skip to Main Content
design lab don norman healthcare designforward

San Diego is Getting Serious About Healthcare Design

San Diego is Getting Serious About Healthcare Design

San Diego is Getting Serious About Healthcare Design

In June 2017, San Diego hosted two of the largest annual healthcare conventions – the American Diabetes Association and BIO Interactive. In the wake of these meetings, it’s more obvious than ever that if any of these companies want to succeed, they need to be better at incorporating human-centered design into their businesses.

Here’s why.

Diabetes technology companies want to make it easier for people with diabetes to manage daily life. Said Bigfoot Biomedical CEO Jeffrey Brewer, “We are a new diabetes consumer company aiming to provide access for people of all kinds of skill levels. That means we need to put the consumer at the center, and rather than offering something general, we need to offer something personalized.” The CEOs of Dexcom and Qualcomm Life also talked about the critical nature of being more consumer-friendly and focused.

“We are about connected technology,” said CEO of Qualcomm Life Rick Valencia. “We believe the smartphone should be the remote control for managing everyday health. We want to enable people to get diagnosed faster, get better faster. That means we need to focus on usability and engagement. How do you get patients to engage regularly? I don’t know. We are trying to figure that out. We are looking to successful consumer technology companies to help us better design for engagement.”

Examples of consumer technology companies with human-centered design at the core of their businesses: Instagram (sold for $1 billion to Facebook after being in market for less than two years — now with ~600 million active monthly accounts), Opower (sold for $532 million to Oracle in 2016 — currently enabling 100 global utilities), and Ebay (increased the number of active user accounts from 90 million to 169 million between 2010-2017).

One health technology company that embraces human centered design is GE Healthcare, which was founded on the work principles of Thomas Edison. “Edison understood that in order to use something, it had to be useful, it had to be usable,” said Bob Schwartz, General Manager of Global Design at GE Healthcare. “We prototype things very quickly at very low resolution. We have a bias towards action. We always have an eye toward what we have to deliver; and what we have to deliver is value to customers. The patient is the ultimate customer.”

Healthcare has unique industry challenges, though, because it’s not just about designing for engagement, but also developing a model that the healthcare system can pay for that people will stay engaged in.

Really Complex Problems

The Director of the Design Lab at UC San Diego, Dr. Don Norman, says his team is focused on complex, socio-technical systems. “These really complex problems don’t have obvious answers. There isn’t one solution. But we can certainly make headway, we can make improvements, and so part of what we are trying to do is understand how to take simple steps and make things better.”

Human-centered design is what the Design Lab does: healthcare is one of its core problem areas, and the Lab is working with several departments in the medical school and hospital system, as well as and major medical companies, foundations, and government granting agencies. For example, the Design Lab works with the National Cancer Institute, and is forging partnerships with local companies like Dexcom. “Healthcare,” says Norman, “is an example of something without a simple solution. Healthcare grew over time to form the unorganized, somewhat chaotic combination of government policy and regulation, political forces, medical systems and independent practicing physicians, insurance plans, and the complicity of multiple specialties and clinics, all trying to work together. Yet the system has fundamental contradictions. Although there are no simple solutions, it is possible to make progress, piece by piece.”

The San Diego Scene

While San Diego has always been a leader in biotech and life sciences, there’s more consumer-focused healthcare design activity around the city these days. Example start-up companies include Clarify MedicalCureMatch, and Reflexion Health.
In the Fall, the city will host the second DesignForward Summit, for the purpose of strengthening local and global communities through human-centered design. The event is part of an effort to establish San Diego as a global hub of design innovation. Here’s to the future.

In June 2017, San Diego hosted two of the largest annual healthcare conventions – the American Diabetes Association and BIO Interactive. In the wake of these meetings, it’s more obvious than ever that if any of these companies want to succeed, they need to be better at incorporating human-centered design into their businesses.

Here’s why.

Diabetes technology companies want to make it easier for people with diabetes to manage daily life. Said Bigfoot Biomedical CEO Jeffrey Brewer, “We are a new diabetes consumer company aiming to provide access for people of all kinds of skill levels. That means we need to put the consumer at the center, and rather than offering something general, we need to offer something personalized.” The CEOs of Dexcom and Qualcomm Life also talked about the critical nature of being more consumer-friendly and focused.

“We are about connected technology,” said CEO of Qualcomm Life Rick Valencia. “We believe the smartphone should be the remote control for managing everyday health. We want to enable people to get diagnosed faster, get better faster. That means we need to focus on usability and engagement. How do you get patients to engage regularly? I don’t know. We are trying to figure that out. We are looking to successful consumer technology companies to help us better design for engagement.”

Examples of consumer technology companies with human-centered design at the core of their businesses: Instagram (sold for $1 billion to Facebook after being in market for less than two years — now with ~600 million active monthly accounts), Opower (sold for $532 million to Oracle in 2016 — currently enabling 100 global utilities), and Ebay (increased the number of active user accounts from 90 million to 169 million between 2010-2017).

One health technology company that embraces human centered design is GE Healthcare, which was founded on the work principles of Thomas Edison. “Edison understood that in order to use something, it had to be useful, it had to be usable,” said Bob Schwartz, General Manager of Global Design at GE Healthcare. “We prototype things very quickly at very low resolution. We have a bias towards action. We always have an eye toward what we have to deliver; and what we have to deliver is value to customers. The patient is the ultimate customer.”

Healthcare has unique industry challenges, though, because it’s not just about designing for engagement, but also developing a model that the healthcare system can pay for that people will stay engaged in.

Really Complex Problems

The Director of the Design Lab at UC San Diego, Dr. Don Norman, says his team is focused on complex, socio-technical systems. “These really complex problems don’t have obvious answers. There isn’t one solution. But we can certainly make headway, we can make improvements, and so part of what we are trying to do is understand how to take simple steps and make things better.”

Human-centered design is what the Design Lab does: healthcare is one of its core problem areas, and the Lab is working with several departments in the medical school and hospital system, as well as and major medical companies, foundations, and government granting agencies. For example, the Design Lab works with the National Cancer Institute, and is forging partnerships with local companies like Dexcom. “Healthcare,” says Norman, “is an example of something without a simple solution. Healthcare grew over time to form the unorganized, somewhat chaotic combination of government policy and regulation, political forces, medical systems and independent practicing physicians, insurance plans, and the complicity of multiple specialties and clinics, all trying to work together. Yet the system has fundamental contradictions. Although there are no simple solutions, it is possible to make progress, piece by piece.”

The San Diego Scene

While San Diego has always been a leader in biotech and life sciences, there’s more consumer-focused healthcare design activity around the city these days. Example start-up companies include Clarify MedicalCureMatch, and Reflexion Health.
In the Fall, the city will host the second DesignForward Summit, for the purpose of strengthening local and global communities through human-centered design. The event is part of an effort to establish San Diego as a global hub of design innovation. Here’s to the future.

In June 2017, San Diego hosted two of the largest annual healthcare conventions – the American Diabetes Association and BIO Interactive. In the wake of these meetings, it’s more obvious than ever that if any of these companies want to succeed, they need to be better at incorporating human-centered design into their businesses.

Here’s why.

Diabetes technology companies want to make it easier for people with diabetes to manage daily life. Said Bigfoot Biomedical CEO Jeffrey Brewer, “We are a new diabetes consumer company aiming to provide access for people of all kinds of skill levels. That means we need to put the consumer at the center, and rather than offering something general, we need to offer something personalized.” The CEOs of Dexcom and Qualcomm Life also talked about the critical nature of being more consumer-friendly and focused.

“We are about connected technology,” said CEO of Qualcomm Life Rick Valencia. “We believe the smartphone should be the remote control for managing everyday health. We want to enable people to get diagnosed faster, get better faster. That means we need to focus on usability and engagement. How do you get patients to engage regularly? I don’t know. We are trying to figure that out. We are looking to successful consumer technology companies to help us better design for engagement.”

Examples of consumer technology companies with human-centered design at the core of their businesses: Instagram (sold for $1 billion to Facebook after being in market for less than two years — now with ~600 million active monthly accounts), Opower (sold for $532 million to Oracle in 2016 — currently enabling 100 global utilities), and Ebay (increased the number of active user accounts from 90 million to 169 million between 2010-2017).

One health technology company that embraces human centered design is GE Healthcare, which was founded on the work principles of Thomas Edison. “Edison understood that in order to use something, it had to be useful, it had to be usable,” said Bob Schwartz, General Manager of Global Design at GE Healthcare. “We prototype things very quickly at very low resolution. We have a bias towards action. We always have an eye toward what we have to deliver; and what we have to deliver is value to customers. The patient is the ultimate customer.”

Healthcare has unique industry challenges, though, because it’s not just about designing for engagement, but also developing a model that the healthcare system can pay for that people will stay engaged in.

Really Complex Problems

The Director of the Design Lab at UC San Diego, Dr. Don Norman, says his team is focused on complex, socio-technical systems. “These really complex problems don’t have obvious answers. There isn’t one solution. But we can certainly make headway, we can make improvements, and so part of what we are trying to do is understand how to take simple steps and make things better.”

Human-centered design is what the Design Lab does: healthcare is one of its core problem areas, and the Lab is working with several departments in the medical school and hospital system, as well as and major medical companies, foundations, and government granting agencies. For example, the Design Lab works with the National Cancer Institute, and is forging partnerships with local companies like Dexcom. “Healthcare,” says Norman, “is an example of something without a simple solution. Healthcare grew over time to form the unorganized, somewhat chaotic combination of government policy and regulation, political forces, medical systems and independent practicing physicians, insurance plans, and the complicity of multiple specialties and clinics, all trying to work together. Yet the system has fundamental contradictions. Although there are no simple solutions, it is possible to make progress, piece by piece.”

The San Diego Scene

While San Diego has always been a leader in biotech and life sciences, there’s more consumer-focused healthcare design activity around the city these days. Example start-up companies include Clarify MedicalCureMatch, and Reflexion Health.
In the Fall, the city will host the second DesignForward Summit, for the purpose of strengthening local and global communities through human-centered design. The event is part of an effort to establish San Diego as a global hub of design innovation. Here’s to the future.

Read Next

Don Norman debates John Maeda of Automattic, the company behind WordPress

In January, world-renown executive, designer and technologist, John Maeda, and a team of 25 people…

How To Reduce Obesity Among Latino Children

How to Reduce Obesity among Latino Children, with Precision

UC San Diego and community collaborators receive $3 million grant to develop more community-centered, precision approaches to reducing adverse childhood events that lead to obesity, a nationwide problem

“Working with the Latino community, we want to create a family-based approach to improve individual and community resilience to stress and address the obesity epidemic,” said lead principal investigator Gary S. Firestein, MD, Distinguished Professor of Medicine and ACTRI director.

Blanca Meléndrez, director of the Center for Community Health at UC San Diego and a co-principal investigator on the study with Eric Hekler, PhD, Design Lab member, professor and interim associate dean for community partnerships in the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health, said that beyond determining which methods best promote resiliency and reduce obesity among children, researchers and community collaborators will seek to create interventions that can be delivered to different families that match a family’s unique circumstances and needs.
Ucsd Logo Design Lab

Message from Don Norman on Power and Prejudice

A message from Don Norman, Director of the Design Lab, regarding the protests, violence following George Floyd’s death
UCSD Giving Day

Giving Day Begins Now. Support the Design Lab Today

Through the integration of education, research and community development, The Design Lab is committed to advancing the best practices needed to solve the world's complex problems through the lens of human-centered design.  One way we do this is through our thriving Design@Large speaker series.  Via conversations with distinguished academic, industry, and community design leaders, Design@Large showcases the ever-evolving, interdisciplinary nature of design as applied in real world contexts.  Today we are asking for your specific help to continue to build and grow this popular series which is open to all.
Design Lab Connect2health National Cancer Institute

UC San Diego Design Lab Joins FCC, NCI to Champion Critical Role of Broadband in Rural Cancer Care

The Federal Communications Commission’s Connect2Health Task Force (C2HFCC) announced last week that the FCC and the…

Don Norman Interview Design Usability

“I Think We Have to Start Over”: Usability Guru Don Norman on the Next Internet

"I think we have to start over. And we may need very separate networks. The notion that there is one network that is for everything maybe is wrong. We used to have separate networks. They were, in fact, determined by the technology. Hence radio was different than telephones, which was different than television, which was different than printed books. And today we say, “Nah, it’s all information,” and that this isn’t that neat, because on the internet you can do all of that. Well, OK. But the content is really what’s important, not the technology or the way it’s distributed. And I would love to find a different scheme where people are controlling their own data." - Don Norman
Back To Top