Macro Unit Week Two

Brief: Design a way for people to manage complex risk together

Methods: Directed storytelling

Initial Team: Qibin Cheng, Harry Solomons, Ruoxi Song, Wan Li;

Smaller Team: Mo Bekkouri, Roshni Suri, Yanxu Chen, myself

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The tutors had insisted that focussing on cars and healthcare could be an interesting twist, to play within the areas of Axa's knowledge and experiences, then become darker and more weird. The tutors weren't wrong, it might be an interesting tactic, so we opted to proceed on this basis, and split the team into these groups. What we didn't fully appreciate at the time was how much of a setback it would be to dismiss the research already undertaken and start again.

Initial brainstorm of health risks and potential ways of managing these risks. By author.

Initial research into AI and healthcare taught us about exploitation of patients, aid to doctors, and gave us an insight into different demographics and their use of healthcare.

Review of current articles about AI. Image by author

The insights we gained from our research on healthcare and AI were:

There are wide and varied uses of AI already in use within the healthcare domain, and many predicted uses, which means AI will become more integrated into the healthcare system at every level.

AI in healthcare has significant benefits for the healthcare professionals, less so for the patients, who could be subjected to bias or harm.

The over 65's tend to use their GP and pharmacy services, as well as community care more than any other healthcare services, which rely on human contact more than technology.

After reviewing the data, we looked for links between what we had learned, and where we saw potential risks. We made assumptions about the over 65's, such as they may have more challenges with access to healthcare and yet more need of it, and furthermore, a lesser understanding of AI in general. This became the basis of our project.

Design a way for people to manage complex risk together. People: The elderly (65yo +) Complex Risk: Technology (AI) within access to healthcare A 'way': TBD

Directed storytelling was chosen as our research method, as it would give us situational information on the older people's experiences, and be more comfortable for them to have a conversation rather than answer a survey.

Clips from interviews recorded with permission. Recorded and assembled by author.

The three main insights we received were:

There is concern about not seeing doctors in the future; the older people do not trust technology and prefer human contact to diagnose and reassure them.

In the last 40 years, technology in general has changed at a pace which makes the older generation fearful, because they cannot keep up with it, and they are behind left behind.

The participants all noted that technology was becoming more prominent in all aspects of life, and this would be good for younger generations; they don't hate the fact that the developments are happening, but the benefits for them are slim.

Our main outcome from the research process revolved around the idea that many different forms of technology concerns the older people; laptops, mobile phones, AI, internet, emails - they all come under the umbrella of 'technology', and to many, they are all an undifferentiated unknown. This result means a slight reframing of the brief from 'AI' to 'technology' in general, which better aligns with the access to healthcare approach, as AI involvement here isn't widely implemented.

Our progress presentation outlined the research and insights, however the multiple instances of re-defining or re-specifying the elements of the brief has meant that we haven’t been able to reach the target we had set for ourselves. I am starting to feel that the Axa brief doesn't have a tangible goal comparative to pluriversal objects, engagement methods with the public or transmedia campaign, and this is hindering the process of actually getting started on our design work.