Design Interventions as Multiple Becomings of Healthcare

Abstract

Research on design of IT traditionally treats the production of scholarly knowledge and the design of new systems as related, but separate processes. We propose the fruitfulness of practicing a closer relation informed by interventionist design re- search (appreciating a problem through attempts at solving it) and actor network theory (reality is enacted and constructed through our engagement). Through three concrete design interventions with cardiatric healthcare, we illustrate how diverse agendas of sociological inquiry and practical de- sign considerations are intertwined and come to enact healthcare in specific ways. We suggest this as a strategy of multiple becomings, wherein as- semblages of patients, health professionals, dis- eases, information technology, prototypes, and de- sign researchers together perform shifts between promoting new practical design solutions and rais- ing novel questions on the socio-material com- plexities of healthcare.