MrsMaria Bates

Maria Bates' research sits at the intersection of design, art, health and social change. Over more than fifteen years, in both industry and academia, she has worked on projects that address complex social issues through human-centred co-design, with a particular focus on behaviour change and trauma-informed practice.

Her interest in this space began during her Master's degree (2004), creating an interactive digital story of motherhood, including narratives of trauma and resilience; an early expression of the concern with inclusion, memory and everyday life that still runs through her practice today. In 2020 she was selected as a design expert for the UN Women / World Design Organization Generation Equality Design Challenge, exploring behaviour change strategies to prevent violence against women, and shortly after joined Daily Growth, a digital health intervention that supports parents of children aged 2–5 years.

Maria is currently completing a PhD that investigates Design Mapping, an interdisciplinary research methodology combining human-centred design and intervention mapping, and toolkit that aids in aligning behaviour science and design approaches to co-designing mental health interventions.

Alongside this research, her creative practice explores how communication shifts between private and public contexts, often through the overlooked details of everyday life; how ageing and outdated objects can invite reflection and reveal narratives of continuity, care and memory.