In an IDEO article, Suzanne Gibbs who specializes in patients with schizophrenia sought to create a product to help patients with schizophrenia achieve goals and engage with others for support. She got the help of Danielle Schlosser a scientific researcher at Verily Life sciences and was amazed at the unique and completely different attitudes and thinking processes.
When applying a subject to our design whether that be a child’s magazine or in this case schizophrenia we must ensure that our designs are relative and reflect the qualities of the intended users, this means molding an open-end design to route out all of the different opportunities our design can possess through intuitive design thinking processes.
“Design thinking is not limited to a process. It’s an endlessly expanding investigation.” —Sandy Speicher, IDEO CEO
Design thinking is a human-centered approach to relation and innovation, I like to think of it like Tetris, as blocks fall into place the player (designer) must adapt to the algorithm of the game in order to avoid any losses – the player must think forward instead of backward. In real-world terms, the designer must learn and constantly adapt around the users to create a design beneficial and related to them.
The three key narratives that design thinking consists of are:
- Desirability: Is this reasonable for the user and do they understand it?
- Feasibility: How futureproof is this?
- Viability: What is likely to become part of a sustainable business model?
However, design thinking is not a linear step but instead a process that is continually back and forward. Below show some steps of the design thinking process.
- Frame a question – Who >Design > Solution
- Inspiration – Discover & Explore
- Generate Ideas – Discover new solutions to the underlining problem
- Refine – Remove unnecessary features
- Learn – Test, feedback & iterate
- Share – Once the solution is found, introduce the product to alternative people
How can I design for my upcoming healthcare project?
Value-based Care
Like most things in life, quantity beats quality this is no different for my designs. I must improve the quality and outcome for my intended patients by reaching and reacting to a set of changes that might occur, I can do this by listening to my intended group and designing around them throughout the course of my project with a measurement on the impact of my approach and solution.
Proactive Mindset
I must ensure that I have the ability to anticipate events in order to take control/prepare for a situation ahead of time. This means I must be constantly looking towards the future of my designs while designing in the present.
Experimentation
Although privacy and security are prioritized, that doesn’t mean as a designer I cannot experiment and look at different ways how my design might impact the user.