D E S I G N
P R I N C I P L E S
How iESE is using design principles
iESE has been using design principles to inform its own product design. Here we look at how design has helped shape two upcoming products - a new Case Management System for the social care sector and Alchemy, an online networking platform for public sector professionals.
W
hen iESE was imaging how a new Case Management System (CMS) could revolutionise social work and the way client records are kept it realised input from a wide range of stakeholders was key. Using expert help from service designer Molly Balcom Raleigh, iESE sought to involve users from all areas of care service delivery and create a set of design principles which would underpin the project. According to Balcom Raleigh, if you get the design principles right, the work required to create the product or service should unfold from the principles and provide high-level metrics for evaluating the work because they allow you to assess whether you achieved your goals. “The design principles capture what you understand from your user research as most important to achieve and embody in the service or product you’re creating. In articulating those aspirations, you are also encoding the ability to evaluate the outcomes,” she explains. The reimagined CMS currently being designed and built by iESE aims to give access to real time information from multiple stakeholders, including the recipient of care, allowing social workers to make more informed decisions, spend less time
4
inputting data and more time with their clients. “Our design principles have been developed through an iterative process of understanding the problem space, and the key to that is including as many stakeholders in the problem space as possible,” she explains. “You can’t really have design principles from three people sitting at a table, they are the accumulated wisdom of the user research that is understood through collecting and analysing many perspectives on the problem.” There are currently four underlying design principles for the CMS (see the slides opposite). They are top level statements, which anyone working on the project should be able to remember, and then there is a further explanation which drills down to the next level and what they mean. The four top level statements are:
2. CMS 2030 tells the right stories. 3. CMS 2030 empowers people who use care services.
! "! ! ! ! ! ! ! " ! ! ! ! ! ! " !
" !! ! "! ! ! !
! " ! ! !
!
4. CMS 2030 supports social workers, as they are, and as they will be.
an online interactive publication
% " ! # $ ! #! ! ! " $ ! ! ! " $#"! #! ! " $#! $ " " $ #$ $ $ $$ " $#"! #!
1. CMS 2030 is a trusted partner in the work.
%$#"! ! " " $ $ " " ! " " ! " " $ ! " $ $ $ ! $ $ " ! ! " ! $#! $ "
$ " $ $ " $ " #! ! $ $ ! $ " " $ #! $ ! ! $ $ " " "
w w w. i e s e . o r g . u k
" # ! " # &%$#"! % "$ % $ % % $ %!% #$"! #!! " % & % # # "! %%! # # " % &%$#"! % % % # ! " # # # # "! # ! " # % % %! # # # "!
& " " " " # % " " "$ #$ " $" " #!# %%! " $ " % % $ $ %!% #$ ! " %% ! " " " # "
Four underlying design principles for the CMS.
i e s e Tr a n s f o r m i s s u e 2 7
