Fostering impact-orientated interdisciplinary collaboration between design and care

Abstract

Design can be defined as a practice (leading to artefacts and services) as well as a way to research but it also can be used to describe a way to look at the world (design thinking) (Bannon and Ehn 2012; Kimbell 2011). As an approach, design has been highlighted as a way to innovate within ill-structured problems (so-called wicked problems)(Rittel and Webber 1973) such as healthcare (Patrício et al. 2020). Within this, the authors position themselves on the continuum between design and dementia that began to emerge in the 1980s and aligned to the paradigm shift taking place in dementia care; from a purely biomedical model towards a psychosocial-oriented approach that included recognizing the influence of the designed environment (Zeisel et al. 2020). Parallel to care’s person-centered-care approach (Kitwood 1988), was design’s shift toward being more human-centered and inclusive (Roth 1999)​​.

There are challenges, however, when design collaborates with professional care partners. Care’s full participation is sometimes ‘hindered’ by aspects related to design (such as academic jargon, time management, etc.) (Hendriks et al. 2017). When looking to move forward, the rules of engagement for collaboration need to be defined. It must resolve these issues but also consider the means to bridge similar challenges when working with other domains such as health policy making, care economics, human resources, logistics, etc.

Based on initial research into the intersection of these different domains, this paper identifies the challenges that come with these cross-discipline, impact-orientated collaborations in terms of the expectations, methodology, processes, organisational structures, and visions of impact from non-design partners in these projects. It reflects upon the inclusion of these non-design partners in design-orientated projects and offers a series of considerations as a means to better prepare and enhance impactful collaboration within care between design and other necessary domains.