Healthcare Design - October 2013 - 28

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dents congregating with their attending physician.
In the new hospital, the design team addressed
this problem by creating dedicated alcoves off the
corridor for groups to use for quick discussions.
Focus groups
A focus group typically consists of a team of
designers or program specialists convening
anywhere from four to 20 people (including former
and current patients, their families, and visitors)
in a room for a few hours to ask them about their
experiences at a facility. Questions can touch on
a variety of matters: Was the staff attentive? How
comfortable were you? Did you have enough
entertainment during wait times?
The group should include a cross-sectional
study of the population and be kept to a small size
so that all voices can be heard equally. If you have
a large number of participants, consider breaking
up into smaller discussions and reconvening at the
end to share findings.
A focus group should have some structure, but
also flow as naturally as possible to allow participants to share their views on topics that matter to
them. There can be some direct interview-style
questions, but allowing patients and families to
express themselves in a comfortable environment
is important in getting honest feedback.
Since it can be difficult for participants to talk
about personal experiences in a group setting,
try setting up a hypothetical scenario. Here, the
designer can invent a patient and symptoms, and
then ask the group to walk through the patient's
journey from home to discharge. This allows the
designer to better understand the emotional experience of the patient journey and create a spatial
response that's sensitive to patient and family
needs.
Prototyping and mock-ups
The most active and direct method of getting
feedback from patients and families is by immersing them in the environment or design problem.
A designer studying furniture replacements for a
labor, delivery, and recovery unit can bring mockup pieces to a functioning unit and have patients
and families test them. In many situations, patients
enjoy the distraction and appreciate sharing their
opinions.
Although it's common to ask clinicians to
perform workflow scenarios, it's much less common-but equally valuable-to enlist patients and
their families to do the same. When engaging patients or families in mock-up and prototype review,

www.healthcaredesignmagazine.com 10.13

have scenarios planned out. Patients may also
feel more comfortable if clinicians are on hand to
act alongside them.

Allowing patients and families to express
themselves in a comfortable environment
is important for honest feedback.
For example, in a patient room, the designer
could ask a family member to go through the
scenario of getting ready to go to bed. This
simple task can pose many issues: Where is the
bathroom (if not in the room)? Is there ample
storage for personal belongings? Can the sofa
be easily converted to a bed? Where are the pillows? How does the guest turn off the lights, but
leave enough on for a night-light?
A designer should address all these elements
when designing a patient room, and getting
patient and family feedback can be the best way
to ensure the layout works as intended.
Interpretation
Once these insights are collected, it's the job
of the architect or designer to evaluate, distill,
synthesize, and interpret the information in a
way that helps shape the patient experience.
Since interior design can be very subjective, the
research should serve only as a framework for
starting.
Organize findings by prioritizing comments
and observations that are repetitive and not
one-off cases. Remember that patients and
families may offer feedback on things they think
they want or need. However, design professionals should focus on why they need them rather
than only on what they need. For example,
during a pediatric focus group, a parent suggested using the color lavender. When asked
why, she explained that it was a calming color.
To the designer, the most important part of that
conversation shouldn't be the specific color, but
the idea that the patient desired calming colors
in a healthcare setting.
By taking the time to gather feedback-
whether by watching, listening, or engaging-
designers can better understand whom they're
designing for and why, leading to more conscientious, patient-focused design solutions. HCD
Andrea S. Hsu, IIDA, is an associate at NBBJ New
York. She can be reached at ahsu@nbbj.com.

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Healthcare Design - October 2013

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