Download this case in PDF, click on the case below to view the case in a bigger version or read a shortened version further down.

User-centred design and interdisciplinary collaboration
Zealand Care was established in 1996 as a small project organisation with government funding to develop the market for assistive aids (wheelchairs, lifting equipment, bath chairs etc.). It was soon clear that the Danish market for assistive aids lacked overall management. In 1997, Zealand Care expanded its business area and established assistive aids centres throughout the country.

From the beginning, Zealand Care was focused on user-oriented design; thus, in 1998 the company added a designer to the staff to develop new and better assistive aids. The design process took place in an interdisciplinary collaboration with occupational/physiotherapists and designers, and the results were so good that many of the new assistive aid designs won awards.

Concurrent with these developments, Zealand Care added essential competence by acquiring the IT company UniqSoft, which had specialised in mobile IT solutions. 

An interaction design takes shape
Having secured a dominant role in the field of assistive aids, Zealand Care now turned toward new business areas. The related care area constituted a larger market than the assistive aids area. It was also a market characterised by fierce competition from large companies, which were not focused on smaller clients. Zealand Care therefore decided to target the smaller municipalities in Denmark. In 1999, Zealand Care launched the first IT system for organising home care, but further major steps were needed to achieve a real breakthrough in the care area. This was accomplished in 2002 with ‘Mobile Care’ – an integrated mobile telephony and IT solution for managing home care. 

Mobile Care consists of a handheld mobile phone and computer, which lets the home carer read and record relevant case information. The screen images and navigation are based on menus and icons that are specially developed for the mobile phone interface and custom made to match the underlying IT system in the municipal administration.

User-driven innovation
Managing Director Bjarne Henneman about the design requirements in the care area:

“Previously, senior citizens were perceived and treated as a homogenous group with uniform needs, but they are now requiring much more individualised treatment. The senior citizens see themselves as consumers, and they expect the same service level from public services as they do from any other service provider. Therefore, the municipalities are also raising their demands to the products and services that we provide.

In this context, design plays a crucial role. Not just in terms of the industrial design of the assistive aids that we supply, but just as much in terms of the graphic user interface in the IT systems that we develop. In addition, we have a big task in designing systems that will accommodate the many individual needs from citizens and municipal administrations.

Zealand Care strives to provide efficient solutions that are economical for the municipalities. In our philosophy, all processes must be user-centred to promote the best and most valid solutions. This is definitely true of personal care.”