Jury Citation
Who Cares? is a strategic design project to create a better caregiving future for Singapore. The Jury commends its vision and ambition, which turns the spotlight onto an often-overlooked segment of the healthcare industry—the caregivers. Through rigorous research, a sensitive insights-based approach and close collaboration with their clients and stakeholders, the design team created a comprehensive proposal to build an ecosystem to support the rising number of caregivers in anticipation of Singapore’s ageing population.
The Jury is especially impressed by the care given to developing a holistic strategy that addresses current and future issues. Instead of “throwing money at an app” or finding similar technology-based solutions, the design team put together seven concepts with differing levels of impact—from policy to personal—which were effectively communicated through user-friendly and accessible platforms. These include a book, a toolkit and video stories. Besides their impact, these collaterals were visually powerful and aesthetically well-designed.
Also deserving of recognition is the client, the National Council of Social Service. It is evident that they were intimately involved—proving that behind each successful project is an equally successful meeting of minds between client and designer.
A service design strategy may not be what many designers would be willing to take on, given its laborious ethnographic processes, “unglamorous” subject matter and uncertain outcomes. The team has shown that the emotional rewards of such endeavours trump these challenges. Having successfully pushed for caregiving support as one of the four key thrusts of Singapore’s Enabling Masterplan 2017-2021, Who Cares? has great potential for significant long-term impact on a national level.
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Nominator Citation
László Herczeg
Director
fuelfor design and consulting S.L.
The National Council of Social Service (NCSS) commissioned fuelfor to conduct a strategic design project to design a better caregiving experience for Singapore. The challenge of caregiving is a timely and universal topic that is relevant beyond Singapore; most health and social care systems are buckling under the pressures of an ageing society and rising incidence of chronic diseases. The role of the caregiver is invisible in society and to services, and yet it becomes crucial to understand, as caregivers often provide the “red thread” of continuity between care services, always by the side of the patient or client.
This project is unique in applying the principles of experience design to this systemic challenge of the social care sector. Fuelfor set out on a design ethnography process to understand in depth the issues and needs of caregivers in the complex needs space; interviewing, shadowing and filming 10 different caregivers. The project was also unique in the use of co-design to engage stakeholders from across and within the health and care sectors throughout the design process: policy influencers, patients, caregivers and care professionals.
The outcome of this project is a future vision of caregiving for the nation, articulated as an actionable design strategy and visualised through seven concepts that inform innovation and drive implementation of a wide range of solutions: new products, services, tools, spaces, policies, programmes and campaigns. Outputs include a vision publication, seven films to communicate the fundamental emotions of complex caregiving, a prototype of a new toolkit to help social care professionals care for caregivers, and several targeted launch events and sharing workshops.
The project’s recommendations and ideas have been integrated into the five-year Enabling Masterplan for Singapore, and its results are informing and inspiring innovation with the caregiver in mind beyond the country.