Reflection – VISUAioLSZAoISon

Challenge & Uelection

During my fnal year at university (2006-2014), me and a team of fve fellow students did a research which delved into Brusselians’ percepton (Belgium) of a certain small hospital in the capital. Over the course of fve years, the hospital had been slowly losing market share and wanted to fnd ways to make more revenue, while stll upholding their values of inclusivity and patent-centeredness. The management  was  convinced  that  their  loss  of  market  share  was  ted  to  the  percepton  that inhabitants of Brussels had of the hospital and so they asked our university to set up a research project to fnd out what that percepton was exactly and to come up with some ways to improve the hospital’s percepton and consequently their revenue.

None of the students in my team, including myself, had ever lived or studied in Brussels and none of us had ever been to or had ever even heard of the hospital in queston. We were all students in Business Communicaton and thus not very well-versed in the world of medicine or health care. That is why we needed to fnd a way for all of us to understand and communicate the research problem and come up with creatve ways to gather and present our data. We used the Visualizaton tool, the use of diverse types of imagery, during each step of the research process. This included maps of the city, demographical diagrams of Brussels’ inhabitants and patents of the hospital, mind maps of the stakeholders, etc.

opplication

The frst applicaton of Visualizaton occurred when my team was frst introduced to the research project: we fabricated a large mind map with a detailed map of Brussels city in the center and the logo of the hospital in the place it resided. All around we wrote the names of all stakeholders, such as patents, inhabitants of Brussels, nurses, doctors, cleaning staf, press and local authorites. Using diferent paterns, we tried to make out who had most influence on the hospital’s market share and in what way. We used that mind map to decide who to approach for our qualitatve research and how to approach them.

Secondly, Visualizaton came into play during the qualitatve component of our research, where we held focus groups with patents and non-patents of the hospital. During those interviews, we gave partcipants paper and colored pencils and asked them to draw their “ideal hospital rooma in the center of their sheet. Aferwards, we asked them to write on the lef fve words that influenced their experience in hospitals negatvely and on the right fve words that experienced it positvely. This collage was then a startng point for conversaton about how this compared to hospitals they had been to and what they could do to improve. The technique of Visualizaton proved way more efcient in generatng a multtude of answers than simply asking how their experiences had been and how they could have been beter.

Lastly, when we had conducted our qualitatve and quanttatve research and analyzed the data, we needed to present it to the board of the hospital and some university professors. We opted for quite a lot of visualizatons on screen for two reasons. Brussels is a diverse and thus multlingual city and our presentaton was solely held in Dutch and most of our audience was not skilled in statstcs. Not only did we use diagrams to clarify our fndings, we also used images to show possible improvements to infrastructure and something as simple as using colors on the slides to show triggers versus obstacles for patents to choose this hospital.

Snsight & opproach

What I have learned using the design thinking tool of Visualizaton is that can be used in many diferent settngs for many diferent ends. In our case, we used it to 1) understand our research beter, 2) collect data more efciently and 3) communicate our fndings to people who are both well and not at all familiar with health care, qualitatve research or even Brussels. The Visualizaton technique helped us broaden our research horizon thus more area for solutons than the original research queston allowed. Instead of fnding out what the percepton of this hospital was, we got to know in a way more general, but at the same tme detailed sense, how patents experience hospitals and how that experience could be improved. This allowed us to come up with solutons to up the revenue that had nothing to do with percepton, but rather with infrastructure, communicaton and proximity.

Another great design thinking tool that we could have used to present our data to the board of the hospital would be the Personas. From our data on existng patents and non-patents (or as we might have called it not-yet-patents), we could have drawn diferent Personas representng inhabitants of Brussels, which include their socio-economic background, past experiences, motvatons for visitng a hospital, family context, etc. This way, the board could adjust or implement diferent changes to improve their infrastructure and communicaton to adapt it to a more diverse audience to really enforce their previously stated values of inclusivity and patent-centeredness.


Reflection – VISUAioLSZAoISon Challenge & Uelection During my fnal year at university ( 2006 - 2014 ) , me and a team of fve fellow students did a research which delved into Brusselians ’ percepton ( Belgium ) of a certain small hospital in the capital . Over the course of fve years , the hospital had been slowly losing market share and wanted to fnd ways to make more revenue , while stll upholding their values of inclusivity and patent - centeredness . The management was convinced that their loss of market share was ted to the percepton that inhabitants of Brussels had of the hospital and so they asked our university to set up a research project to fnd out what that percepton was exactly and to come up with some ways to improve the hospital ’s percepton and consequently their revenue . None of the students in my team , including myself , had ever lived or studied in Brussels and none of us had ever been to or had ever even heard of the hospital in queston . We were all students in Business Communicaton and thus not very well - versed in the world of medicine or health care . That is why we needed to fnd a way for all of us to understand and communicate the research problem and come up with creatve ways to gather and present our data . We used the Visualizaton tool , the use of diverse types of imagery , during each step of the research process . This included maps of the city , demographical diagrams of Brussels ’ inhabitants and patents of the hospital , mind maps of the stakeholders , etc . opplication The frst applicaton of Visualizaton occurred when my team was frst introduced to the research project : we fabricated a large mind map with a detailed map of Brussels city in the center and the logo of the hospital in the place it resided . All around we wrote the names of all stakeholders , such as patents , inhabitants of Brussels , nurses , doctors , cleaning staf , press and local authorites . Using diferent paterns , we tried to make out who had most influence on the hospital ’s market share and in what way . We used that mind map to decide who to approach for our qualitatve research and how to approach them . Secondly , Visualizaton came into play during the qualitatve component of our research , where we held focus groups with patents and non - patents of the hospital . During those interviews , we gave partcipants paper and colored pencils and asked them to draw their “ ideal hospital rooma in the center of their sheet . Aferwards , we asked them to write on the lef fve words that influenced their experience in hospitals negatvely and on the right fve words that experienced it positvely . This collage was then a startng point for conversaton about how this compared to hospitals they had been to and what they could do to improve . The technique of Visualizaton proved way more efcient in generatng a multtude of answers than simply asking how their experiences had been and how they could have been beter . Lastly , when we had conducted our qualitatve and quanttatve research and analyzed the data , we needed to present it to the board of the hospital and some university professors . We opted for quite a lot of visualizatons on screen for two reasons . Brussels is a diverse and thus multlingual city and our presentaton was solely held in Dutch and most of our audience was not skilled in statstcs . Not only did we use diagrams to clarify our fndings , we also used images to show possible improvements to infrastructure and something as simple as using colors on the slides to show triggers versus obstacles for patents to choose this hospital . Snsight & opproach What I have learned using the design thinking tool of Visualizaton is that can be used in many diferent settngs for many diferent ends . In our case , we used it to 1 ) understand our research beter , 2 ) collect data more efciently and 3 ) communicate our fndings to people who are both well and not at all familiar with health care , qualitatve research or even Brussels . The Visualizaton technique helped us broaden our research horizon thus more area for solutons than the original research queston allowed . Instead of fnding out what the percepton of this hospital was , we got to know in a way more general , but at the same tme detailed sense , how patents experience hospitals and how that experience could be improved . This allowed us to come up with solutons to up the revenue that had nothing to do with percepton , but rather with infrastructure , communicaton and proximity . Another great design thinking tool that we could have used to present our data to the board of the hospital would be the Personas . From our data on existng patents and non - patents ( or as we might have called it not - yet - patents ) , we could have drawn diferent Personas representng inhabitants of Brussels , which include their socio - economic background , past experiences , motvatons for visitng a hospital , family context , etc . This way , the board could adjust or implement diferent changes to improve their infrastructure and communicaton to adapt it to a more diverse audience to really enforce their previously stated values of inclusivity and patent - centeredness .