Public health officials have suggested that about 80 to 85% of Americans would need to be vaccinated for the U.S. to achieve herd immunity from COVID-19. However, according to the New England Journal of Medicine's February 12, 2021 article, about 31% of Americans wished to take a wait-and-see approach, and about 20% remained quite reluctant. In rural America, 20% of Americans "definitely will not get a COVID vaccine" and 15% "probably will not get it," suggested by a KFF Health Tracking Poll. For industrial designers who've been expanding the scope of human-centered creative problem solving, from manufacturing goods to social good, this is a tremendous opportunity to challenge their competency.

A small team of designers, joining forces with a group of behavioral scientists, decided to tackle this complicated problem in the rural counties of North Carolina. After weeks of collaboration with the health officials in five rural North Carolina counties, they designed and launched a COVID vaccination campaign, targeting the rural communities in North Carolina. This talk will present the story of how designers worked with healthcare and behavior experts to discover stakeholder insights and create a campaign aiming at changing people's attitude and behavior.