A human-centred design strategy for self-training healthcare service among visually impaired persons

Abstract

Challenges faced by healthcare services for visually impaired persons are becoming increasingly complex. There is a lack of interventions for people in the transitional stage of blindness (the process of vision loss). The present study described a human-centred design approach to help visually impaired persons to better adapt to the transitional stage. Fifteen visually impaired persons and their relatives were interviewed to understand user behaviors and need in the empathize phase. After discussing with stakeholders, we defined user personas and problem statements. In the ideate phase, a healthcare service, including a self-training space and a health management app, was developed to help visually impaired persons to train their auditory, tactile, and directional walking abilities in different environments through sensory compensation. The results showed a high usability score, which revealed how the human-centred design approach could help visually impaired persons to train themselves during the transitional stage effectively.