Chronic pain scales in tangible materials

Abstract

For chronic pain patients, it is a challenge to communicate what their pain feels like-both to friends and relatives and to healthcare professionals. Traditionally doctors employ pain scales (numbers, standardised words, images of facial expressions), but pain scales can be challenging for patients, as chronic pain is experienced individually. They are also difficult to relate to for relatives and professionals, who do not have personal experience of chronic pain. In this pictorial, we present a series of design explorations with tangible materials to offer an alternative for chronic patients to express pain. In collaboration with six patients, we identify eight different types of pain experiences and the material metaphors that the patients may use to express them. We also develop three examples of tailored design artefacts, pain communicators, that can function as ?tangible pain scales' to express pain experiences.