The healthcare sector is under increasing pressure due to rising demand, staff shortages, and fragmented collaboration. To improve coordination and put patients at the center, care pathways are gaining importance. Metro Mapping, a relatively new design service method, offers a promising method to visualise and co-design these pathways in a more collaborative and structured way. However, its adoption in daily practice remains limited, partly due to the lack of a dedicated digital tool.

This graduation project focused on the development of such a digital Metro Mapping tool, aiming to support broader and more sustainable use in healthcare settings. The central question was: how can healthcare professionals effectively optimise care pathways and improve patient care with the support of a digital Metro Mapping tool?

Research
To answer this, I investigated what enables and hinders the adoption of Metro Mapping, and how a digital tool could help overcome these barriers. Insights were gathered through literature research and a wide range of interviews with healthcare professionals, designers, researchers, and advisors. This led to a structured understanding of key enablers, challenges, and barriers, which were clustered to inform a strategic direction. Based on these insights, the following future vision was defined:

“Metro Maps are dynamic documents that are evolving, shared visual blueprints that support coordination, communication and better patient outcomes."

This vision was translated into concrete design principles, outlining what the tool should offer in terms of usability, flexibility, and collaboration. Throughout the design process, I organised
co-creation sessions and interim feedback sessions, making sure that the outcome stayed grounded in real-world needs and constraints. Based on these principles and user input, a wide range of possible features was developed. These were prioritised into two categories:

- Required features: a mix of must-haves and highly desired features, which were included in the prototype
- Future wishes: valuable additions for later development, but with less priority for now

Results
The result is a concept for a digital Metro Mapping tool that incorporates all required features and translates them into a clear and flexible interface. The design includes layered interactions, role-based views, and modular building blocks. Key features include a drag-and-drop builder, clickable layers, filtering per user type, and layers and phases that can be collapsed or expanded. It allows for real-time co-creation, linking files, and navigating through different levels of details. By bringing everything together in one place, the tool reduces duplication, increases clarity, and enables more efficient collaboration.

In validation sessions, stakeholders confirmed its potential to better align care teams, support shared ownership, and improve quality and safety. An IT expert validated its technical feasibility, provided that the interface and data layers are separated and existing IT systems (e.g. Zenya or EHRs) are taken into account.

The report concludes with clear recommendations for next steps, including implementation considerations and collaboration opportunities. This project does not aim to deliver a finished product, but provides a strong, validated foundation for further development of the Metro Mapping tool.