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Week 13 - Passion-fueled Design

This week, I chose to research why exactly heathcare design is so important. Steelcase’s article “Problem Solving + Passion Fuel Healthcare Design” gives some insight as to why good healthcare design is so necessary. Each one of us has some sort of experience involving healthcare, whether it be a hospital or a clinic, and those experiences shape our opinions of healthcare. While experiences involving healthcare can be extremely positive, such as welcoming a new baby into the world, they can also strongly impact us in a negative way, such as a learning that a family member has cancer or another degenerative disease. Some of Steelcase’s furniture designers have encountered situations such as these, and the experiences fueled their empathy for those who rely on healthcare design and encouraged them to create spaces and furniture that can support those who spend a lot of time in hospitals and clinics.


Designing furniture for healthcare is very difficult, because designers have to consider health code, cleanability, functionality, clinician requirements, storage, and space optimization. However, Steelcase designers Beukema and Ramos were, and are, determined to create furnishings that support family members in the patient room. Family members can go through a lot of stress while staying in patient rooms, so Beukema and Ramos created a piece of furniture to encourage cohesiveness between the patient and their family – namely, Surround.


Of course, by now we’re all fairly familiar with how insanely innovative Surround is. The reason this piece of furniture is so successful is because of how both Beukema and Ramos applied their positive and negative experiences to the design. They took observations relating to how most family members interact within patient rooms – how family members watch television and the position that is most comfortable for them to do that, how people still need to get work done when they are visiting family member, or how family sometimes decides to spend the night with their loved one. All of these aspects are taken into consideration within the design of Surround. Using Surround is very instinctive and allows for family members to feel truly welcome in the patient room.


Even from this single example, it is obvious how personal healthcare design truly is. From my own standpoint, I have had many negative encounters when it comes to healthcare, and I wish more hospitals and clinics took personal experiences into account. I am very interested in healthcare design because of my experiences and due to the fact that family members should always feel supported when visiting loved ones. Healthcare design is also interesting to me because of how detail-oriented I am as a designer. There are so many aspects of healthcare design that are important and impactful to individuals who encounter the space, and I enjoy designing for every part of their visit.

While healthcare design isn’t necessarily in the scope I had envisioned for myself, I could see myself enjoying designing for healthcare as a career.

Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 17, 2017 at 1:43 PM

    What an interesting article you chose to read! ;) It definitely was a logical choice to read as the article discusses both the issue of health and wellbeing and what it's like to design for these things. It's incredibly focused on details, and each detail is equally as important. This aspect of the design could both be challenging and rewarding.
    Catie, I could see you enjoying working in healthcare if this is the path you choose to take. I know you've had more than one experience in a healthcare environment, so I've heard you mention before that this route is something that you're interested in doing. You have the advantage of designing from experience; you know what worked and what didn't work during your own experience. Your knowledge can serve others as they interact in these environments. But at the same time, I think that you should work on projects that you're passionate about, whether or not that is healthcare. I can't wait to see what your future looks like!

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