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Ruchika Gupta | ruchika1912@gmail.com
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Online Healthcare for Elderly
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Guide V S Ravishankar
Sponsor Foley Designs Pvt. Ltd.
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Keywords family types;healthcare professionals;kiosk, self-empowerment
This project got moulded into the study of the healthcare sector in India, with special focus on the elderly. Changing demographics, changing formats of family types (joint to nuclear to individual), and the changing face of healthcare with a critical shortage of healthcare professionals were few factors which were examined in this particular domain.
The healthcare system was studied with a sole focus on the communication aspect. Several interviews with doctors, NGO officials, representatives of online healthcare companies, caregivers, elderly, and society in general were taken which provided a lot of interesting insights. The motive was to come with a design solution which induced as little change as possible in the lives of the elderly, think of new ways of communication and included the aspect of “doing and learning”.
The designed product aimed at providing an experience and service which fulfilled not only the obvious health-based needs of an elderly person such as: regular check-ups, information access, tests, tracking health records; but also followed a holistic approach towards other important aspects such as building self-esteem, socialising, empowerment, and engagement. It acted as a supplement to the healthcare system, hospitals, pharmacies, and caregivers providing ample amount of care to the users. The result was a simple, intuitive, and engaging kiosk that gave elderly persons a sense of self-empowerment with their own health decisions.
One of the major accomplishments from this project was learning that innovation involves evidence from information and intuition for creativity. Design research needs a level of commitment and perseverance to deeply understand the users’ actual needs and what matters to them the most. |
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