Recently, the DHW lab has been working with the 'Public Spaces at Grafton' project team to develop tools for researching users and how the space is being used. A number of Interactive interview tools have been put together to aid the interviewers, and produce meaningful, clear feedback to shape the redesign of public spaces at the hospital. The tools are being tested and prototyped to make sure they work effectively.
After discovering a number of journal articles, which document the risk of infection posed by lanyards, our initial response was to design lanyards out of the ID card system. However, when you're in the hospital environment you quickly realise just how widespread the use of lanyards are, and just how many things staff attach to them. To help us understand the ways in which staff use their lanyards, we thought of a simple campaign that would allow staff members to take photos of their lanyards and tweet them to us.
Synthesising user insights can be a real challenge while researching new design opportunities. In the context of the Emergency Department and Auckland Hospital, staff have been trained to work in a certain way, following specific terminology and protocols in order to run an efficient Emergency service. Day in and day out they encounter patients who are unable to make sense of the service pathway they offer and they work around clumsy or unconsidered aspects of their graphic, spacial or product environment... The DHW lab 'Staff and Clinician Notebook' has been developed to help the Staff and Clinician user group to capture key insights from their day to day experience of the ED. The notebook is a practical way in which designers are able to catch a glimpse inside a patients' pathway through the ED from a staff perspective.
Key methods from the notebook include:
See, hear, think feel - A simple fill in the blanks exercise aimed at unpacking specific service situations in the ED.
Test your Assumptions - A reflective tool designed to question assumptions the staff make about the ED patient experience.
The Five Whys - Used to delve deeper into the underlying motivations for a specific behavior or opinion.
Storyboarding - A series of drawings that visualise a specific patient experience in a sequence of events.
Heres' an Idea - An opportunity for staff to write down or draw ideas they have for how to improve the patient journey through ED.
This first Iteration of the 'Staff and Clinician's Notebook' is a prototype. Testing this Method and receiving feedback from staff will allow us to improve and refine this research technique for the projects ahead.
