Methods
Empathy in Design
Empathy is often defined as a skill or an interpersonal ability to understand and sense other people’s feelings and thoughts without having had the same experience (Battarbee, Suri & Howard 2014). Empathy in design is often seen as a fundamental emotional aspect and the critical quality of a designer. A human-centred approach to design puts the users of the service at the centre of the design process. It brings the designer a deep understanding of the user's circumstances and experiences.
Before thinking about the solution, the designer first understands the problem itself. Sometimes the problem is not the one that stakeholders think, and it is necessary to dig deeper into the core of the problem. The designer uses the local people's perspectives and perspectives to deepen the problem and understand the situation of the problem.
Human-Centred Design
The process of Human-Centred Design starts with a specific design challenge and goes through three main phases: Hear, Create, and Deliver (IDEO, Bill & Foundation 2011):
1) During the Hear phase, the designer will collect stories and inspiration from people. Designers will prepare for and conduct field research.
2) In the Create phase, the designer will translate the information I heard into frameworks, opportunities, solutions and prototypes. In this stage, the designer will shift from concrete thinking to more abstract thinking when determining themes and opportunities and then return to concrete thinking through solutions and prototypes.
3) The Deliver phase will implement solutions through rapid revenue and cost modelling, capability assessment, and implementation planning. This stage will help designers launch new solutions into the final presentation.
User-centred Design
User-centred Design (UCD) is a product development program that focuses on the end-user of the product. The idea is that the products should be suitable for users, rather than making the users suit the products. This method can be achieved by adopting user-focused technologies, processes, and methods throughout the product life cycle (Courage & Baxter 2005).
Narrow down to three critical principles of UCD:
1) Focus on users and tasks - by the systematic and structured collection of users’ requirements, designers can understand such things as what stakeholders want and need, how they would like to work, and their mental models or mental representations of their domain. This information is invaluable for creating quality products.
2) Empirical measurement of product usage - in a usability test, users will be given a prototype and asked to complete a series of typical tasks using the product. This activity allows designers to identify usability issues with the product. Then changes are made to improve the product before its release.
3) Iterative design- the final principle recommends that requirements are collected, and the product is designed, modified, and tested repeatedly. Designers do not go through the developments cycle once; they continue to iterate and fine-tune each cycle until getting it right.
Co-design workshop
It aims to involve stakeholders (Figure 4) in the early stages of the design process.
This method emphasises designing with people. It is an opportunity for discovery and exploration. It is not a tool designed for people to produce the final solution as soon as possible—designers trigger discussions among stakeholders and guide design decisions.
• To brainstorm ideas on how to elevate the quality of care
• To identify the needs of different stakeholders in aged care
• To identify user group (People with specific stage of dementia, or people with specific symptoms like apathy or depression)
• To evaluate design concepts and gather feedback
• Prototype testing and feedback
Figure 4: Stakeholders
Specific Objectives
Identify opportunities to improve furniture/objects/spaces with the view of integrating sound and music therapy strategies.
• Working with stakeholders to identify knowledge needs
• Encouraging and enabling world-class knowledge creation
• Facilitating the exchange of knowledge between creators and users
• Advocating the use of knowledge as a driver for change
• Develop a series of preliminary concepts and prototypes for review with stakeholders
Interview and Questionnaire
Questionnaires are one of the primary tools used to collect survey information, the other being interviews (Hanington & Martin 2019). The designer will provide a five-point range from strongly disagree to agree to maintain question neutrality firmly. In the pandemic period, all of the surveys will work online. It will be used in isolation, and it may be hard to recognise the nuances of personal expression and body language in conversation. Interviews are often one component of a research strategy utilising complementary methods such as questionnaires or observations to verify and humanise data collected using other means. Finally, interviews can be used to guide additional usability activities.
• To identify the challenges and pain points of the stakeholders (residents, caregivers, nurses, cleaners, family and friends, volunteers and visitors) in music therapy and/or other activities
• To identify opportunities in improving the aged care furniture to make daily tasks of caregivers more manageable and more straightforward and improve residents' living experience by understanding the daily tasks and activities of the stakeholders.
• To investigate the choice and decision making behind the environment's design, including furniture and objects in the activity rooms
Feedback of Interview