Tiffany Ho | Product Designer

Project

Sheares
Designing for the Future of Healthcare:
Research-led Speculative Prototyping

A 12 week project to envision the future of healthcare for Singapore.

The client, a global investor arm under Singapore’s largest state-owned enterprise has tasked the team to articulate a future version of healthcare that that is empathetic, collaborative and patient-centric.

A 12 week project to envision the future of healthcare for Singapore.

Role

Design Researcher

Scope

Conducting in-depth research to understand current landscape and opportunity spaces. Develop core experience principles and future concepts to be used as service standards across geographical assets.

Year

Q3 2019

Project Overview

Designing for healthcare is a complex challenge.
It involves navigating overlapping systems, sensitive contexts, and critical pain points—each demanding thoughtful, systemic solutions.

Taking a human-centered approach to this problem, we focused on the human experience aspect of healthcare - what people think, feel and interact.

Using design thinking as our methodology, we were able to create future scenarios in healthcare that were immediately tangible and create exciting futures with new spaces, products, interactions and tools.

Designing for healthcare is a complex challenge. It involves navigating overlapping systems, sensitive contexts, and critical pain points—each demanding thoughtful, systemic solutions.

Taking a human-centered approach to this problem, we focused on the human experience aspect of healthcare - what people think, feel and interact.

Using design thinking as our methodology, we were able to create future scenarios in healthcare that were immediately tangible and create exciting futures with new spaces, products, interactions and tools.

Empathize

Define

Prototype

Test

Ideate

Who are we designing for?

To get a comprehensive understanding of the care experience, we spoke to 36 patients and caregivers across the spectrum of age and ailments

30 y/o

Young parents of New born

30 y/o

Young parents of New born

30 y/o

Young parents of New born

24 y/o

Young caregiver of parent with cancer

24 y/o

Young caregiver of parent with cancer

24 y/o

Young caregiver of parent with cancer

55 y/o

Retired son taking care of elderly parent

55 y/o

Retired son taking care of elderly parent

55 y/o

Retired son taking care of elderly parent

35 y/o

Young Survivor of cancer

35 y/o

Young Survivor of cancer

35 y/o

Young Survivor of cancer

50 y/o

Grab driver with diabetes

50 y/o

Grab driver with diabetes

50 y/o

Grab driver with diabetes

82 y/o

Active elderly with multiple conditions

82 y/o

Active elderly with multiple conditions

82 y/o

Active elderly with multiple conditions

🙍

... we made sure we listened to the struggles of care providers and professionals

Patients and caregivers are only half of the equation.

Care professionals are equally important as they are the ones delivering the experience to those in need.

Patients and caregivers are only half of the equation.

Care professionals are equally important as they are the ones delivering the experience to those in need.

Patients and caregivers are only half of the equation.

Care professionals are equally important as they are the ones delivering the experience to those in need.

Building Empathy

We spoke to over 36 individuals, from patient to caregivers to health professionals.

For 90mins, we spoke in depth on their experiences with healthcare. Through the use empathy mapping amd journey mapping, we were about to capture and vivid emotions and pain points experienced during their interaction with healthcare.

We spoke to over 36 individuals, from patient to caregivers to health professionals.

Working tirelessly is like a right of passage for doctors, but i think it’s a crippling mentality

There’s no support amongst peers for what we do.

I chose to be a doctor to help people, yet i feel so helpless at my job.

No recreation, go straight to work everyday

Don’t get enough sleep

Dreams about patient cases

Makes special effort to eat breakfast in peace as it’s the only time he has

Burn out and disheartened by work

Disillusioned about his job

Patients don’t listen to us anymore.

With Google, they think they know as much as we do and don’t trust our expertise.

Patients don’t listen to us anymore.

With Google, they think they know as much as we do and don’t trust our expertise.

This is Singapore man! No time to complain. Suck it up.

I know it’s important to treat the patient not just as their organs, but as the whole person too... but I really have no time!!!

SAY

FEEL

THINK

Kenneth, 32

Overworked Young Doctor

Kenneth, 32

Overworked Young Doctor

Journey mapping to identify pain points

We asked our interview subjects to plot their own healthcare journey for 2 reasons:

1) To help guide and recall their own memory of what they experienced.

2) To highlight and identify the moments with the strongest emotional attachments where the redesign would be the most impactful.

We compared the experiences of Cheryl and Millie, who had vastly different experiences in dealing with cancer.

On receiving bad news

“I’ll never forget the day when it was confirmed. I never knew I could feel so... devastated. What is going to happen to my 2 daughters?”

Cheryl, 35

Recently diagnosed with cancer

Cheryl, 35

Recently diagnosed with cancer

Cheryl, 35
Recently diagnosed with cancer

“When they told us the news... it took me a long time to react. I really didn’t know what to do after that.”

Millie, 24

Young caretaker of

parent with cancer

Millie, 24

Young caretaker of

parent with cancer

Millie, 24
Young caretaker of parent with cancer

On the impact of care on recovery

“The nurses took such good care of me! They saved my favourite seat in the clinic for me and greeted me like a friend. I felt a lot better because of that.”

Cheryl, 35

Recently diagnosed with cancer

Cheryl, 35

Recently diagnosed with cancer

Cheryl, 35

Recently diagnosed with cancer

Cheryl, 35
Recently diagnosed with cancer

“I felt so bad that I couldn’t be there with my dad for his first chemo. He sent us pictures the clinic and apparatus and I was so worried. It looked so painful”.

Millie, 24

Young caretaker of

parent with cancer

Millie, 24

Young caretaker of

parent with cancer

Millie, 24
Young caretaker of parent with cancer

Why was Cheryl’s healthcare journey so optimistic while Millie’s was full of ups and downs?

What seperates a good healthcare experience from a bad one?

No room for doubt

Leave no room for doubt

Leave no room
for doubt

Health episodes are filled with overwhelming doubts.

To soothe their worries, patients look for information on symptoms and medical advices online.

Such behavior is motivated by a fundamental need for assurance which care providers are unable to provide due to various reasons.

This room for doubt causes strain to the doctor-patient relationship as patients start to second the advice given by their doctors.

Health scares are full of uncertainty.

When doctors can’t offer timely reassurance, patients turn to the internet to search for clarity on symptoms and self-diagnosing for peace of mind.

This gap in assurance erodes trust, leaving patients to question medical advice and straining the doctor-patient relationship.

Health scares are full of uncertainty.

When doctors can’t offer timely reassurance, patients turn to the internet to search for clarity on symptoms and self-diagnosing for peace of mind.

This gap in assurance erodes trust, leaving patients to question medical advice and straining the doctor-patient relationship.

Health scares are full of uncertainty.

When doctors can’t offer timely reassurance, patients turn to the internet to search for clarity on symptoms and self-diagnosing for peace of mind.

This gap in assurance erodes trust, leaving patients to question medical advice and straining the doctor-patient relationship.

See a patient holistically, not just their ailments

Health Is More
Than Biology

Today, most interactions in health focus only on ailments, illness and injury episodes. However, biology is just one aspect of a person’s life that influences well-being.

How well a person can recover is highly dependent on all other aspects of a person's life - whether they are physically able to maintain healthy daily routines, whether there are strong support networks in their lives to help them with their disabilities and how they are coping emotionally are all important areas that are often overlooked.

Today, most healthcare interactions focus narrowly on diagnosing and treating illness, injury, or physical symptoms. But biology is just one part of what shapes a person’s overall well-being.

How well someone recovers often depends on much more: their ability to maintain healthy daily routines, the strength of their support network, and how they’re coping emotionally. These dimensions are rarely addressed in traditional care settings — yet they play a critical role in healing.

Seeing a patient holistically means understanding the full context of their life, not just the condition they present with.

Today, most healthcare interactions focus narrowly on diagnosing and treating illness, injury, or physical symptoms. But biology is just one part of what shapes a person’s overall well-being.

Seeing a patient holistically means understanding the full context of their life, not just the condition they present with.

Today, most healthcare interactions focus narrowly on diagnosing and treating illness, injury, or physical symptoms., but biology is just one part of what shapes a person’s overall well-being.

Seeing a patient holistically means understanding the full context of their life, not just the condition they present with.

Health is a
team effort

Recognizing that recovery involves taking care of all aspects of the patient’s life, expanding the core care team to include dieticians, physiologists and family therapist will keep patients healthier in the long run.

Possible Futures

From the journeys of Cheryl and Millie, we recognize that the first impactful moment to care starts at the very beginning.

Introducing a care team that can provide advice outside of the confines of a hospital helps prevents uncertainties from building up.

A patient’s health worries becomes a team effort, relieving considerable load from doctors and nurses.

Introducing a care team that can provide advice outside of the confines of a hospital helps prevents uncertainties from building up.

A patient’s health worries becomes a team effort, relieving considerable load from doctors and nurses.

Introducing a care team that can provide advice outside of the confines of a hospital helps prevents uncertainties from building up.

A patient’s health worries becomes a team effort, relieving considerable load from doctors and nurses.

To show that we're understanding of what the patients are going through, the introduction is written to emphasize our commitment to be there for them, and the avaibilty of experts from various fields.

Categories are introduced to help to guide patients in formulating their questions.

Chat functions allow our patients to seek help directly from their care team for reliable information and assurance.

For many, there exists a mental filter between "serious" and "frivolous" questions.

Often, issues such as diet and emotional state are deeply important one's recovery, but are deemed "not-medical-enough" to being forth.

Sample questions are introduced to encourage users that all questions are welcomed.

Many people carry an internal filter between what they consider “serious” and “frivolous” questions.

Yet topics like diet, sleep, or emotional well-being—often crucial to recovery—are dismissed as “not medical enough” to bring up.

By introducing simple, open-ended prompts, we reassure users that no question is too small, and all concerns are valid.

Doctor’s view

The usefulness of a doctor’s advice is only as helpful as what the patient lets in during consultation.

Often, doctors miss out on critical pieces of information that might affect a patient’s recovery as patients are vague with the things affecting them.

With a view of the patient’s question log, doctors will be able to have a more accurate understanding of the patient’s circumstance and provide the right advice.

The greater the transparency, the less room for doubt and better doctor-patient relationships can be maintained.