“How might we create environments that enable aged persons to thrive?”
This wicked problem has been proposed by the College of Gerontologist Nursing. Researchers from the Centre of Health and Social Practice and Design Factory have used the design thinking process to address this problem. This question was proposed based on the current issues facing New Zealand: an ageing population with increasing comorbidities, an ageing workforce and under resourcing of the aged care sector.
Secondary data was collated from a variety of peer reviewed sources. Primary data was collected from interviews done with health professional who work with those aged 65+, families of those who are 65+ and people who are 65+. This research was conducted during the global pandemic of COVID-19 which imposed limitations on the project. To aid the complete collection of data, these interviews were recorded and then transcribed for later use.
The key themes and insights from these interviews, through a process of defining, were used to further refine the initial question into more “how might we” statements. We focused on three of these new “how might we” statements to create two different prototypes: a My Wellbeing Book and a Wellness Expo. These low fidelity prototypes were created for user testing. The feedback has been collected and analysed in this report. Due to the time restrictions on this project, we were unable to further refine the two prototypes using the feedback from the users. However, a discussion of the feedback received has been included in this report.