HOMEOSTASIS SANATORIS
CO-CREATION PROJECT
Homeostasis sanatoris is an analogy to disease. It is a product designed for the welfare of the patient to accompany and complement traditional treatments of conventional medicine. The intention of Homeostasis sanatoris is to allow the person to reflect on their personal process with the disease, reflected in the interaction with the elements of the product. It is an object that generates balance that facilitates dialogue between patients and doctors through analogies. The analogies symbolize the process we go through through illness and symptoms to regain the balance our body needs.
This project was born as a critique of modern medicine that uses diagnostic techniques to identify and suppress symptoms in order to cure, assuming the symptoms as the complete disease. However, these techniques ignore the relationship between mind and body, and how emotions catalyze healing or illness. Therefore, our goal is to develop a meaning-based product to trigger reflection on illness, supporting healing processes taking into account the emotional and mental fields.
Recognizing the different dimensions of the human being, and not only the body part, allows us to expand the tools to travel the path that the disease presents us. Identifying our emotions and the effect they have on health opens up a range of options to improve our well-being, both physical and mental. At this point, design appears as a mediator, as an instrument to generate methods that facilitate reflection on the disease and help to trigger beneficial physiological processes for our body.
Positive design (Jimenez, Pohlmeyer & Desmet, 2015) and design inspired by emotions are the starting point of this project. Applying a human-centered design methodology, we worked together with physicians, therapists, and patients to develop a product that met the expectations of all stakeholders. Different qualitative research sessions were held where there were guided interviews, probes, and other tools to learn more about the interests, circumstances, and desires of the people who participated in the project. Homeostasis sanatoris was tested in real therapeutic contexts and the positive effect can be verified both in patients and in doctors through different prototyping phases. We checked that the expected reflection was carried out successfully and each person who interacted with the product was able to identify what they needed to find their own balance.
