Service design and sound: A chance for exploration in oncological treatment rooms

Abstract

The value of sound design is increasing in the field of product development, and even more so in critical contexts such as healthcare. A well-designed sound can have an impact over job satisfaction, efficiency in work environment, user experience and well-being of healthcare staff and users as a whole. On the other hand, service design is a particular domain within design engineering focused on how the relationship between service providers and users can be improved. An emerging community highlights the utility of the tools and techniques to effectively include system stakeholders in the design and implementation of health technology and healthcare service design. Service design has been applied successfully in several projects to improve patient experience as well as in other areas of public sector. This paper states the potential contribution of service design to sound design, as another methodological approach in order to improve audible alarm design for product development in healthcare environment. Likewise, the paper offers designers and engineers possibilities to implement together both the tools and methods of service design and product sound design deriving from the review of existing literature and empirical conclusions compiled from observation and analysis of oncological treatment rooms at different hospitals.