Juliane Marie Centret, the children's division of Rigshospitalet Copenhagen, wanted to enhance research accessibility amongst midwives at its Obstetric Clinic. Our study, which explored midwives motivations and challenges to stay updated with research, revealed that they wanted to stay updated on research, but that a number of conditions made research unaccessible.
This project was conducted during my Master's Degree in Service Design, in collaboration with my study group. Since service design primarily deals with non-physical experiences, our final deliverable was a service blueprint outlining our strategy to enhance research accessibility and visibility in the clinic. I have since revisited on one of our concepts (a video research platform), paying more attention to the user interface. I'll dive into the process of designing the video platform after elaborating on the the service design process.
Before commencing our research, we created a stakeholder map to pinpoint individuals or groups who might have the potential to influence and mold the project's outcome.
The stakeholder map divides stakeholders into three categories based on their level of direct influence on the outcome: Core, Direct, and Indirect. However, it's worth noting that Indirect stakeholders can wield significant influence, especially if they are the decision-makers who determine the project's feasibility. E.g. Region hovedstaden are not direct stakeholders, but through their influence they have a lot of power to reject or accept projects.
Our research focussed on the clinic's research culture, as well as the midwives motivations and challenges in staying up-to-date with research.
Observations: We conducted observations at an obstetric clinic to explore the dissemination of research-related information within the clinical setting as well as its accessibility to midwives.
Interviews: To understand the the midwives awareness of the clinics research related information we interviewed midwives with different level of experience and age. Further the purpose of these interviews, were to understand the midwives motivation and challenges in staying up to date with research. We also interviewed a senior researcher and a doctor at the clinic, to understand differences in research awareness and motivations, amongst staff at the clinic.
We gathered all the our notes from observations and interviews and organized them into an affinity diagram, which allowed us to uncover common themes in the data sets.
Most midwives do not want to use their spare time reading about research, and they do not seek it out themselves.
Midwives prefer to gain knowledge within a social context.
Midwives work in a very dynamic and stressful environment - breaks cannot be scheduled and there are unpredictable persiods of business and downtime.
The clinic feels divided between the midwives working with patients, and those working with scientific research and administration.
The clinic management want midwives to become more aware of the research unit and the internal and external obstetric research projects
The closer research is connected to day-to-day clinical work, the more interesting it is to the midwives
Midwives are currently drowning in information from several different digital and none-digital sources
The midwifery education has recently become a bachelor. Older generation of midwives are not familiar with the academic jargon and new midwives do not maintain their academic knowledge in their clinical work.
Midwives becoming more involved in the discussion around research is valuable, as they have focus on the quality of the birthing experience, whereas doctors have a pathological focus.
We used the insights from our research to shape the our direction during the ideation phase. We were particularly curious about cultivating a widespread curiosity for research amongst midwives, aiming not only to enhance research visibility and accessibility but also to nurture long-term interest in research.
Our proposed service concept involves making research more accessible for midwives to learn about, discuss and participate in. It also facilitates the relationship between the research departments and midwives, through the following key touchpoints:
Introduces all newly hired midwives to the research unit. The welcome package includes a coffee voucher to Espresso House located at the hospital's lobby. This is meant to establish awareness and appreciation for the research department.
Makes the weekly Thursday conferences (hosted by the research department), accessible through a tablet located at the clinics breakroom's. The platform can be accessed through an ID-card login system, enabling data collection about who attends the conferences.
Facilitates casual conversation about research insights and dilemmas.
Centralises, condenses, and makes practical information about current research projects accessible.
As this project primarily centered around service design, we didn't delve deeply into the specific touchpoints outlined in the service concept mentioned above.However, we did produce some very lo-fi wireframes using Figma, intended solely for presentation to our case partner. This was our lo-fi prototype back then: old prototype. I have since returned to the video platform, placing a stronger emphasis on the user interface (UI).
Based on the insights from the research process described above, I noted down a few requirements for the video platform UI. One pivotal factor taken into account was the hectic and unpredictable working conditions faced by midwives. This guiding principle helped me prioritize the following features I included in the platform.
Filter videos based on themes: A filter function at the top right corner of the page allowing users to filter videos determined by tags.
Highlighting upcoming and live events: A hero banner at the top of the page, highlighting upcoming and live events grasp the users attention once they enter the page. This feature allows midwives to conveniently click on live or upcomming events during their unpredictable downtime.
Quick overview: A navigation bar at the top of the screen allows users to effortlessly access upcoming and past events.
Resume watching: Midwives frequently respond to patient calls during their breaks. Therefor videos are automatically saved, enabling midwives to resume viewing when they return.
Save and schedule upcoming events: Users can store past events for later viewing and schedule upcoming events in your personal calendar.
The next step would be to test the platform with midwifes to uncover areas of improvement. I also do not know if the concept is viable from a business perspective, as there is a lot of rules and guides you have to follow when designing for the medical sector. So I would have to reiterate on the design together with relevant stakeholders.
