Design – a disruptive, illuminating and generative force for change? Case studies from healthcare
Recent pre-occupations in design practice and research have extended the understanding of design from one comprising activities which were once purely those of the ‘professional’ (e.g., industrial) designer to the point where design is seen as a ‘distributed social accomplishment’ and where, e.g., ‘stakeholders are co-designers and designers are another kind of stakeholder’. [1] Here, design can use ‘participative’ or ‘co-design’ processes where designers’ roles – to a greater or lesser extent – might extend to being catalysts and/or facilitators, moving from a stance of designing ‘for’ people to designing ‘with’ people.
As such, design tends to be valued for its utilitarianism, i.e. for its potential for reducing suffering, increasing wellbeing, or providing improved scenarios or solutions. In multi-disciplinary research, when designers form part of the team, this utilitarianism is attractive to other disciplines in (hopefully) achieving desired outcomes. The author, although complicit in this approach, discusses original utilitarian intents and motives for using design by the non-designers leading these teams, but also questions to what extent design is understood as a disruptive, illuminating and generative force for change in its own right.
Taking a case study approach, the author discusses a series of multi-disciplinary healthcare research projects, where designers were invited for the first time to bring novel approaches and methods to bear on specific healthcare problems. He discusses how a design presence can influence, e.g., the dynamics of inter-personal relationships, the way the research itself is designed and conducted in healthcare environments, and how problems are defined and understood. Design can also illuminate data, insights and ideas and, through its rich mix of accessible methods and processes, can create a strong and effective social dynamic between the research teams, stakeholders and clients, allowing everyone to work together in a more fluid and contributory manner, enabling a collective generation of solutions. (300)
[1] Kimbell, L. (2009) Beyond design thinking: Design-as-practice and designs-in-practice.
Biography
Alastair, a product designer by training, formerly Head of Department of Product Design Engineering at the Glasgow School of Art (GSA), is currently Senior Researcher in the School of Design at GSA. He deploys people-centred, co-design driven research methodologies within multi-disciplinary healthcare teams, exploring the use of design approaches and the design of innovative products and tools for healthcare service improvement. His work is funded by RCUK initiatives such as the AHRC/EPSRC’s Designing for the 21st Century, the cross-council New Dynamics of Ageing, the Medical Research Council’s Lifelong Health and Wellbeing programmes, and the AHRC/Scottish Funding Council’s A Healthier Scotland.