Change
The increase in staff working from home has required an investment in hardware as well as an adaptation to working on mobile devices. This has generally been facilitated in giving staff company laptops and, in the case of mainstream healthcare, a requirement to make this practice secure in order to protect sensitive information. Remote working systems need to be robust enough for the task of general work that includes administration and access to sensitive information; it is also required that it is able to deliver essential mandatory training that ensures healthcare workers are fully compliant, and are reassured that their practice is safe. This is ultimately a critical requirement of the CQC.
The Technologist
Technologists know that users will be accessing training content on a variety of devices and under very varied circumstances. They know that design is a powerful communication tool and vehicle which can deliver lessons, instruction lectures, tutorials, mentoring to learners in a way that contributes to classroom and blended learning sessions and at times replaces all together. To do effectively, design/development technologists need to access to design tools that are specifically designed to produce design content.
Tools
Delivering professional, easy to read, effective and appropriately communicated training courses efficiently, to healthcare professionals potentially requires a new set of tools, ones that are not necessarily windows based bu can work within current systems. Anyone who remembers the Betamax/VHS battle and has experience of Microsoft/Apple market battles, knows just how clunky and frustrating this can be.
To deliver professional content an fully utilise the technologists skillset and experience it is essential that they have access to industry based tools. This might include creative cloud and other mobile apps or create cloud and Procreate. Unity Game / unreal engine is essential for more immersive XD (VR/AR/MR) training content (although walking before one can run springs to mind) which could be remote or site located.
It could be said that these tools can be used on windows/android devices. This is partially true, but not entirely. The Apple Pencil, the iPad Pro and the way in which Adobe create cloud and Apple connect devices and apps together with cloud storage is pretty much how a designer has grown up. They use these tools like the back of their hand and although things like unity/unreal are new tools to the mix, they export to all platforms, using devices like the new iPad Pro’s camera setup to cast an array that detects walls and surfaces etc.
Although iOS devices are not as easy to tinker with from a technical perspective, they work well for design practice.
Methods
Finally, the way in which designers work can be pretty alien to an office that has a hierarchical structure and a linear ‘command’ based approach to working. The Agile approach to project management is a cyclical iterative process that includes all stakeholders and conducts user testing throughout the process. Passing work to stakeholders early on in the process makes the final product better, fit for purpose and is better for everyone. To a waterfall worker, the process can be perceived quite negatively as they have issued a command so why is it just not being delivered? It can be, but the finalised master copy might have to be rewritten many times, creating more work and loss of confidence all round when using the waterfall method. In industry one may offer 2 final edits but additional edits would come at a cost. The scrum project management methodology is one which is often used and is one in which everyone within the team has equal status. There is no ‘boss’, there is a scrum master whose job it is to help the team communicate and identify blockers that the whole team works to solve. The product owner, user testers, the scrum master, the administration, the design team are all one organism.
A solution
To solve these many challenges requires commitment and goodwill. All stakeholders need to be invested in solving the many challenges that arise when a company/institution is evolving into a functional technological system that can evolve in an environment of rapid future technological change.
The system needs to be agile and adaptable which requires investment. Investment in hardware, software and specialists as well as the necessary communications, education and training to bring people along on the journey within the organisations transformational change.
Reflection
I need remain adaptable and work with the limited tools available while continuing to improve my industry based skills my own projects.