Designing with Empathy
A Critical Contextualisation of Social Innovation and the NHS Project
The term social innovation is easily understood when both words are considered individually. Social or society is all about people and is usually referred to when thinking about companionship and unity. Innovation is a unique response or transformation of usual thought when a problem presents itself. Therefore, social innovation is the transformative and empathetic approach to a social problem performed by social beings. This essay looks to explore and reflect on social innovation, to highlight its history, examine its theory and look at how we approach social design. We will look particularly at the recent NHS Lauriston project designed by the students at Edinburgh Napier University and analyse its initial brief, development and outcome with regards to social innovation.
Social Innovation is a relatively new topic of conversation in the design world, and yet it seems that all design should flow from it. Design has and always will be how we better our lives and improve living for society, unfortunately often it does the opposite. So to talk about social innovation is first to acknowledge that much design today is not for our benefit and this problem must be fixed.
The job of a Social Innovator or activist is to notice and make known the faults in society that are often firmly embedded in our culture and unknown to us. Then a process of transforming the mindset of society can begin that creates the change in actions. Today one main issue that affects society is the brainwashing consumerist culture. It is difficult not to be affected by the manipulative adverts particularly in social media that encourage us to consume continuously, wasting our money, our planet and harmful our people. Despite this, we are continually being made aware of how pollution and plastic waste affects our world and wildlife and how demand for cheaper clothing places more children in sweatshops and increases the divide between rich and poor. What stops us from acting against this even after we are made aware of it is the comfortable western mindset of self-indulgence we are so used to. To fix the problem of consumerism, this mindset has to change; therefore society must change, and those whose mission to make this transformation are the Social Innovators.
We have seen that an acknowledgement of problems and a change in mindset needs to happen before any social change can. Then we can begin to design for a better world. When a design is successful, it benefits people and makes life easier and more enjoyable for them. The design does not always have to be overly complicated, it can be as simple as improving the stress felt during a trip to the hospital many people face every day. This is precisely what the students at Napier University, studying in the Creative Industries were recently involved in trying to improve.
The NHS Lauriston outpatient clinic building caters to many health needs in Edinburgh yet staff and patients struggle with the complex layout of the building and how to orientate it. Any trip to the hospital is usually quite stressful, and so the additional problem of getting lost easily is not ideal. The students studying both interior and spatial design and graphic design tackled the problem by first researching and observing the given site. It was noted that as well as the problematic signage, many people struggled as all the floors looked the same and there were no clear directions on the stairs or upon entering the building. It was decided that three main points needed to be improved; the signage, the stairs and corridors and the entrance. It is important to note that when given the brief only the signage was asked to be improved upon, but as the designers looked with fresh eyes on the hospital, other problems that were noticed that people who work there every day were unaware of. This shows us the importance of sharing design problems and getting new perspectives as well as how a designer sees things differently to a user.
It was clear that a differentiation between the floors in the building had to be established to create a visual distinction as well as a way of improving the environment for the user. The decision was made to make every floor have a different theme and colour with each representing a separate area of Edinburgh. A new signage theme was then set.
The aim here was to have a way of making sure people knew they were going to the right floor from the entrance. Once on that floor, they are greeted by a large map directing them exactly where they’re given room is, and then floor signage points them to it. The floor is also enhanced visually by graphic wall mounts to make the patient feel they are in a peaceful, fun environment rather than a stressful one.
The project aims to improve the patient and staff experience in the building with particular attention to guiding people from the entrance to their appointment room as efficiently and calmly as possible. We must note that it is with a mindset of helping others this project was born. The staff will be aided as they have a more pleasant environment to work in and their patients will be prompt and calm upon arrival as the journey to their room was easy, the patients will be aided as they get there on time and they enjoy their journey. This is the most crucial ingredient in the recipe for social innovation, empathy and desire to help other people.
There have been many successful projects that have resulted because of this way of thinking. Remaining in the theme of hospital design, Doug Diets of GE who designs MRI machines did a Ted talk in 2012 about his newly designed rooms and machines for children’s MRI scans.
When looking on this, Natasha Jen stated. “MRI Scan for children: Let’s put cartoons on the wall. Do you really need Design Thinking to actually do that? Isn’t it a little bit obvious?”.
It does seem this way when merely looking at the images but when learning more about the project it is clear how successful it was, and this is due to the compassion Diets has for the patients using his machines. In the video, he talks of how a child had a bad experience in his designed MRI scanner which provoked him to rethink it visually. He also used aromatherapy and various props to transform a cold, intimidating hospital room into a pleasant environment the children enjoyed being in. This type of inspiration is the engining of social innovation and Diets goes on to state “when you design for meaning, good things will happen”.
So yes maybe as Jen said, It was an obvious answer, but the designer took the obvious answer and exploded it into an extraordinary one. The solution was simple and, yet the evidence alone tells us how successful it was.
Diets used the 5 points of design thinking theory developed by David Kelly and Tim Brown from Stanford University when creating his design.
This theory when used is clearly successful as in Diets case, and it does seem to successfully generalise a social innovators job. It has to be said though that when designing for human causes and to better lives, it seems very strict and rigid.
Many designers claim this theory is obsolete. Natasha Jen is one against this theory and makes it clear that one main element is missing, critical evaluation. It can be argued that crit is continually involved in the process but analysing and evaluating are so crucial in every step a designer makes, perhaps a sixth hexagon should be created to acknowledge this.
Cheryl Heller who could be named a modern founder of social innovation also believes no theory can define it, she said: “design is the best way to get from A to B when you don’t know what b is.”
Although designers typically follow a process of design, every designer is different in approach, development and outcome. She believes you must consider the result of your work and be responsible for it above all else.
The theory of Design Thinking can be used as a useful guide but certainly cannot combine designing for social change in all its factors into a step by step process.
The social problems we have today were created by us, and we must have a desire to fix them. The first steps are to change the familiarity we have to problems caused by us for example, consumerism, with knowledge and empathy. Unfortunately, empathy cannot be taught, but from recent social innovative work, we see it is beginning to be so evident in design today. Designer Victor Papanek came up with a way of continuing this, he encourages designers to give 10% of their working lives to design for those in need. If every designer gave this small part of their work toward a cause as simple as improving the stressful hospital experience, a vast difference would be made to better our society.
We need to strive to erase the differentiation found between “Design” and “Social innovation,” the two must combine so all that we create is for the benefit of society.
References:
https://www.aiga.org/aiga/content/inspiration/aiga-medalist/2014-aiga-medalist-cheryl-heller/
https://99u.adobe.com/videos/55967/natasha-jen-design-thinking-is-bullshit
https://unreasonable.is/interview-design-social-innovation/
https://designopendata.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/design-for-the-real-world-victor-papanek.pdf
