Co-creation of patient-oriented services: Design of electronic booking for Norwegian healthcare

Abstract

Recent perspectives in service design discuss how it entails a process of co-creation with the active engagement of users. In this paper we take this lens of service design to analyze two empirical cases on the design of two patient-oriented electronic services for appointments with healthcare providers in Norway. Specifically, we focus on how the service concepts were initially conceived, how they were gradually concretized and how different user groups (patients and healthcare providers) were involved in this process. Our findings show how the involved actors gradually realized that the design of appointment services requires more co-production than initially assumed. This realization made the design scope go beyond the interactive artifacts and extend towards the overall shaping of complex interactive relationships.