Page 90 - Experience Based Co-design - a toolkit for Australia

Persona: The patient has had a sleepless night and is distressed by the noise and activity of the visitors. She calls a stressed staff member and complains. The staff member feels powerless and somewhat annoyed but tries to respond positively.
4. Insert an improvement and experiment with it
To use the scenarios and personas to evolve an improvement, start by inserting the idea into the scenario. For example, the improvement might be a heavy, sound-deadening curtain that closes around a patient’s bed space.
Example: adding an improvement
The patient might ask a visitor to close the curtain for them. Or the staff member might agree that the room is noisy and close the curtain. Or the patient might try to get out of bed and close the curtain themselves.
Each of the variations in the scenario helps you to explore an idea and its implications. For example, a curtain might need to be especially high to help block out noise. It might need a special track to make it easy for a patient to open and close. Its outer face might feature a request for visitors to talk quietly.
Scenarios and personas allow you to experiment, create, learn and evolve your improvement ideas in a realistic way quickly and easily. There are no right or wrong answers, so be brave and explore freely.
5. Document your work
Make sure you document your scenarios and any implications or new ideas. It often helps to have a note-taker observing the ‘scenario team’ as they imagine the scenario, so the latter can concentrate fully on this.
The scenario template can be used to develop a comprehensive range of scenarios and personas that explore an issue or improvement idea fully.
OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
Make your scenarios and personas realistic. Be consistent with the scenario and persona – don’t ‘change the rules’ halfway.
Go for extreme scenarios and personas, using these to amplify the pros and cons of a problem, its possible solutions and the implications of these.
Make your sessions relaxed and fun. Encourage experimenting and playing with different options. Prevent any judgement about whether an idea is right or wrong – just try it out and see what happens.
If you can, use role-plays rather than just discussion. Even very simple role-plays are useful. Are you shy or reluctant? Be brave!
Adapted with permission from healthcodesign.org.nz