Greyspace

Philips Healthcare
Imagining far-future scenarios to deliver today’s healthcare services better

THE BRIEF

We were asked to design for debate and think about challenges and opportunities that might emerge over a 30-year horizon. The purpose was to inspire product innovations by exploring the fundamentals of human happiness across different healthcare scenarios and understanding the consequences, transitions, and transformations to the delivery of at-home healthcare.

To trigger discussion within their organisation, we guided Philips Healthcare and The Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design (CIID) through our future-focused innovation sprint to explore the positive and negative implications of healthcare for people suffering from chronic immobility in 30 years. This process used ethnographic studies and a review of emerging technologies to envision future scenarios and design speculative products and services.

OUR EXPERTISE

– Trend Insights
– Scenarios
– Product Visions
– Strategic Partnership

Scenario 1: TruSense, share your mental and physical state with your immediate environment
“I wish someone would know when I’m not feeling right, without me needing to talk about my health”
Scenario 2: Edible Emotions, imprinting new food types with emotion
“I wish you could experience what 30 years of guilt feels like; you’d never pick up a cigarette”
Scenario 3: MindSync, exchange ideas and thoughts through touch when you can’t find the words
“It’s hard to talk about myself; I just want to let someone know what’s going on with me right now”
Scenario 4: Eyerizon, renting a body when it’s not in use to experience the city virtually
“I just want to be able to pick up my granddaughter from school sometimes”

THE OUTPUTS

50 expert interviews with target groups to explore technological advancements and social implications.

20 design probes and prototypes to need-find and question assumptions.

4 video scenarios to share stories of people’s future lives and the possible roles that Philips Healthcare might have.

Design probes allowed people to suspend disbelief and imagine themselves in new ways
We used people-centred research to ground our futures thinking in current challenges

The impacts

The films, prototypes, and research guided discussions within Philips’ leadership team so they could address the moral, practical and strategic implications. The opportunities and challenges were investigated further within Philips’ design and leadership teams before being integrated into their strategic roadmap.

The CIID team gained hands-on experience integrating futures-thinking within a people-centred design process. This directly impacted way they individually and collectively approached future design briefs.