How to really listen to the end users of services, also in healthcare

Abstract

When purchasing a good or service, but also a digital product, we rarely pause to ask questions about what process led to its creation and how it was structured. In other words, does the designer of a product/service really have in mind who the end users, the actual users, will be?

The starting point is the assumption that in order to design correctly, it is necessary to adapt products to people and not vice versa, that this can only be done through a profound knowledge of the users, and that in order to achieve this, their direct participation is indispensable. User participation can take place at any stage of the design process: they are consulted at the beginning of the process, to assess whether the proposal meets their needs, they are consulted to understand their objectives and requirements, and they can also be consulted to submit prototypes and usability tests of the system to them.