Steelcase on user-centred research and its impact upon the healing environment

More on healthcare. I found this while browsing Steelcase’s Nurture website, which I reported on earlier.

The site contains a long list of pdf articles, including one on user-centred research and its impact upon the healing environment.

“Within the healthcare landscape, user-centred research is one way for the designer to understand and develop an empathy for the needs of the patient, caregiver (medical and hospital staff) and care partner (family/other).”

“Through user-centred research design professionals methodically capture the patient journey, as well as the experiences of those that visit and work in healthcare environments. By documenting these experiences, opportunities for improvement and innovation are revealed. User-centred research is built upon a foundation of evidence proven through observation, interviewing, listening, and assumption-testing techniques, and then categorising the research as interactions between the people, spaces, tasks, information and objects. On the people side, it’s important to understand the behaviour and communication that occurs between itinerant nurses and the patients they serve, or the personal conversations in public spaces between doctor and concerned care partners. We evaluate the ambient environment of healthcare spaces observing the interplay of light, color, texture, sound and aroma, as well as LEED’s impact thereon. We delve into “tasking” in healthcare spaces, that may range from filling out patient paperwork to repetitive maintenance activities.”

Download article (pdf, 268 kb, 4 pages)