The summer studentship at the DHW lab will be wrapping up in the next few weeks. As mentioned in previous posts, way finding has been a major focus of the work and is a significant component of both patient visitor and staff experience of the hospital. Take a look here at some of the students' process work and stay tuned for their up coming final presentations.
Earlier in the year, Honours student Lauren Hyland recently undertook a role-play exercise to help her gain empathy for elderly patients in public healthcare. Much more than a simple exercise in acting, Lauren fully transformed her visual appearance and identity, with the help of make-up artists at BodyFX, into that of an ill-looking, frail elderly woman. Following her radical transformation, Lauren immersed herself in the context of public healthcare at Auckland City’s Public Hospital at Grafton, providing her an interactive environment to act out the experience of her users. Lauren reflects on the exercise and her experience below:
‘My key insights were gained through the use of ‘Role-Play’ as an explorative, empathy gaining method. With the help of BodyFX – the make-up & prosthetics specialists – I was able to fully embody what it is like to be an elderly patient by experiencing a day walking in their shoes. I allowed myself to be immersed into the moment – feeling vulnerable, overwhelmed and at times invisible or ignored.'
In response to this outstanding research effort, Take a look at Lauren's magnetic, easily removable privacy screen that retrofits onto existing hospital beds. The design is a concept at this stage, but has scope to be developed in different materials, transparencies and sizes.
Well done Lauren for all the hard work you have put in this year at the DHW lab!
Check out her research video here:
A significant part of the DHW Lab, is providing students with real projects to work on in the hospital context. Third year student Hana Stay from AUT spatial design has been working with the performance improvement team to develop there office area on Level 4 of the support building. Take a look at some of the images of her work below, and stay tuned for how this project develops going forward...
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhVL-MbaANQ[/embed]
Honours student Lauren Hyland recently undertook a role-play exercise to help her gain empathy for elderly patients in public healthcare. Much more than a simple exercise in acting, Lauren fully transformed her visual appearance and identity, with the help of make-up artists at BodyFX, into that of an ill-looking, frail elderly woman. Following her radical transformation, Lauren immersed herself in the context of public healthcare at Auckland City's Public Hospital at Grafton, providing her an interactive environment to act out the experience of her users. Lauren reflects on the exercise and her experience below:
This practice-based research project explores the complexity of human needs and social values to assess how physical privacy for vulnerable patients can be improved through a product design intervention. Through the application of Human-Centred and Universal Design frameworks, this project focuses on addressing the needs and values of our ageing population through empathic design.
My key insights were gained through the use of ‘Role-Play’ as an explorative, empathy gaining method. With the help of BodyFX - the make-up & prosthetics specialists - I was able to fully embody what it is like to be an elderly patient by experiencing a day walking in their shoes. I allowed myself to be immersed into the moment - feeling vulnerable, overwhelmed and at times invisible or ignored.
This has proven to become my most valuable research method to date, providing myself with the experience and empathic understanding for how I might implement a design intervention to better meet the needs of the elderly and ultimately preserve their dignity in care.
These insights reflect a key milestone in my project’s purpose and direction going forward. With these considerations in mind, I have developed a new problem statement: how might we provide protection and privacy for elderly patients whilst supporting their visibility in care?
Well done to Neerali and the progress she is making with her sprout IV pole. Its not an easy task to get a product into production and use at the hospital – So well done for getting this far and keep going! Check out this letter from the project sponsor, Mercury Energy:
