Keynote at Audiology Australia, Gold Coast May 2021

1. Design Thinking as a Strategy
for Innovation in Audiology
Professor Evonne Miller – Director, QUT Design Lab @evonnephd

2. Indigenous slide

3. Learning Outcomes
• Critically reflect on future healthcare
systems and services, and the implications
and opportunities for audiology;
• Learn the five steps of the design thinking
process: empathy, definition, ideation,
prototyping, testing;
• Understand ways to use a design-led
approach to generate innovative, user-
centered solutions.
Design Thinking as a Strategy for Innovation in Audiology

4. HEAL
design
for
health
a little about me.. Professor of Design Psychology & Director QUT Design Lab @evonnephd

5. CRICOS No.00213J
Prof Evonne Miller – Centre Director
4 PROGRAMS
• Emerging Technologies
• Dr Jared Donovan
• A/Prof Glenda Caldwell
• Design Robotics & Digital Fabrication
• A/Prof Markus Rittenbruch
• A/Prof Veronica Garcia Hansen
• Designing for Health
• A/Prof Marianella Chamorro-Koc
• Dr Lindy Osborne Burton
• Resilient Communities
• A/Prof Debra Cushing
• A/Prof Sean Maher
“change by design"
QUT Design Lab
We are a collaborative, cross-
disciplinary community of designers,
engineers, roboticists, creative thinkers,
makers, artists, health practitioners and
innovators, who work together to
speculate, imagine, design, and
innovate – to reimagine and co-create a
better future.

6. Designers are creative thinkers, makers and
creators, innovators, entrepreneurs and agents
of change – comfortable with uncertainty, we
traversemultiple ‘disciplinary edges’ to create
innovative interventions for systemic and
behavioural change

7. use design methods and
ways of thinking to tackle
complex, wicked problems

9. Fourth Industrial Revolution: blurring of
boundaries between the physical, digital
& biological worlds - advances in artificial
intelligence (AI), robotics, the Internet of Things
(IoT), 3D printing, genetic engineering, quantum
computing, and technologies not yet invented

10. “Design-Led Innovation”
helps us thrive in our VUCA* world
businesses/sectors are forward-
thinking and problem-solving,
evaluating radically new propositions
from multiple perspectives – embracing
design thinking, design doing and
design visioning, with a willingness to
experiment
VUCA
volatile, uncertain,
complex, ambiguous

14. DESIGN METHODS
• Design Thinking
• Participatory Co-Design
• Design Doing
• Radical Innovation / Research Through Design
• Design-Led Innovation
• Design Fiction / Speculative Design
• Design Making & Visualization

15. DESIGN THINKING METHOD:
5 – 6 KEY STEPS

16. Design Thinking Process & Workshop Ground Rules
Time: 1 Hr to 5 day Sprint!

17. PART ONE
Understanding the System
ACTIVITY ONE: Individual “Exceptional Moments”
10 mins
1. Sketch a Moment of Exceptional Practice (4 mins)
Recall a special moment of exceptional practice when you were really engaged,
excited, & proud of your work. Take 4 mins to remember & draw this experience. Add
a title, key descriptors (dot points) & your name (optional)
2. Table Share (3 mins)
Share your exceptional experience with the group: what were the common themes?
Pick one story that illustrates the shared themes.
3. Joint Analysis (3 mins): Each table shares one story to the other groups. As a table
respond to the question - What does a great rehab experience at WMH look like? -
Write it down on a sheet for the research team to collect with your drawings to pin to
the walls.
End of Activity: Project Team - Stick Activity Sheets to the Walls.
STEP 0: CREATIVE ICE-BREAKER
– APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY LENS

18. EXAMPLES FROM WM “REHAB” PROJECT
Tversky, B., & Suwa, M. (2009). Thinking with sketches. In A. B. Markman
& K. L. Wood (Eds.), Tools for innovation: The science behind the practical
methods that drive new ideas (p. 75–84). Oxford University Press.

19. EXAMPLES FROM WM “REHAB” PROJECT

20. Empathy is the first step in the DT
process. Daniel Pink (2009) defines it as
“standing in someone else’s shoes,
feeling with his or her heart, seeing
with his or her eyes”.
Nursing scholar Theresa Wiseman
(1996) identifies four key attributes:
(1) to see the world as others see it;
(2) to be non-judgemental;
(3) to understand another’s feelings;
(4) to communicate that
understanding.
STEP 1: EMPATHY / EMPATHISE

21. Personas & Empathy Mapping
WORKSHOP ACTIVITY 1: EMPATHY MAPPING
5 YEAR OLD ANNABELLE
16 YEAR OLD TIFFANY
EMPATHY MAPPING - MRI with cannulation

22. ”
EMPATHY MAPPING -
changes our perspective:
we take off our “shoes”
and put ourselves into
Annabelle & Tiffany’s “shoes”
DOWNLOAD FREE
EMPATHY MAP TEMPLATES
– OR DRAW YOUR OWN GRIDS:
https://www.invisionapp.com/freeha
nd/templates/detail/empathy-map-
template

23. Meet Our Valued Stakeholders
Is it:
• Improved collaboration between GPs &
Hospital clinicians
• Coordinated care in the home with easy
escalation points and use of technology
such as remote patient monitoring
• Decreased time in hospital
What does ‘Care Where you Live’
mean to them?
THE POWER OF EMPATHY MAPPING & A PERSONA – CQ VIRTUAL CARE
PROJECT, PERSONA “ANNE’ – REALLY RESONATED WITH CONSUMER
GEOFF & HIS WIFE, PETA-ANN

24. the definition of a meaningful and actionable problem
statement brings clarity and focus – ensuring everybody
is clear about the goal. A good problem statement is
human-centered and user-focused
STEP 2: DEFINE THE PROBLEM
“how might we create a more comfortable, calm experience”

25. Step 3 in
Design Thinking
IDEATE
Ideation is the mode of the
design process which focuses
on RAPID CREATIVE IDEA
GENERATION. The goal is to
go beyond obvious solutions,
uncovering unexpected areas
of innovation via creative and
curious activities that create
volume and variety in your
innovation ideas and options.

26. Set
Constraints
• Constraints are design
limitations.
An obvious example is
budget – but time, policy
changes or world events are
other examples.
CONSTRAINTS ARE GOOD
FOR INNOVATION
Worst Possible Idea is an ideation method where team members purposefully
seek the worst solutions. The “inverted” search process relaxes them.

27. SCAMPER technique
SETTING CONSTRAINTS FACILITATES CREATIVITY
SCAMPER is an acronym for: Substitute, Combine, Adapt,
Modify/Magnify, Purpose, Eliminate/ Minify, Rearrange/ Reverse.
Eberle, Bob. (1996). Scamper: Games for Imagination Development. Pruforck Press

28. Brainstorm
Cards
SOURCE: https://www.viima.com/blog/idea-generation
FOSTER OUTSIDE THE BOX IDEAS

29. Perspective / Idea /
Theory-Storming
Inspired by Edward De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats
Theory-Storming – Cushing & Miller, 2020
CONSTRAINT
I FREQUENTLY USE
– ALONG WITH TIME - IS
“PERSPECTIVE / THEORY
STORMING HATS” –

30. Putting on Different THEORY HATS –
Theory-Storming in Action – ‘Design a Utopian Place’
Cushing, D.& Miller, E. (2020). Creating Great Places: Evidence-
based urban design for health and wellbeing. Routledge.
QLD DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING,
HOMELESSNESS & SPORT (HHS)

31. C
BEFORE DURING AFTER
PATIENT
CARER/
FAMILY
STAFF
SPACE
TECHNOLOGY
COMMUNICATION
METHOD:
“I like… “ / “I wish… /
What if..? (IL/IW/WI)
IDEATE: HMW create a positive, seamless Rehab Journey for Don
(Ruby) and Clara -
brainstorm potential solutions, on Post-it’s!
Patient’s Journey Map: key touch points,
pain-points & opportunities to improve &
innovate
ACTIVITY
Idea
Storming
- Let’s
Solve It!
IDEAS =
DIFFERENT
COLOR POST-IT
IDEATE
Generate minimum of 10
ideas of what could be
done differently –EACH
ON SEPARATE POST-IT
Each voice is a diff colour: write B / D / A in top left corner; when finished, pin to wall worksheets
20- 30
mins

32. STEP 3: IDEATION
IDEA SHARING, DOT VOTING – TOP VOTED IDEAS, ROOM SHARE

34. Step 4 in Design Thinking:
Prototype
Explore all ideas on wall. Having brainstormed / explore
potential solutions to the problem, now describe, draw, or
make THE BEST / MOST FEASIBLE / MOST DISRUPTIVE –
and present (1 minute) to whole group

35. Pitching Your
Prototype to
the Room
• one minute
• low fidelity – “low-fi”
concepts, illustrating ideas
• pitch your idea (people
have done skits/plays)
• room votes on the winner
(dots or play money*)
*In this CQ project, team had
$1.75M to allocate & decided as
a TEAM ie real-life negotiations

36. WINNERS
Making the process
enjoyable –
my signature:
DESIGN VISIONARY
PAPER HAT
THE HAT OF PLAYFUL INNOVATION

37. Step 5 in Design Thinking: TEST
Step 6 in Design Thinking: ASSESS
qut.design / @evonnephd

38. THE CREATIVE DT PROCESS - FOCUS OR FLARE?
Convergent Thinking:
Improving, Reflecting & Analytical
Divergent Thinking:
Exploring, Discovering & Illogical

40. AND WE ALWAYS START WITH
EMPATHY – WHICH LEDS TO INSIGHT
& DESIGN-LED INNOVATION
We must understand the rehab experience
from the perspective of our patients, and
their families – enter -
Don & Ruby
and Clara

42. Design is action orientated

43. DESIGN THINKING METHOD:
5 – 6 KEY STEPS

44. Design imagination (foresight / futures) embraces uncertainty

45. IMAGINE
What will a procedural
pain journey for
paediatric patients
look like in 2040?
“how much of what we do (or fail to do)
now for children in pain will come to be
seen as unwise, unacceptable, or
unethical in another 40 years? ”
Eccleston et al. (2020). Delivering transformative
action in paediatric pain. The Lancet

46. Let’s start in the future…it’s 2030
20 mins
1. DRAW / SKETCH / ANNOTATE
How the ‘care where you live’ experience is radically different
from now. Use the butcher’s paper with the heading Disrupting
the System: Visions of 2030
Q. How is this experience different for our three personas –
Anne, Dr Carl and Dr Shona? What are people doing differently?
What processes, technologies and systems enable this new
experience?
2. GALLERY WALK AND SHARING
Let’s imagine all the things we dream
about in terms of technology and
personalised care have come true.

48. Design processes can “flush” out fears, hopes, taboos

49. System Analysis:
‘Fears, Hopes, Myths, Legends’ Matrix
System Analysis Matrix (~5 mins)Individually fill in the FHML
matrix using post-it notes from 2 perspectives
1. Staff
2. Patients
THEN PIN UP, AND CIRCULATE

50. BE THE DISRUPTER –
NOT THE DISRUPTED

51. Ride the wave
of change –
with a design-
led approach

53. Design Thinking as a Strategy
for Innovation in Audiology
Professor Evonne Miller – Director, QUT Design Lab @evonnephd