Developing Data-enabled Design in the Field of Digital Health

Abstract

The research question of this doctoral thesis is: What can be the future impact of design (activities) in digital health, given the rise of data collection and analysis technologies? I answered this question on three knowledge levels: design vision, knowledge-generating approach, and design tool. In Chapter 1, I envision design activities for the collective computing era (an upcoming modern computing era with complex systems of massive social interaction through various connected computing devices) that data collection and analysis technologies are a part of. Based on the literature review and informants’ interviews, I developed a design vision that demonstrates the changes posed in design activities (design tasks, processes, and the designer’s role) due to the upcoming collective computing era, and provides guidance for adopting the changes. Consequently, the vision proposes that design tasks in the collective computing era move towards designing ‘complex system(s)’ and testing these within ‘society as a lab’. The vision’s guidance states that designers can approach these tasks by addressing communities and engaging with their data. In terms of the design process, the vision claims the ‘coexploration’ of the design problem and solution spaces. To tackle such change, the guidance suggests designers: the flexible combination and analysis of mixed data, working on social forces at a system level, and developing through multiple soft launches with modular designs. Finally, the designer’s role becomes conducting an ‘accountable implementation.’ The vision recommends approaching accountable implementation by incorporating a transdisciplinary vision of the value and control of the design output....