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Human-Centered Design Considerations in Healthcare Contexts: Young Children as Users of Medical Products

Høiseth, Marikken
Doctoral thesis
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URI
http://hdl.handle.net/11250/276404
Date
2014
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Abstract
Human-centered design represents an overall perspective wherein people are at

the core. However, a general challenge lies in applying human-centered principles to

groups of people and situations that are somehow distant to designers. This thesis

focuses on a user group that has received limited attention in design, namely young

children. Young children represent a group that can be perceived as difficult to reach for

designers. This research has been carried out in order to develop knowledge around

young children as product users in healthcare contexts. The overarching goal of this

thesis is to support the human-centered designer who is concerned with young children

in healthcare contexts and as users of medical products. Another goal is to stimulate

debate and raise awareness about user groups that are commonly overlooked and

perceived as difficult to reach. In order to address these goals, the thesis focuses on the

following three questions that relate to human-centered design principles about gaining

understanding of users and the context of use as well as user-centered evaluation:

• How can the view of people as competent human actors be upheld when

designers address young children?

• How can theories and methods support designers to gain understanding

about experiences of young hospitalized children and their caregivers?

• How can design (as product) foster cooperative interactions between young

children and their caregivers during medical treatment?

These questions have been explored by examining theories and concepts that are

considered relevant for human-centered design, applying methods and eventually

constructing themes and design considerations. The thesis builds on the specific case of

hospitalized young children who receive medical treatment for respiratory diseases. The

work is based on two periods of field study conducted at the children’s ward of a

hospital in Norway, where qualitative methods were used. At an overall level, the

research approach belongs to the interpretivist/constructivist research paradigm, which

resonates with underlying principles of human-centered design. The theoretical

background draws on the disciplines of design, social science, pedagogy, and

philosophy. The questions are addressed through the synopsis, which presents the

research approach and related research, and four included articles.

The contributions of the thesis are a set of considerations that are expected to be

useful for designers involved in practice as well as research, addressing young user

groups, healthcare contexts, and medical product design. Theoretical concepts that can

be used to acknowledge people—young children as well as adults—as competent

human actors are explored and applied. This can support designers to reflect on the

importance of manifesting a human-centered view through methodological consistency.

Moreover, existing approaches to the concept of experience in design have been

addressed, and limitations have been highlighted. The thesis contributes to knowledge

about how an interpretivist/constructivist approach fits human-centered design

principles and the concept of experience. Selected theories and methods have been

applied to gain understanding of experiences related to medical treatment of young

children. The thesis also provides a set of themes and design considerations that,

together with the theoretical concepts, can support designers in the process of improving

and evaluating products used during medical treatment as well as serve as inspiration

for exploring new design spaces aimed at promoting cooperation between children and

caregivers in healthcare contexts. Finally, the thesis contributes to supporting the design

community by presenting suggestions for further research.
Has parts
Paper 1: Høiseth, Marikken; Keitsch, Martina. Using Phenomenological Hermeneutics to Gain Understanding of Stakeholders in Healthcare Contexts. International Journal of Design 2015 ;Volum 9.(3) s. 33-45 Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.5)

Paper 2: Høiseth, Marikken; Keitsch, Martina Maria; Hopperstad, Marit Holm. Interactions Between Caregivers and Young Children: Exploring Pedagogical Tact in Nebulizer Treatment. Qualitative Health Research 2014 ;Volum 24.(12) s. 1622-1634 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1049732314549017

Paper 3: Høiseth, Marikken; Giannakos, Michail; Alsos, Ole Andreas; Jaccheri, Maria Letizia; Asheim, Jonas. Designing healthcare games and applications for toddlers. I: Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children. Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) 2013 http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2485760.2485770 Copyright © 2016 ACM

Paper 4: Høiseth, Marikken; Hopperstad, Marit H. “Now We are Going on a Journey”: Meaning-Making with a Healthcare Game During Toddlers’ Medical Treatment. Preprint accepted in - Child Care in Practice http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13575279.2015.1054784
Publisher
NTNU
Series
Doctoral thesis at NTNU;2014:242

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