Co-Design Toolkit
We need to talk: Conversation Generator for Aged Care
Project Type: Workshop Design
Role: Lead Design Researcher
Demonstrated Design Skills: Design Thinking, HCD, Co-Design, Workshop Design, Prototyping, User Engagement
Everyone ages. This seems to be such an obvious thing that we think everyone is aware of. However, how confidently can we answer the question “What is ageing like?” As life expectancy is increasing, ‘How to age’ has become a big societal question in recent decades.
This project aims to design a workshop that encourages people to start the conversation about this 'uncomfortable' topic.
Desktop Research &
Study Persona
This project had a given set of persona to start with.
I started this project studying persona and completing desktop research on the current state of aged care.
Developing the Toolkit
I chose to use a board game format for the engagement activity. Design Games have been used increasingly in recent decades to structure design dialogue in different phases of Co-design activities. For this project, I planned to utilise the Design Game to explore problems and possibilities as a scaffold for knowing.
Aged care is such a huge topic. Issues that people experience from the aged care context are often connected through multiple layers of our lives that makes pinpointing issues or solutions considerably difficult. There is a sense of being overwhelmed and not knowing where to even start.
Usually, it comes with anxiety from thinking ‘I shouldn’t not know’ while having the feeling of not knowing enough. To even start a conversation, I felt there should be a solid baseline to start with. The ‘as-if-world’ that a Design Game creates is a good direction since it shares the same knowledge and determines the context of what we try to discover. Not only providing a feasible starting point of the discussion, but using a game format can also help to boost participants’ willingness to join the discussion.
Testing Prototype
I designed the toolkit in a way that participants (players) work as a team rather than playing against each other to encourage a collaborative environment. Despite the format being a ‘game’, there is no winning or losing as I didn’t want to weaken the real purpose of this activity as a conversation generator based on empathy.
To validate the design, I ran a pilot workshop to test out the toolkit.
Feedback from participants
General feedback from the participants was positive in a way that showed this activity achieved its objectives as a conversation generator. Furthermore, one of the participants expressed her interest in using the game for her personal conversation with her parents.
Can I have a copy of these cards? I am going to use this with my mum. She never faces this sort of conversation. I can possibly use your project as an excuse to start this conversation so I can say “It’s nothing about you, it’s for my friend’s assignment.”