NVL

The Digital Health Institute (DHI) is a Scottish Funding Council innovation centre led by the University of Edinburgh and the Glasgow School of Art. At the core of the DHI program of work are the “Experience Labs”, a person-centred and design-driven research approach that provides opportunities for extreme collaboration in a safe and flexible environment where academics, business and civic partners can co-create and co-design sustainable solutions together with end-users. The environment of the “Experience Lab” aims to replicate real life practice allowing for the trialling of ideas through rapid cycles of experience. The Labs involve participants engaging in a series of activities such as observation, brainstorming and prototyping of ideas, placing the user at the centre of the design process. This process is focusing primarily on eliciting knowledge towards pre-technology prototypes and next steps for research and development.

During the course of my work at the GSA, I led or contributed to several projects, using different design methods with participants in real-life scenarios: Directory App (mockup wireframing for the co-design of a mobile-based service directory for paramedics), Digital Brokering (experimenting with a mapping tool, based on Actor-Network Theory, for the elicitation of community-based networks of needs, services and training opportunities), Talking Medicines (co-design of digital content and field-trip formative evaluation of an Augmented-Reality medical packaging mobile app), Backpack (roleplaying and co-design of a boardgame for investigating the potentials of Personal Data Stores for MS citizens).