Designing health care services

Three criteria for success in the health sector

To create great experiences for users and patients we have, in EGGS Design, learned that there are three particular things that are important when working with projects in the health sector.

We listen to people

When we are helping to innovate, we are concerned that the inspiration will come from the right place. So we listen to people. We listen to patients, to their families and to professionals. It is important for us get closer to people, and to understand all the users involved so that we can take account of their needs. We as designers come in as a neutral party. We translate the insights into good, relevant ideas and solutions.

I use the designers because they are good at taking the user’s perspective, in a slightly different way than we health professionals do. They see the whole picture and sometimes a little more than we do. That's because they see things from the outside.

Co-creation and visual processes

We always run co-creative and visual processes. It is seldom we designers are the experts in the room. We leave that to the doctors, nurses, technicians, or others. Rather it is our role to ask the dumb questions. So we simplify and visualize along the way so that everyone in the room sees the same picture. This is how we move the project a step further.

I use designers because they are good at visualizing processes. They give us new insight into what we professionals do ourselves, what we've done all along.

Focus on agile implementation along the way

With ongoing implementation, we believe in constantly prototyping and testing these solutions along the way. This means that we don’t design in a vacuum only to finally reach a solution that may not be relevant for users. Instead we bring prototypes of solutions to users and other relevant professionals, and get feedback from them for further work on the ideas. This enables us to minimize risk and avoid ending up in a situation with solutions that do not correspond to real needs.

If we are to create solutions for the benefit of our users, we must talk together in a completely different way than we do today.

Experience and dedication

In EGGS Design we’ve worked on many projects in the health sector in Norway, which means that we’ve built up expertise. We see the processes we are running, and because of the people we are, we see we have lots of value to add. And we care! And we have a strong desire to contribute to a better Norwegian health!