What is Human Centred Design?
Human Centred Design is a framework that puts the people we are designing for at the heart of the process.
It offers problem solvers the chance to design with the people experiencing the problem, to deeply understand their experience and to create innovative solutions and change.
Human-centred design engages users throughout the process to boost adoption, identify patient safety and clinical risks early, reduce time and costs, ensure accessibility for diverse needs, and drive data-backed decisions through rigorous research.
What is involved?
- Understand and advocate for your user - Step into the shoes of the people experiencing the problem.
- Collaborate across teams and expertise - Promote collaboration among individuals with different skills and background.
- Iterate, iterate, iterate - Continuously refine and improve design based on user feedback and insights.
- Be inclusive and ethical - Ensure that solutions are accessible and usable by a wide range of users.
- Embrace uncertainty - It’s not easy to confront the unknown but we embrace it rather than avoid it.
Turning ideas into actions
Imagine designing an application that enables patients to book appointments instantly.
With a human-centred design approach, you could gain insights to create a seamless and accessible interface, ensuring it’s easy to use for patients of all ages and abilities.
Creating solutions across NSW Health
Human-centred design brings together eHealth NSW, NSW Ministry of Health, Local Health Districts, and other key organisations.
Our goal is to ensure that NSW Health delivers solutions that are tailored to user needs, leading to improved usability and engagement.
Some examples of how we are using human-centred design to shape the future of healthcare
Transforming heart failure services - We have collaborated with SESLHD clinicians and patients and UNSW researchers to develop a heart failure dashboard that enhances patient care and improves decision-making. The dashboard will provide real-time insights, track patient admissions and optimise workflows for better outcomes.
Improving the digital care experience - We have collaborated with NBMLHD clinicians and patients to tell the story of Living Well – a digitally enabled pathway for adults living with obesity, inspired by the Family Metabolic Health Service Model of Care.
Enhancing information discovery - In collaboration with NSW Ministry of Health to understand the needs, challenges and opportunities of future eSearch users. This will help improve information discovery, supporting better decision-making and service delivery in the future.
Accelerating ideas for faster innovation - With the NSW Ministry of Health we ran the Workforce Accelerator Pilot focused on the Radiation Therapy Workforce with key opinion leaders, decision makers, clinicians and students. We worked to find a solution that could drive meaningful change to the Radiation Therapy student pipeline.