Putting User in Context: A Participatory Design Approach Using a Simulated Beach Environment

The research outlined in this paper investigated the sun protection behaviour in young men age 18 to 24. Firstly, field observations were conducted on the beach where the sun protection behaviour occurs. The findings highlighted the importance of gender linked with low levels of sun protection behaviour in young men. This informed the next study through participatory design sessions using a simulated beach environment. The results showed design opportunities with taking an account of gender in sun protection behaviour which opens new avenues where design has a key role in health promotion

The Importance of Gender-Aware Design in Digital Health Wearables: A Co-design Study Fostering Sun Protection Behaviour in Young Men

The rise in the number of people living with long-term conditions is precipitating a shift towards the development of wearable technologies that can monitor our health remotely. This shift makes it possible to rethink the healthcare structure towards awareness and proactive prevention instead of treatment through empowering users, e.g. patients for self-management of their health. In a sector towards individual specialization and relying on personal healthcare management, design has a key role in user participation and engagement. This paper reports a co-design study that empowered the participants as designers to design human-centred interventions that foster sun protection behaviour in young men. The findings from this study show the following: 1) sun protection concepts to enhance young men's engagement in sun protection behaviour, 2) the integration of gender-aware design in digital health wearables contributes towards better user engagement in wearable technologies of the future

Insights into the role of gender in aesthetic design: a participatory study on the design of digital health wearables

The role of artificial intelligence (AI) in facilitating the real-time processing of data is revolutionising the future of healthcare through mobile diagnostics, remote monitoring devices, and wearable technology products. The rise in digital wearables for remote healthcare is evolving at an increasing pace towards patient-centred and personalised care with connected patients. This transformation is creating new opportunities for designers to increase patients' participation and sustain their engagement in remote healthcare. In this paper, the authors have investigated the role of gender in aesthetic design in the context of digital health wearables to enhance user engagement and interaction. The investigations were conducted through participatory design sessions and showed a constructive relationship between aesthetic preferences and understanding the influence of gender as a means of facilitating user engagement with digital health wearables. This paper presents a novel user response model that leads to suggestions for future work, including research in the areas of gender awareness in aesthetics to move beyond traditional, stereotypical, and pre-identified gendered characteristics related to femininity and masculinity. The findings conclude with a path forwards for design research to promote gender awareness in aesthetic design for the realisation of healthcare wearables of the future

Health 4.0: How Digitisation Drives Innovation in the Healthcare Sector

Driven by networked Electronic Health Record systems, Artificial Intelligence, real-time data from wearable devices with an overlay of invisible user interfaces and improved analytics, a revolution is afoot in the healthcare industry. Over the next few years, it is likely to fundamentally change how healthcare is delivered and how the outcomes are measured. The focus on collaboration, coherence, and convergence will make healthcare more predictive and personalised. This revolution is called Health 4.0. Data portability allows patients and their physicians to access it anytime anywhere and enhanced analytics allows for differential diagnosis and medical responses that can be predictive, timely, and innovative. Health 4.0 allows the value of data more consistently and effectively. It can pinpoint areas of improvement and enable decisions that are more informed. What it also does is help move the entire healthcare industry from a system that is reactive and focused on fee-for-service to a system that is value-based, which measures outcomes and ensures proactive prevention (Thuemmler, Bai, 2017). In this paper, the authors discuss how digitisation is paving the way for data-driven innovation in the healthcare systems. They elaborate on the opportunities and challenges for all stakeholders involved and discuss how emerging technologies can help overcome the inherent rigidity of today’s healthcare ecosystem. Following on from this, the authors explain the importance of research on the actual design of smart healthcare products and product service systems of the future and the challenges faced from the viewpoint of design practice

Towards the exploration of Gender awareness in Human-centred design

The primary aim of the human-centred design (HCD) approach is to identify the user needs. However, we argue that there is a lack of understanding of, and even awareness of, gender in HCD. This approach sees gender as static and stable regarding male or female such that the implication of principles in products, systems or services appeals to one gender or another linking gender differences, and stereotypes. To illustrate this, the investigation was conducted in the context of fostering sun protection behaviour in young men. Participatory design sessions were deployed to investigate the role of gender in the HCD and how it can be used to foster sun protection behaviour. We have concluded with the development of a novel gender aware HCD approach which opens avenues for design research and practice for increasing emphasis on the influence of the designer’s own gender and their gendered perceptions in their designs

Design for Health 4.0: Exploration of a New Area

Driven by networked Electronic Health Record systems, Artificial Intelligence, real-time data from wearable devices with an overlay of invisible user interfaces and improved analytics, Health 4.0 is changing the healthcare industry. The focus on collaboration, coherence, and convergence that will make healthcare more predictive and personalised. Furthermore, Health 4.0 realises the value of data more consistently and effectively. It can pinpoint areas of improvement and enable more informed decisions. What it also does is help move the entire healthcare industry from a system that is reactive and focused on fee-for-service to a system that is value-based, which measures outcomes and ensures proactive prevention. In this paper, the authors will first explore the realm of the emerging area of Health 4.0 and identify its opportunities and challenges. This includes understanding the relevant base technologies as well as the design principles for the realization of smart healthcare product, systems and product-service-systems of the future. Following on from there, the authors focus on the role of design in the specific context of healthcare

The Importance of Product Language: An Exploratory Study of Smartwatches for Remote Healthcare

The rise in wearable technologies that track health data is evolving at an increasing pace linking personal devices such as mobile devices and smartwatches for remote healthcare. This transformation is creating new opportunities for designers to improve user experience with wearable devices for healthcare. An essential dimension of user experience is associated with optimising human-centred design principles to develop targeted interventions to enhance user interaction with a product. Those principles, including affordances in a product, system or service, resulting in improved engagement, making wearable devices more desirable. An exploratory study was conducted and demonstrated a constructive relationship between the product language and understanding the role of gender to facilitate user engagement in the context of smartwatches. The results of our study suggest that the inclusion of gender has substantial potential to optimise user engagement with wearable devices and concludes with a path forwards for design research to promote gender awareness in product language for health promotion