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Designing Interactive Technologies with Teenagers in a Hospital Setting

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Perspectives on HCI Research with Teenagers

Part of the book series: Human–Computer Interaction Series ((HCIS))

Abstract

This chapter describes a design process with teenagers with chronic health challenges. The design activities were related to two main themes, the transition from paediatrics to adult healthcare and patient-oriented social networking, and were implemented with a group of young patients who were members of the Youth Council, an advisory body to the hospital. We describe two design strategies, Design Stations and Continuous Participation Platform. Design Stations facilitate a design process that uses the time with the teens effectively and caters also to the teens’ creativity and attention span. The Continuous Participation Platform contributes to maintaining consistency and continuity between the Design Station meetings. The process consisted of four design workshops, which took place in a hospital, and online activities in between these workshops. Nine small research projects were implemented, using a range of diverse participatory methods and tools. In the chapter we analyse and discuss the results using the SHARM framework, our Participatory Design methodology for designing with and for teenagers with chronic health challenges. SHARM focuses on situation-based action, having a say, adaptability, respect, and mutual learning. We found that our participants switch between their identity as a patient and as a teenager. Building and strengthening a third identity, namely that of a co-designer, may further improve the design efforts when designing with this particular group of participants.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The young people participating in the design workshops discussed in this chapter were between 14 and 20 years old. Teenagers and young adults is a more comprehensive way to address this group of participants. However, the design activities were focusing on the transition of teenage patients to adult healthcare, which takes place around their 18th birthday. In this text, we therefore prefer to use the term teenagers.

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Acknowledgement

We would like to acknowledge the important contribution of the young participants in our research and design projects to our understanding of the design of cool technology with and for teenagers with chronic health challenges. We would like to thank in particular the Youth Council (Ungdomsrådet) of Akershus University Hospital (Ahus) and the teenage patients at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO). We also would like to thank the staff of Ahus, CHEO, and the Electronic Health Information Laboratory (EHIL) at the CHEO Research Centre, for their support for our research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Informatics, University of Oslo, Blindern, N-0316, 1080, Oslo, Norway

    Maja van der Velden, Margaret Machniak Sommervold & Alma Culén

  2. Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Akershus University Hospital, Lørenskog, Norway

    Britt Nakstad

  3. Institute for Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Britt Nakstad

Authors
  1. Maja van der Velden
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  2. Margaret Machniak Sommervold
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  3. Alma Culén
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  4. Britt Nakstad
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maja van der Velden .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. PaCT Lab, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle, United Kingdom

    Linda Little

  2. Child-Computer Interaction Group, School of Physical Sciences and Computing, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, United Kingdom

    Daniel Fitton

  3. Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, York St John University, York, United Kingdom

    Beth T. Bell

  4. PaCT Lab, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle, United Kingdom

    Nicola Toth

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van der Velden, M., Sommervold, M.M., Culén, A., Nakstad, B. (2016). Designing Interactive Technologies with Teenagers in a Hospital Setting. In: Little, L., Fitton, D., Bell, B., Toth, N. (eds) Perspectives on HCI Research with Teenagers. Human–Computer Interaction Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33450-9_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33450-9_5

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