- Team: Rasmus Læssøe Kure, Kristina Lenette Vittrup & Nikolaj Thomsen
- Category: Master Thesis Project, Service Design, Healthcare data,
- Date: Spring 2017
- Collaboration: Sundhed.dk x Aalborg University Copenhagen
PROBLEM FIELD
Diabetes and other lifestyle diseases are becoming more and more common in today’s society. How such diseases are treated is far from optimal. The regular procedures are a short rehabilitation programme, afterwards it is up to the patient to change their lifestyle. One of the most important elements when treating diabetes is self care, which requires motivation and knowledge in order to succeed. We therefore joined forces with the public danish e-health portal Sundhed.dk in order to design a solution that would help the danish healthcare system overcome this challenge. The project was based on the following research question: “How can a service system utilising quantied self data, empower citizens with type 2 diabetes, to take responsibility for their disease by supporting them in their decision making?”
THE DESIGN PROCESS
The double diamond process model has been used throughout the project to keep the structure of the design process and guide the work.Below is an example of some of the methods that has been used.
Discover
User research
Desktop research
Expert interviews
Workshop
Analyzing existing services
Define
Actors map
The current system
Existing user journey
Data workshop
Ideation sessions
Personas
Design constraints
Develop
Co-creation sessions
Prototype and tests
Flow chart
System architecture
Database diagram
Service model canvas
Value proporsition
Motivation matrix
User journey
Service blueprint
Deliver
Client meeting
Presenting the service system
HUMAN-CENTERED
People has been a central part of the process from beginning until the end of the process.
- 5 Interviews with diabetes people
- 2 Expert interviews
- 2 Workshops (2 * 10 participants)
- 8 Co-creations participants
- 5 User test sessions
Through the research, several important findings were identified:
- People with diabetes lack information about health offeres in the pre-period of the disease
- There is little to no communication between healthcare professionals
- It is hard to maintain motivation for the rest of their life
- Treatment of the disease is generalised. People need individual treatment
- They need to gain an understanding of their disease before they can talk with their friends and family about it
PROTOTYPING THE SERVICE
"What I hear, I forget. What I see, I remember. What I do, I understand”.
- Lao-Tse, Chinese philosopher
It was important for us to be sure that the right functionalities were being designed. We therefore made a digital clickable prototype of the service that were used for user tests.
EXPLAINING THE SERVICE
An important part of a service design project is to be able to explain how the service should be used. We decided to explain it through a user journey and three different blueprints with associating use case scenarios.
Below in an example of one of the use cases and blueprints.
RESULTS
In general the test participants were positive towards the service. In various cases they stated that they would like to try using the service in their everyday life.
The master thesis project and research were well recieved by the university and the collaboration partner who also saw a huge demand for this kind of system and the possibilities that it would provide to the danish healthcare system.
MY ROLE IN THE PROJECT
I had a multidisciplinary role in the project, being involved in most of the processes from project management to hands-on service design work like design research, workshops, and visual representation. Some of my key responsibilities were design and development of the prototype and I had a key role in identifying the problem field and establishing contact with the collaboration partner.
