular people who share their name. They learn what it’s like to live the life of someone else and see the world through their eyes. The August 7th episode featured [...]

Furniture Life Cycle Model -- graphic courtesy Malone, E. B., & Dellinger, B.A. (2011). Furniture Design Features and Healthcare Outcomes. Concord, CA: The Center for Health Design, p. 35.

Creating an Evidenced-ba...

We have learned from other industries like, nuclear and aviation, that highly-reliable environments depend on understanding how the environment and the objects in the environment shape human behavior. Furniture is one of those objects.

Creating an Evidenced-ba...

We realized that people in positions like Eileen’s (CEO or Commander in the military) are usually focused on the budget, when reviewing a furniture proposal because they don’t speak the same “language” as the designer. Depending on the designer’s background, various features may or may not be pointed out as salient features. We felt that having a tool with a common language that all could use made a lot of sense.