Co-design Workshop with Senior Citizens

Here at the DHW Lab, we aim to put users at the centre of everything we do. Last week was a great example of this, with our resident anthropologist Guy Collier and UX designer Nick Hayes, running a co-design workshop with a small group of senior citizens to explore the challenges associated with changes to memory and thinking.

Through the workshop, Nick and Guy explored the lived experience of changes to memory and thinking, and the associated day-today-day challenges. Participants then engaged in activities to explore how an online resource, such as a website, might support their experiences. Numerous ideas were generated including community engagement and forums, sharing strategies, and peer-to-peer support. 

Development of these ideas and other solutions will continue to be explored through subsequent workshops involving participants throughout the process. 

A special thanks to Brain Research New Zealand and the Centre for Person Centred Research at AUT for sponsoring this important type of work.

Transition Lounge Installation

Recently, we posted about installing a new set of signage designs for the Transition Lounge ward in the Level 5 public space. The job has been completed along side a  awareness campaign for the services offered by the Transition Lounge. A similar exercise is currently underway with ED waiting room to communicate key information and visual cues through simple, bold colour blocking. These hi-fi prototypes are ideal for testing in the hospital and contribute to a more informed approach to way finding hospital wide.

Too little Too much

Post Graduate Graphic Designer, Eden Short has been working part time at the DHW lab while also taking on her Masters in Design. Her work focusses on exploring ways communication design can be used to ease stress and anxiety in information dense Outpatient environments. Read her project abstract below:

This project explores how a design-led approach could be used to improve the heath-seeker experience within Auckland City Hospital. Whilst addressing physical wellness, hospitals overlook the high stress, anxiety and uncertainty that come with this particular environment. This research explores the concept that large amounts of unstructured information presented at one time overwhelm the health-seeker, hinders communication and creates a negative emotional toll. This research focuses on the Starship Children’s Hospital Outpatient’s department as a prototyping area for which user engagement may be facilitated to improve the patient’s understanding of information. The scope considerations all information within the environment, yet focuses primarily on wayfinding, and secondarily health campaigns and health related resources.[1] Placing the health-seeker at the centre of the design process, there is a focus on how creating emotionally supportive information environments could improve the hospital experience, such as reducing information overload, designing for affect, and enabling transparency. Through prototyping, designs can be produced to respond to real problems, test assumptions and validate need for change. 

[1] Other presentations of information cannot be ignored as they contribute to the overload of information, thus hinders communication.  

Recently, Eden put together a feedback station to gauge user feedback for the current information design in outpatient clinics:

Pharmacy Front Desk

In changing the current check-out services Auckland Hospital Pharmacy provides, a new counter is being conceptualised to support these services. Through low-fi, full scale mock ups we designated areas for prescription drop-off, prescription pick-up and general retail – this was to combat the dense amount of people queuing at one time. In order to understand how three services can function within one area, we spent an afternoon protoyping the space, moving pieces around to resolve a functional and coherent setup. The key considerations that are shaping this work: being inclusive to those in wheelchairs and mobility scooters, providing privacy for those picking up prescriptions, enabling an unobstructed flow, and selecting the ideal drop-off point which is quick and easy to access.   

Pharmacy redesign: Low scale solution

Recently, we posted an article about engaging pharmacy staff in a co-design exercise, in order to improve their current service offering.

As a low scale solution and a method for gathering further insight, a few of the Lab team reorganised and decluttered the current layout and product offering in the pharmacy. This created significantly more  transparency around the prescription counter, and a much clearer flow in and out of the space. The changes have made it much easier to identify the prescription desk from outside the shop. Staff are excited by the changes and the next stage for the lab will be to gauge user response.

The first round of 115 feedback forms have been collected based on peoples' experience of the original layout, and the next data sampling will be based on the improvements. This will provide a solid foundation from which to develop more permanent and compressive improvements to the pharmacy.

Pharmacy Redesign

The main driver behind the Auckland City Hospital Pharmacy redesign is taking the current retail gift shop focus, and making it a health and wellbeing service, decreasing wait times for prescriptions, and providing more nutritional health-based  products. A large part of this redesign is a cost-effective 'quick win'. This is seeing what we can accomplish now to improve the pharmacy's functionality, and later inform decision making around a future-proposal for a brand new pharmacy. 

Using co-design, the team have been incorporating the pharmacy staff in the design process using a variety of tools to engage them in the process.

Pharmacy WIP 7

Pharmacy WIP 1-2