Design Stage

The design stage showcases methods that can assist engineers in developing prototypes of healthcare products that meet the needs of their intended users. These methods include various types of workshops, prototyping, personas, and scenarios. Workshops allow engineers to engage with users, thus allowing their immediate thoughts and insights to be integrated and explored; however, although workshops are beneficial, they are not essential, as there are other methods of engagement. Prototyping allows engineers to work with and trial early low-fidelity concepts with users. Personas help in ensuring that the healthcare product is being developed for the correct users, and scenarios can help to identify key moments where technology could be helpful or allow engineers to convey to users potential scenarios in which new technology can help improve current systems and practices.

“Understanding the user’s needs” provided a list of methods to help to understand what users say, think, do, and use. The image on that page indicates that through these methods we can work towards developing technology that will make a positive difference. Through the design stage we try to ground the needs and aspirations of users in relation to performing their work.
The design stage allows users to explore new ways of approaching their tasks to achieve their goals using low fidelity and exploratory means. Within healthcare this could be exploring interfaces for surgeons, developing improved visualisation or data for bedside nurses, or investigating devices for home use.

In this section we will expand on each of the design stage methods and highlight what the method is, and why, when, and how they can be used.
 

Workshops (Co-design)

Engage with users in developing technology fit for purpose.

What and Why

Workshops are a way to engage with users to understand their desires on how they would like to see their practices improved with technology. Recently, most workshops have been labelled as co-design, meaning that the users are part of the decision-making process. However, there are a number of different types of workshops that can be conducted with users, which generate different outputs. These workshops may be co-design, in the sense that you are generating prototype ideas; user investigations, as you work with users to evaluate prototypes and roleplay potential scenarios; and informal scenario workshops, which envisage how they would like to see the task improved by generating speculative scenarios. For this introduction, all types of workshops will just be referred to as workshops.

Workshops provide means for the participants to explore the problem space and identify opportunities for improvement and barriers that currently hinder their ability to perform a task. However, the aim of a workshop is not to establish a final solution, instead they are used to develop concepts to inform design for an established user. Workshops are a means to bring multidisciplinary teams together to leverage the expertise from one another to generate concepts that explore different facets of knowledge. Workshops that involve engineers, clinicians, and human factors provide a balanced discussion. The engineers are able to provide expertise in what technology is available and how it can be integrated into practice. Clinicians can provide details on the scenario, task, and the environment in which it will be incorporated. The human factors help to determine the points of human interaction and incorporate users’ needs into the design.

To get the most out of your workshop there are different methods that can be used to help generate creativity. These include collages, paper prototyping, sketching, mind mapping, storyboards, inspirational cards, video-based card sorting, modelling, and others. For more details on each of these methods, what they are and how to use them, click here (10 min read).

When

Workshops are, in most cases, best run once you have a clear understanding of user needs, and are looking at developing initial concepts with the users. Apart from design workshops, other types of workshops (click here for more examples) may be run in order to get different information from users or to critique the design as it gets closer to its final concept. This allows you to ensure that it still meets the users’ needs before moving into any formal evaluation.

How

There are many ways in which a workshop can be run, but using the following plan will help get the most out of a workshop.

•    Explain the purpose of the workshop and what you will be doing during the workshop and how it will be structured so that participants know what to expect
•    Encourage creativity and remind people that everyone can be creative and contribute to the workshop
•    Divide people into teams when working with a large number of participants, (in some cases ensuring that each group has an individual from each discipline can be helpful as they can learn from each other e.g., engineers and clinicians working together as the engineer has the technical understanding while the clinician has the contextual understanding)
•    Describe what you expect to get out of the workshop so that participants can properly contribute to the outcome
•    Run the workshop using the method you chose earlier
•    Re-group. This is a time for the individual groups to explore how others have contributed and provide feedback to help generate the best possible outcomes
•    Debrief with the group to discuss standout features, issues, opportunities, and barriers

Pros

Generate good ideas that take on board user needs, allow unprofitable designs to be rejected early during the design stage, empower users in the decision-making process.

Cons

Time consuming, difficult to recruit participants, huge data set.

Points to Ponder

What do you plan to achieve from the workshops?
What are the main user needs that the workshop is focused on?
Who should you invite to the workshops?
What method will allow you to best help participants explore ideas?

Resources

For additional methods that can be incorporated into your workshops, click here (5 min read). A pocket guide for different insights into preparing and running your workshop, click here (9 min read).

Prototypes

Test and explore design concepts using low-fidelity methods.

What and Why

Prototyping is a method that allows ideas to be quickly tested to illustrate a concept and look for areas of improvement. Doing so can provide early insight into the design process and allow for various concepts to be explored before investing a lot of time and money into a project. The prototypes themselves also can be low fidelity, that is they are made up of basic elements to represent the idea, and be either physical or digital. Physical prototypes could be comprised, but not limited to, hand drawings, modelling clay, cardboard mock-ups, 3D printed mock-ups or anything that allows you to investigate and experiment with ideas. Digital prototypes could be plug and play electronic components and simple digital sketches.

When

Prototypes can be generated from the initial idea of a product, through to validation, with the only difference being the level of fidelity in the design. For example, when developing a new health application for a mobile phone, a low-fidelity prototype, made of wireframe sketches, can be useful. It could provide the layout of pages, information you want users to have, and how the pages interact allowing yourself and others to test ideas and find solutions to problems. However, some evaluations, such as validating software or mechanical behaviour in a system, require a much higher fidelity system to be developed. For example, when developing a new instrument for surgery the ergonomics may only be able to be understood once you have a high-fidelity 3D printed part with components inside to test for balance, stability, and usability.

How

Prototyping is about doing, rather than pondering on how to do something. There are no rules as to how to prototype or what materials you should use. However, the level of fidelity of the prototype should continue to increase as requirements are met and further and more robust evaluation is undertaken.

Pros

Prototypes are generally quick to build and evaluate. They allow for ideas to be made and tested.

Cons

Can be difficult to demonstrate ideas (especially for low fidelity prototypes) to other team members.

Points to Ponder

Can you test this feature easily with a low-fidelity prototype?
Does this prototype provide enough detail to test my ideas?

Resources

For additional information on developing prototypes, click here (12 min read). For more information on the difference between low and high fidelity, click here (2 min read).

Personas

Develop a representative profile based on evidence captured from observations, interviews, and other sources of data of users.

What and Why

The development of a persona allows researchers to have a clear image in their mind of who they are developing a product for. A persona provides a snapshot of a generic user and provides information such as: their job title and/or responsibilities, demographics, goals and tasks they need to complete, the environment they work in, with supporting quotes from the data. An example of a persona used to highlight a clinical engineer can be seen in the figure below. 

 

When

A persona should be developed at the end of the understanding user needs phase, after all the data has been obtained and analysed.

How

From the data, group similar participants together to generate a single profile that represents that user group. Each profile should contain information obtained from observations, interviews, contextual inquiries, etc., about each identified user. The information in the persona should detail the major goals and needs identified, but should be broad enough that it describes a group of participants, and not a specific individual.

Pros

Help focus the design ideation to ensure that it meets the requirements of the prescribed user; can be created quite quickly from the data.

Cons

Can become outdated quite quickly, depending on the method used to generate the persona they may be based on users’ opinions rather than reality.

Points to Ponder

How does the data support the persona?
What motivates your persona to achieve their tasks?
What are the needs of your persona?
Does this persona interact with other personas, and what relationship exists between them?

Resources

For further understanding on developing personas, click here (9 min read time).

Scenarios

Capture instances of users detailing their tasks, descriptions of how technology could be used within a given context.

What and Why

Scenarios provide context behind the users’ intentions to perform their task. There are two types of scenarios that are commonly developed, current or speculative. A current scenario is used to depict in detail how a task is currently carried out. It can be used to highlight key points of frustration within the given context. Speculative scenarios, which are more common, depict how users’ needs can be addressed with the adoption of technology. Although these are fictional, they allow researchers to envisage how technology can be incorporated and utilised within the users’ context. Each scenario should list the goals that could be accomplished from their design, and how they relate to the observations and interviews from which they were conceived.

When

Scenarios are best developed during the phase of establishing which technology provides the best outcome for users. Doing so allows them to be implemented into workshops as a way for users to investigate possibilities, and for users to provide additional contextual implications the researchers may be unaware of.

How

Scenarios are written using descriptive language to portray the story and context of how technology can be used in a given situation. When developing a scenario there are three main points to consider. Who is the user? What is the context of the scenario? What goal is the user trying to accomplish?

Pros

Quick to develop, helps others to envisage how the technology can be used.

Cons

Fictional, good on paper but difficult to implement.

Points to Ponder

Is the scenario realistic?
Is the scenario achievable within the available time?
What challenges may arise from this scenario?

Resources

For further understanding on developing scenarios, click here (6 min read time).