Getting to Know You

"It's a very ancient saying,
But a true and honest thought,
That if you become a teacher,
By your pupils you'll be taught.”

This quote from Anna and the King gives a good idea of my experience last year when I began the ethnographic research phase for my MA dissertation project. My role was most certainly not that of teacher or preacher, but it is undoubtedly true that what the children I was working with taught me made it possible for me to arrive at my final design – and much more.

My MA project was the first time I approached children from a design point of view. I wanted to design ‘something’ for children in hospital, but didn’t actually know much about them. Suffice to say I was overwhelmed, and therefore decided to tackle my chosen user group from afar – specifically, from a library... As I began constructing a rough idea in my head about what a child is like, and what hospitalization can mean for a child, I soon understood that if hospitalization can be traumatizing for an adult, it can be even more so for a child. I decided to make understanding why hospitalization can be so difficult for a child, and why a design approach for adults is different from one for children, my two main objectives. 

What struck me the most during this research phase is the attested theory that children often feel deeply rejected by their family and friends when they are left in hospital, especially when visiting hours are over. Their physical detachment from their daily habits and routines can also put their newly-formed identities under great strain, compromising their future formation. 

Another aspect is that smaller children do not have the linguistic tools to express their feelings.  If children must go through difficult and traumatizing experiences and are unable to express their feelings and thoughts, it can often cause a scission between what these children are truly feeling and how they are perceived from the outside, which often means that the child is misunderstood by the medical staff and by his/her family members.

I eventually arrived to the conclusion that the lack of appropriate stimuli during hospitalization, the feeling of abandonment, and the inability of expressing complicated feelings successfully, can lead to two things: a dysfunctional reaction by these children towards their illness and the development of an extremely negative attitude towards medical staff and therapy in general.  Therefore, I decided that my design intervention had to address both the complexity of the suffering that children experience when hospitalized as well as their difficulty in expressing themselves towards the adults in such an environment.   

My next step was to move out of the library and into hospital.  I decided to go visit the pediatric ward of a hospital close to home so that I could see with my own eyes if what I had speculated upon was true and in what ways children deal with the experience of hospitalization. At first I was not able to gain direct access to the children but could only watch them in the presence of a play therapist or child psychologist, while keeping a journal and photographing what they played with. This phase nevertheless proved to be very important since it allowed me to spend a great deal of time with the medical staff who helped deepen my understanding of children and to notice specific behaviors of which up until then I had only read of.

When all the bureaucratic work was over, which surprisingly took only about a month (I was told that I had to wait three) I was able to interact directly with the children. I had by then understood that children do not like talking about their experience in hospital, and that all games get quite boring after a while. I quickly adjusted, letting them decide what to do during our time together and it was soon obvious that drawing seemed to be the one thing that would never tire them.

I therefore used colorful drawing materials to catalyze our conversations, and after a long while was able to gain their trust. Understandingly, what they missed most was their mother, as well as their family in general. Many children enjoyed drawing animals and nature scenes and said that they missed interacting with what was going on outside the hospital, the variety offered by everyday life.

In the end, the unstructured and spontaneous sessions helped me uncover these children's needs without invading their privacy. They helped me collect first-handedly opinions and views of their experience in hospital, and come across nuances that don't transpire while reading a text book.

Most importantly, such a very intimate and touching experience with these astounding children really helped me appreciate what I was doing (even if only an MA project), and to understand how designers have great responsibility towards who they are designing for. It also enabled me to focus the design process on what was really needed and what could really be applied, rather than jump at a fancy idea that sounded good.  More important of all, the experience really enriched me from a human point of view and donated me the basics for a better and respectful understanding of children.

“Haven't you noticed
Suddenly I'm bright and breezy?
Because of all the beautiful and new
Things I'm learning about you
Day by day.”