In the Room | Designing with purpose: Nicole Ward on the future of healthcare spaces

What if great healthcare design isn't just about beautiful spaces but about helping people heal, caregivers thrive, and every second count? In this episode, Nicole Ward, Senior Associate and Interior Designer at NBBJ, shares how purpose has shaped her career in healthcare design. Nicole offers an inside look at the complexity, and humanity, behind designing spaces where lives are changed every day. It's a thoughtful conversation about innovation, empathy, and why the best design solutions begin with asking better questions.

Key Insights

1. Purpose-driven healthcare design begins with understanding caregivers' workflows, because even small design decisions can improve efficiency, reduce stress, and ultimately lead to better patient care.
2. Innovation doesn't have to be groundbreaking—it can be small, practical improvements that solve real client challenges and create meaningful impact for patients, staff, and healthcare organizations.
3. The best healthcare environments balance clinical performance with warmth and humanity by integrating evidence-based design, biophilic principles, and hospitality-inspired experiences without compromising safety or function.
4. Successful healthcare design comes from collaboration rather than compromise, requiring designers to reconcile the competing needs of caregivers, facilities teams, environmental services, and patients to find the right solution.
5. Career growth is fueled by seeking purpose over comfort, continually pursuing opportunities to learn, ask questions, and avoid complacency instead of simply taking on new challenges for their own sake.
6. Designing healthcare spaces is meaningful because thoughtful environments can reduce stress, build trust between patients and care teams, and support the people who dedicate their lives to caring for others.
    

Learn More about Nicole Ward
Nicole Ward is an Associate and interior designer at NBBJ whose work centers on creating healthcare environments that improve the patient, family, and caregiver experience. A WELL Accredited Professional (WELL AP), NCIDQ-certified designer, and active member of IIDA New England, Nicole brings expertise in healthcare planning, medical interiors, and human-centered design. Throughout her career, she has led projects for major healthcare organizations, including Massachusetts General Hospital, where she has helped design spaces that balance clinical performance with comfort, wellness, and adaptability. Her passion for mentorship and industry advocacy also reflects her commitment to shaping the future of interior design and supporting the next generation of designers. Connect with Nicole on LinkedIn.

Learn more about Wesley Edmonds
Wesley Edmonds is the Director of Workplace at OFS, where she combines her background in interior design with a passion for relationship-building, workplace strategy, and the future of work. After beginning her career as a commercial interior designer, Wesley transitioned into the furniture industry, bringing together design expertise and business development to help create more thoughtful, human-centered environments. As a contributor to Imagine a Place and host of In the ROOM, she is dedicated to fostering meaningful conversations that inspire designers, challenge industry thinking, and explore how the spaces we create shape the way people live and work. Connect with Wesley on LinkedIn.

Read More about Wesley in the Imagine a Place Journal

Learn more about In The ROOM. 
In the ROOM is a podcast series from Imagine a Place that brings listeners into candid, on-site conversations with the designers, strategists, and creative leaders shaping the future of work, culture, and human-centered spaces. Hosted by Wesley Edmonds, Director of Workplace at OFS, the series is recorded live inside ROOM’s modular, soundproof environments at leading industry events, offering a front-row seat to bold ideas, emerging trends, and the people redefining how spaces help us feel, connect, collaborate, and live. Follow Imagine a Place on LinkedIn.