This practical design project explores how healthcare interactions change when patients are expected, invited, or enabled to take a more active role in diagnostic and care-related processes.
The course begins with theoretical and critical perspectives on autonomy and HCI in healthcare. Rather than treating autonomy as a simple matter of doing things alone, we approach it as a situated and relational design concern that involves not only agency and authenticity, but also questions of dependence, interdependence, responsibility, and care. Building on these discussions, students will work individually or in small groups to develop exploratory design concepts through iterative prototyping, reflection, and informal evaluation.
Rather than designing finished medical systems, the course investigates how interactive technologies might support patients in ways that are meaningful, responsible, and non-patronizing. Drawing on perspectives from Positive Design and wellbeing-oriented HCI, students will critically explore how healthcare technologies can support not only task completion, but also confidence, reflection, and meaningful engagement with one’s own health.
- Dozent/in: Christian Spengler