Bridging the gap between policy, technology, and the lived experiences of those who rely on essential services.
Client
Telstra Health
Role
Experience Manager
Services
Research & Insights
Service Design
Responsibility
Manage and plan research approach for providing actionable viable solutions
Background
As part of my work in aged and disability care, I explored the sector’s rapid transformation driven by technology, policy changes, and the evolving needs of service users.
I led the planning and research strategy to gain qualitative insights to design better services that genuinely improve the quality of life for care recipients and providers.
Furthermore, the research aimed to uncover the lived experiences of individuals receiving and delivering care, exploring their needs, pain points, and opportunities for service improvements.
Approach to Gaining Insights
To deeply understand the challenges and needs within aged and disability care, we conducted in-depth ethnographic interviews with a diverse range of participants, including:
Care recipients: Individuals with chronic illnesses, disabilities, and elderly individuals requiring support at home.
Care providers: Support workers, nurses, general practitioners, occupational therapists, and respite coordinators.
Each session involved:
Contextual home visits
Observing participants in their living environments to understand daily routines, challenges, and workarounds.
Semi-structured interviews
Gathering qualitative insights through open-ended questions.
Raw data analysis
Examining tools and technologies participants use to manage their care.
Thematic synthesis
Identifying common patterns and divergences across participant experiences.
Physical Artifacts for Participant Collaboration
To engage participants effectively and capture detailed insights, I utilized physical artifacts that facilitated interaction and collaboration. These included:
Health Devices
A tool to explore participants' openness to innovative health technologies and their potential use cases. This allowed participants to visualize and articulate their preferences and hesitations about adopting new technology.
About My Home
A worksheet designed to capture participants’ emotional and practical connections to their living spaces, including frustrations and ideal changes. This helped uncover deeper sentiments about their homes.
Health and Help
A structured form capturing participants' healthcare routines, required assistance, and expectations from carers. This revealed critical insights into daily struggles and support needs.
A Day in the Life
A timeline exercise where participants detailed their daily schedules, highlighting services used, activities, and involved individuals. This provided a clear picture of their routines and opportunities for service optimization.
Drawing My Home
A home-mapping activity where participants sketched their living spaces and annotated areas of comfort, challenge, and interaction with carers illuminating the spatial dynamics of their environments and their impact on daily routines.
⸺ Qualitative Research
Leverage agile frameworks to provide a robust synopsis for high level overviews. Iterative approaches to corporate strategy.
⸺ Sketch Visualization
Organically grow the holistic world view of disruptive innovation via workplace diversity and empowerment everyday routines.
⸺ Engineering Strategy
Leverage agile frameworks to provide a robust synopsis for high level overviews. Iterative approaches to corporate strategy.
⸺ Rapid Prototyping
Organically grow the holistic world view of disruptive innovation via workplace diversity and empowerment everyday routines.
⸺ CMF Specification
Leverage agile frameworks to provide a robust synopsis for high level overviews. Iterative approaches to corporate strategy.
⸺ Product Packaging
Organically grow the holistic world view of disruptive innovation via workplace diversity and empowerment everyday routines.
Conclusion & Next Steps
Conducting this research provided me with deep insights into the complexities of aged and disability care. By working closely with both care recipients and providers, I was able to identify key barriers and opportunities to enhance service delivery. This work highlights the importance of a human-centred approach, ensuring that solutions are practical and meaningful for those who rely on them.
This research highlights the importance of designing solutions that address the real challenges both care recipients and providers face. By focusing on accessibility, usability, and support systems, we can create meaningful changes that improve lives.
This research reinforced the importance of designing services prioritising usability, accessibility, and emotional support for care recipients and providers. Moving forward, Telstra Health is leveraging these insights to co-design solutions with users, ensuring a truly human-centred approach to aged and disability care.
