Prototyping an emotionally responsive hospital environment
Reid Douglas, Stephen Reay, Joshua Munn, Nick Hayes · Design for Health · 2018
This case study presents a project based on a spatial redesign at Auckland City Hospital. The project aimed to improve the public waiting area located outside an intensive care unit – a space where families and friends wait for updates on their loved one's condition. As an environment, the area was characterized by high levels of stress and anxiety, and described by families and staff as ‘impersonal’, ‘unfriendly’ and ‘uncomfortable’. The project focused on how designers sought to engage users, collected insights about their experiences, developed concepts for improvement and generated buy-in from hospital stakeholders. We explore how making or prototyping as design practice was used to inspire new ways of thinking about the space to respond to its users’ emotional needs. Through this, the Design for Health & Wellbeing Lab design team sought to make visible the process and value designers can bring to a hospital environment through prototyping and sharing ideas.