Abstract

User research has long been accepted as an important part of product design, for which there is a whole host of techniques to engage users in the design process. If implemented correctly it can reduce time to market, increase market acceptance and reduce post release support/revision. However, engaging customers in the design process is often problematic for SMEs, as any traditional user centered design process can be expensive and time consuming to implement. User-centred techniques currently adopted in the healthcare sector are often inappropriate and can fail to collect the type of data that is needed to inform the design of new products. Further issues exist when engaging users in socially dynamic spaces such as households and communities, where it is difficult to allow for the range of complex contextual issues.

There is a widespread belief that the ‘creative economy’, as a focal point for creativity, has a particularly important role to play in innovation throughout the economy. This project is about knowledge exchange between the creative economy and healthcare product manufacturers. This will be achieved through the co-development of digital platforms that make user-centred design techniques accessible, and thereby providing a case study on B2B linkages between creative businesses and healthcare firms.

Healthcare manufacturers face many barriers when considering how, where and why their products will be used, and these barriers have been shown to have a greater effect on the SMEs that are responsible for a large proportion of medical device development in the UK. A number of specific issues related to this have been identified:

1. An interview study of UK medical device manufacturers found that many are reluctant to engage formally with users as they believe that the effort required to overcome the significant practical and ethical difficulties of accessing users is not merited by the quality of the data that they collect from this engagement. This however may be related to a second finding of this study: that the methods used by these manufacturers (namely informal discussion-based methods) were inappropriate and unlikely to collect the type of data that is needed to inform design.

2. A recent case study of user research and involvement during the development of a new medical imaging device identified a number of individual, organisational and system barriers that functioned to prevent the results of the user research being fully integrated into development. One significant finding was that the way that the (detailed and qualitative) user data was fed back to manufacturers was not effective in conveying the range, depth and importance of the information.

These two key developmental problems will underpin the development of our digital platforms, framed by a specific case study: the range and variety of the challenges that face people living with dementia, and the opportunities for product and technology intervention to support independent living at home.

Aims

Brunel University and Horizon Digital Economy Research is collaborating with iHealth Partnership, The Alloy and IDC (Industrial Design Consultancy) SMEs on ‘Stories of User Appropriation’, which aims to transfer knowledge from the creative economy about creative innovation processes to the wider economy, by combining design-drama techniques with digitally-enabled open innovation platforms to engage users in the design process. Through this, the project will stimulate exchange between research from user-centred design, drama and film, as well as from the digital economy, and SMEs. This project will focus on the healthcare domain as a particularly appropriate area for innovation in KE practices.