This RMIT Communication Design studio provided students with the opportunity to explore Service Design and CoDesign methods and techniques applied to the Healthcare context where designing services, improving patient experiences and including people in the design process is increasingly important and in demand.
The major project for this studio was linked to an ongoing research project led by staff in the School of Media and Communication. This three-year project is set at the Bendigo Hospital, the largest regional hospital development in Victoria’s history and one of the largest hospital projects across Australia. The new hospital opened in January 2017, and the study focuses on the Psychiatric Services inpatient facilities before and after the move to the new building. The project investigates how the different designs of the old and new hospital buildings are experienced by staff and patients as sensory, emotional and social spaces.
Partners
Dr Shanti Sumartojo, RMIT
Bendigo Health
In the move to the new building, staff were told that they will not be able to put anything on the walls. A particular implication is the placement and use of the ‘message tree’, a means by which patients can leave messages about their experience of care intended to thank staff and inspire and comfort future patients. Students were tasked with investigating the meaning of these interventions to staff and patients and through rapid prototyping, testing and iteration, develop new interventions that could be implemented in the new building.
