Transforming healthcare through design-led innovation

The changing demographic across Scotland poses major challenges for the healthcare service (Scottish Government, 2010). The ageing population and rise in long term chronic conditions are placing greater demands, and increasing pressure on service providers (Scottish Government, 2011). As a result, there is a need to consider alternative strategies for healthcare delivery in an attempt to overcome these challenges.
Scotland has a new innovation centre which aims to respond to the challenges facing the healthcare system by transforming health and social care delivery (www.dhi-scotland.com). Experience Laboratories are at the core of this model of innovation and are led and developed by the Institute of Design Innovation.
Experience labs are an innovative method for trialling and testing new solutions for health and social care and provide a new way of working collaboratively within this context. Within the Experience Lab there is an opportunity for extreme collaboration between academics, business and civic partners to co-create and co-design sustainable solutions together with end-users. The Experience Lab provides a safe, collaborative environment which replicates real life practice within which to trial ideas and engage in design-led activities. These activities open up, and place the user at the centre of the design process.
This paper will illustrate the Experience Lab through a case study of a project which explored and developed a new concept system for assisted living to support and empower older adults to live independently at home for longer. The Experience Labs provided the opportunity to user-test the initial concept by developing and validating a solution with users. The design-led approach aimed to deliver requirements for the system that were firmly user driven. The Labs provided a safe and realistic environment through which the Lab team helped users explore the concept and share their feedback and ideas for improvement through activities including experience interviewing, workshops and role-play.