This paper, titled “Designing digital patient experiences: The digital health design framework,” by Tingting Wang, Haiou Zhu, Shuxian Qian, Guido Giunti, Richard Goossens, and Marijke Melles, addresses the critical need for improved design practices in Digital Health (DH) to enhance patient experience (PEx). Published in Applied Ergonomics in 2024, this research highlights that while DH offers significant benefits, these have not been fully realized due to issues like poor interaction design and patient experience. Human-Centered Design (HCD) holds potential to meet user needs in healthcare, but its application is complex and faces numerous challenges, necessitating dedicated design approaches for digital patient experiences.
The primary objective of the study was to investigate general DH design processes, identify common challenges, and uncover corresponding strategies that can enhance the digital patient experience. To achieve this, the authors conducted a semi-structured interview study with 24 design professionals who had experience in DH design projects applying HCD or user experience (UX) design approaches. Data from these interviews were transcribed and analyzed using a six-phase thematic analysis method.
The research revealed eight distinct stages within the DH design process, which were grouped into four overarching phases:
- Preparation: Involves clarifying project requirements and limitations, and creating a comprehensive project plan.
- Problem-thinking: Focuses on conducting desk or field research to understand the context and framing design problems based on insights gained.
- Problem-solving: Includes generating and iteratively evaluating design concepts, often through brainstorming, co-creation, and user testing.
- Implementation: Encompasses developing design solutions, managing technical foundations, and overseeing market release and subsequent maintenance.
Furthermore, the study identified twelve specific design challenges that designers face in DH, categorized into four areas:
- Contextual challenges: Such as adapting to the inherent complexity of healthcare, dealing with extensive documentation and regulatory barriers, and attuning to restrictions like time and financial constraints.
- Practical challenges: Including reaching agreements among diverse collaborators with potentially conflicting goals, effectively involving end-users (patients and healthcare providers) to uncover their real needs, and making difficult design decisions that balance various stakeholder demands.
- Managerial challenges: Relating to managing relations with different stakeholders who may have skepticism or conflicting interests, building a shared understanding among interdisciplinary teams, and effectively communicating the value of design.
- Commercial challenges: Such as providing evidence of design effectiveness to skeptical clients and users, implementing solutions in complex healthcare systems, and establishing viable business models for digital health products.
To address these challenges, eight common strategies were also identified, including embracing a holistic perspective, establishing actionable plans, fostering strategic design leadership, promoting inclusive collaboration and co-creation, emphasizing iteration, making designs visualizable, tangible, and testable, utilizing storytelling, and prioritizing equitable experiences.
The key contribution of this paper is the proposal of a novel Digital Health Design (DHD) framework. This framework provides a comprehensive overview of design deliverables, activities, involved stakeholders, design challenges, and corresponding strategies for each design stage. It extends existing design models like the Double Diamond framework by adding preparation and implementation phases and offers a sector-specific guide for improving the digital PEx. The DHD framework aims to empower designers to manage their DH design processes more efficiently and effectively.
Reference: Wang, T., Zhu, H., Qian, S., Giunti, G., Goossens, R., & Melles, M. (2024). Designing digital patient experiences: The digital health design framework. Applied Ergonomics, 119, 104289. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2024.104289
