A new shared language around human-first technology, wellness & health.
In order to make sense of this shape-shifting era, fueled by advances in technology, driven by an increased anxiety (with a hyper-focus on wellbeing), design professionals will need to transform into interdisciplinary researchers. Where does one begin?
Evidence-based design (EBD) is nothing new, it is the process of constructing a building or physical environment based on scientific research to achieve the best possible outcomes. While evidence-based design is imperative to develop and scale successful wellness initiatives, research in the wellness sector remains confusing and more often than not, inconclusive.
With thousands of journal articles, books, magazine and newspaper articles, conference proceedings, and a plethora of contradicting studies, it can be frustrating and overwhelming to conduct literature reviews. Designers need to become true interdisciplinary, able to analyse, assess and apply research. To create evidence based design one needs an understanding of the research process itself. This must then be viewed through a lens of human understanding and an awareness of cultural and market need. Insight from scientific research can guide, inform and support design but if the data isn’t relevant, it becomes useless to a designer seeking to apply new knowledge in the real world.
Evidence-based designers must use critical thinking to make rational inferences from a pool of information that will rarely fit precisely with their unique design situation.
When done right, evidence-based projects should and will result in demonstrated improvements in the organisation’s measures of human, economic, productivity, employee/guest satisfaction, or cultural success. At Arigami, we wanted to take this opportunity to support the retail and innovation design community by sharing our best practices on how to apply wellness and evidence-based research into your retail design initiatives.
Wellness lacks a singular definition. Wellness is different from health. It transcends the absence of disease, Furthermore, wellness is different from wellbeing. Wellbeing is the balance-point between an individual’s resources and challenges. Additionally, wellness should not be confused with quality of life (QOL), which involves an individual’s subjective perspective of his or her health and function in physical, psychological, social, and cognitive domains.
It is important to establish a clear definition to minimise variability when assessing wellness in design. It is essential for this working definition to include specific dimensions that can be measured. Wellness is an evolving process toward achieving one’s full potential; it is positive/affirming and holistic, and encompasses lifestyle, spiritual occupational, financial and environment wellbeing domains. Wellness encompasses physical, mental, and social domains and thus health is dependent on sufficient wellness.
Critical interpretation of the evidence’s relevance is vital to the project's success. The most effective path to creating a stress-reducing environment is to inform design decisions by research. In recent years, neuroscience has provided considerable insight into how the immune system can be suppressed or enhanced by a variety of interventions, and feelings are inseparable from biochemistry. Emotions drive actions.
What we perceive, think, and how well we cope are all set in motion by messages from the brain to the rest of the body. Our brains are writing a prescription for our bodies every minute of every day. Our experience in this field reveals the need among the design community to develop a consensus on defining wellness to complement emotional wellbeing. Such a consensus will drive the development and validation of much needed more precise methods to measure and assess wellness. This will unlock superior marketing potential and market value with independently verified outcome measurements for specific design programmes and services.
Building-in commercial milestones within the research map allows designers to use the best available credible evidence from a variety of sources at any given time in the project. It’s important to emphasise to designers the need to fuse commercial and research strategies under one vision. The key here is to break the linear chain in which current academic research operates and find new ways to amplify the benefits research has to offer by embedding commercial needs or questions into the research process. Research design can independently feed crucial information to decision makers across communications, service design, product design, HR and legal departments.
Recognising and responding to the unique context of each project with a congruent commercial and research strategy, enables designers to make informed decisions with more precision, throughout the life of a project. At Arigami we developed a framework for brands seeking an ecosystem of wellness solutions. This includes optimising research findings at every stage in order to promote education and awareness, create digital solutions, workflow and HR integration, and a cross-departmental value system.
Prototype validation makes it as easy as possible for clients and investors to have confidence in the design partners and suppliers they choose to work with. The feedback and information you gather from prototype testing is crucial in implementing and launching impactful wellness solutions. The faster you prototype, the faster you can test, improve, and launch into the market.
The future of design thinking will evolve from living labs that facilitate rapid prototyping as an opportunity to enhance your design project into an intuitive and user- focused ecosystem. Installing or collaborating on living labs helps designers sell smarter and purchasers buy with more confidence. Simply put, we can show data from a spectrum of lenses, in real-time, that empower design choices. We use critical thinking to interpret the implications of the research on design decisions and the transitions of users. To accelerate and optimise R&D, effectively bringing evidence-based research out of the lab and back to the forefront of commercial strategy and decision-making.
To evolve, designers and brands must go beyond aesthetics… deep diving into a range of scientific research areas to inform, validate and drive relevant design innovation.
Behavioural psychology, neuroscience, and circadian science and many more are areas of huge scientific advancement, vital to be understood and researched by those with an interest in achieving spaces that promote wellbeing and human connection. Designers should be using this time to understand the research landscape and how to critically apply new insight to the emerging global challenges. We have a lot of work to do, bringing communities together and rebuilding a stronger and safer world. We urge you to be a part of this exciting wellness movement by using an evidence-based approach that celebrates the best parts about being human.
Arigami is a research and innovation consultancy focused on wellbeing. We help our partners strategise, validate and measure wellbeing. We believe the industry must evolve, and with nimble research, we can maximise the impact of wellbeing strategies. It’s time to work together to transform hospitality into the leading industry combating anxiety and stress and improving the health of travellers globally.