Transform the Experience Through Design!

‘When you design for meaning, good things will happen.’ says Doug Dietz.

Doug Dietz, working for GE Healthcare, designed the MRI machine.

He was very proud of what they did as a team until he saw a little girl having an emotional breakdown around the MRI machine room.

The MRI machine’s appearance was so terrifying for a child. She almost froze when she entered the room. Her parents were trying to persuade her desperately.

Dietz realized that they focused on creating an excellent functioning product but missed the point about the experience it delivers: How will the users feel?

Have you ever heard of experience design?

Experience design is an approach to creating interaction for human experience. The design includes all the aspects of experience between user and product, such as usefulness, desirability, or overall performance. However, experience design is not just about making it easy to use or enjoyable. For example, no matter how easy and fast making a payment on a website, if you do not feel safe during the process, it cannot be called a successful design because it’s how it feels that matters.

The design can only be successful if you place the human being at the heart of the design. Because the first condition for a great design is to look with the eyes of the users, which is to have empathy. It is what Doug Dietz and his team missed while creating the MRI machine.

After witnessing the stressful experience in the hospital, Dietz wondered how they could create a better experience. How can an MRI machine deliver a fun experience to children? They turn the MRI machines into Jungle Adventure, Cable Car, Pirate Island…

What happened then?

• The number of kids needing sedation dropped from 80% to 27%.
• The time to get a child on the table dropped from 10 min to 1 min.

Another little girl who had this fun experience asked her mom: “Can we come back tomorrow?” 🙂 

The secret is empathizing with the users, focusing on experience, and designing for meaning!

If you are someone who would like to leave a real mark with the work you do, we highly recommend you hear Doug Dietz’s story.

TED LINK: Transforming healthcare for children and their families: Doug Dietz at TEDxSanJoseCA 2012

If you like to hear more inspiring stories like this one, look at this remarkable book: “The Power of Moments” by Dan Heath and Chip Heath.

Photo: Pexels