Abstract:
According to Thailand 20 years National Strategy on Public Health under Service Excellence, Thailand strives to improve its healthcare service system not only to accompany domestic users, but also aim to become an international medical hub in the region and one of the best globally (Ministry of Public Health, 2017). However, one of the challenges to implement the strategy is the overpopulation of medical service users especially in a large governmental hospital setting. Numbers of patients for hospital visits are increased yearly, especially in the area of out-patient departments (OPD) of the large public hospitals, university hospitals, which mostly hold a number of visitors around 10,000 per day and between 2,000,000-3,000,000 per year (ICT.MOPH, 2019). The Ministry of Public Health, private and public sectors, along with hospitals themselves have launched policies and practices to try to solve this problem including the governmental policy of Smart Hospital. The use of media and technology that link to communication design applications and practices has become one of the executed tools to help tackle this problem, for example, the use of informative and smart digital kiosks to search for a specific information and to make an online payment along with hospitals mobile applications, such as, Siriraj Connect, Rama App, Chula Care, and QueQ to help reduce number of patients for hospital visit to manage the traffic flow and appointments. However, the use of Environmental Graphic Design (EGD) system for wayfinding is overlooked even though it is proven to help create efficiency of visitors flows through hospitals services (SEGD, 2014). The use of signage system for wayfinding in hospital setting is also help facilitate visitors who are not equipped with the use of technology through online communication. With the use of an effective signage navigation system, visitors not only are facilitated for their needs of direction, but also are physically engaged and interact with the hospital brand identity. From stated reasons above, the study to search for the appropriate design direction and practice of EGD design for large public hospital is essential to help solving the problem. The objective of this research is to search for the appropriate approaches to design directions and practices of environmental graphics design (EGD), signage system, for healthcare services in large public hospital settings. The investigation covers on-site observation of the use of communication design media and applications, focusing on EGD systems in healthcare service areas, such as out-patient departments in large public hospitals in Thailand; Siriraj Hospital, Ramathibodi Hospital, and Chulalongkorn Hospital, to depict and identify audiences pain points and design challenges for EGD usage. Questionnaires and in-depth interviews are also distributed and arranged during the investigation along with the review of best practice projects, case studies, related researches and material for analysis. On-site visits for the EGD usage observation are also arranged along with the prototype design and assessment. The investigation result shows three main design criteria for EGD design direction and practice in the areas of 1.) Form and Usage, 2.) Design Elements, and 3.) Interactive Multimedia. The result also identifies six key unique points of the EGD design for healthcare service project through design process and practice including 1.) Brand story identification and implementation, 2.) Hospital and surrounding community integration, 3.) Positive experiences creation, 4.) Flexibility and sustainability design approach, 5.) User-centric on patient focused, and 6.) Advanced technology with interactive experience usage. The integration of found criteria and key unique qualities lead to the design guideline for healthcare EGD for medical services in a large public hospital setting.