Empathy in Diversity

How it began 🎬

Empathy in Diversity is our group proposal to the design challenge of designing cancer information experiences for wellbeing. Students were put in groups of two to three. We focused mainly on CALD (Culturally and Linguistically Diverse) patients. The studio consisted of co-design workshops with volunteers, staff and patients from the hospital.

The design process ⏳

Discover and Define 💡

Why focus on CALD patients?

Knowing and understanding the info needs required by a patient is crucial when it comes to making their cancer less stressful. It has been found that patients with a higher understanding of their info needs contribute to their engagement in decision-making, coping, self-care and communicating with their support group and carers (Adams et al., 2009 ).

Our group conducted the following research methods: patient personas workshops, patient journeys workshops and interviews with Peter Mac staff, volunteers and customer representative, and volunteers from the Chinese Cancer and Chronic Illness Society of Victoria Inc to understand the context and our users (CALD patients)’ needs and wants. Key information was not always communicated as efficiently in some cases. These patients tend to be passive information seekers and rely mainly on their main carer to make important decisions. Another major difficulty faced is the cultural aspect. In some cultures, cancer is a taboo subject, frowned upon and worst isolates cancer patients. This increases the chance of mental health problems such as depression.

Peter Mac already offers various services and links to connect different support groups with CALD patients. However, there is a need to communicate this information in a more engaging way to not only patients but also carers, family and even staff members. Furthermore, having a more visual diversity representation will increase the empathy and connectivity with CALD patients who may not feel welcome in an environment which is culturally different.Our group framed the design challenge as:

“How might we overcome the language and cultural barrier so that patients’ journey and understanding of info needs are enhanced?”

Develop and Testing 🛠️

A Lego prototyping workshop was carried with staff and volunteers of the hospital. The workshop gave our team ideas for our design proposals. Together with the insights gathered from the research phases, ideation sessions were done within our team.

A SWIFT Analysis was done with the hospital staff and volunteers to test our concepts.

The Outcome 📸

Our refined design proposition is more of a cultural program entitled “Empathy In Diversity”. It is a program which includes three main sections, two of which we have developed and the last one is a future development that we would like to investigate more. As the name suggests, increasing the representation of diversity will not only make patients feel included but also levelling up empathy in the environment (Johnson, 2016). The three sections include:

• Life-size cardboard cut-outs
• “My story, my journey” brochures
• Cultural competency programs

Life-size cardboard cut-outs

These cut-outs will not only make people feel a sense of belonging but also acts as a patient navigator and inspiration to seek for information. The cut-outs will be of that Peter Mac patients from different backgrounds as well as staff members. Some will be used to give basic instructions on how to self-check-in, others will display brochures about patients’ stories and services available. Other booklets can also be displayed as well. This will make the brochures and booklets more visually eye-catching and encouraged people to read.

“My story, my journey” brochures

We designed brochures that will come with the life-size cut-outs. These brochures will be firstly about patients from different cultural backgrounds cancer journeys, the difficulties they faced as a CALD patient and the services and facilities that were available and how these existing services have supported them. The brochure will be in two languages: English and the patient (in the story) primary language. The overall design is a folded brochure in an envelope shape and is green in colour. This colour in Chinese culture, as well as many cultures, signifies health and nature. The envelope shape makes the brochure gives the reader a feeling of receiving something special.

Cultural competency program

This section of the design proposition is a future step focusing on the cultural competency training of Peter staff members and volunteers. Potentially the program will start as face-to-face training and later available as an online course. Tackling the problem of language and cultural barrier should not be at the patient level but also to the staff and volunteers level. It has shown that cultural competency contributed positively to customer satisfaction and how information is delivered to them. The training will be accompanied by a printed/online materials that will be developed with the support of various CALD communities.

Personal learnings 🌱

I was already interested in the research and redesigning services and systems and this studio was a great learning experience. It was an opportunity to put into practice the different methods of design research tools learned in class and this pushed me to be outside of my comfort zone and to become more confident in my communication skills. I particularly enjoyed the aspect of a co-design project where people from different backgrounds and expertise work together to achieve an innovative goal. I had the chance to use some of the service design tools visualisations learned in an elective subject and share it to my teammate.

Furthermore, in the beginning, I was not that interested in the health care and well-being sector as I did not anything about the Australian health sector. But gradually, I found myself being more motivated to contribute in my own way. It is indeed true that there is a need for innovation, with an ageing population on the rise and society becoming more and more culturally diverse with globalisation. Empathy has been an essential factor during this project. Being able to listen attentively, think as other stakeholders involved and knowing their needs and wants. One of the challenges was to develop a more practical and “real” design proposition with my teammate. Initially, we had big ideas about delivering information using the latest technology. We then realised that we needed something less costly and more sustainable. In the end, I am satisfied with our design proposition and I am now more aware of the importance of research and what makes a design concept feasible.