Mobile eye care clinic to underserved markets

Multi-disciplinary design methods

We used design methods and expertise from different disciplines such as user insight, business modeling, service design, product design, and digital design. This interdisciplinary approach allowed us to develop the Low Vision Box into a business case and a holistic service experience with a physical clinic, as well as digital interfaces such as web and consultation tools.

Vision professionals and the visually impaired

The Low Vision Box has two primary sets of users, the vision professionals and the visually impaired. The clinic needs to be a functional and creative workspace for vision therapists and a comfortable place for the patients. With these two user groups in mind we conducted user insight work in both China and Norway. The ability to demonstrate competency was found to be a critical success factor for visual rehabilitation centres.

The best solutions for professionals and patients

For the professionals the Vision Box provides physical furnishings and tools in a way that is easy to deliver, as well as training programs and expertise. In terms of the patients we found that the consultation is among the most important interactions that the patient has with the service. We used service design methods to identify the best practices within the Scandinavian model and translated this into a new customer journey.

Testing with a full scale mock up of the clinic

We built a “living lab” in our office space to better understand how the clinic should work. We continuously developed the full scale mock up of the clinic. We invited vision professionals, visually impaired patients, as well as the project team in order to test the space and build a good solution step by step.

At the brink of commercialization

Though the project is still at idea stage, it has already taken effect and implementation plans are clear:

• Provista will continue the project, including through an IRD application submitted to Innovation Norway.

• A large rehabilitation institute in China is interested in the outcome and has set aside space in a new rehabilitation centre to receive and test the first prototypes.

This is a project funded by the Design Driven Innovation Program (DIP), sponsored by the Norwegian Design Council.