Allen Wang

Kolding Hospital: Waiting Room Experiences

Welfare design project completed during my exchange semester to Designskolen Kolding in 2019. After scoring poorly in the national survey, the head doctor of the Kolding Hospital E.R. tasked us with improving their patient waiting room experience. Our group performed ethnography and interviewed patients, staff, and administrators, then filtered our findings through a gauntlet of experience and systems lenses. We identified communications breakdowns regarding waiting times (and updates in them) caused by disconnected stakeholders which were exacerbated by environmental and systemic factors. Among other ideations, we proposed a dedicated volunteering program for the waiting room to bridge these conflicting expectations—nurturing relationships of trust while operating within budget constraints. Presented in report form so as to demonstrate a thorough schema of both primary research and precedent case studies to hospital policy-makers, the client has “already [had] some thoughts on using volunteers on basis of this well-written document.”

“On my portfolio website, you can find an in-depth explanation and documentation of my thesis as well as its many satellite projects, alongside work in service design, design research, and a kaleidoscope of conceptual explorations. I'd love to hear from you if you have any questions, comments, or feedback—feel free to shoot me an email or connect on LinkedIn!”