Experience Labs: Co-creating Health and Care Innovations using Design Tools and Artefacts.

For healthcare innovations to be successful, the voices of those receiving or
delivering such innovations need to be heard much earlier in the design process. This
is not easy as there are likely to be multiple stakeholders involved, and their different
backgrounds make it difficult to challenge or evaluate potential innovation in the
early stage of development. This paper positions the Experience Lab as a means of
co-creating sustainable, innovative solutions to healthcare challenges. The
Experience Lab offers participants, both receiving and delivering healthcare, the
opportunity to engage in the design process, share insights, experience new concepts
and imagine new ways of responding to challenges. The material artefacts and
bespoke tools provide the conditions through which to create new meanings and
shared experiences. This paper presents the Experience Lab approach, artefacts and
tools, providing examples of these in context. The paper concludes with the need for
further research to understand the role of artefacts and tools in supporting detail
design and implementation beyond the Lab, and the potential of the Lab approach
for other contexts.