Healing fabulations: a dialogic methodology for digital codesign in health research

ABSTRACT

Recent research has highlighted the importance of responding to trauma and promoting healing when working with participants in sensitive contexts. This article presents a new methodology for design research on health topics which combines principles from narrative medicine (health storytelling) with codesign. In this collaborative, dialogic approach, participatory action research cycles of storytelling are used to inform a process of digital codesign, positioning participants as peer researchers. The resulting prototypes (termed healing fabulations) are a new type of design artefact which captures each participant’s lived experience while also extending it into a speculative future. Discussion of the methodology shows how the approach protects participant wellbeing during research on their health experiences, addresses common criticisms of digital design research, and explores the importance of visual metaphor and aesthetic in design for health. The article concludes with a discussion of the methodology’s replicability and use in future research.

KEYWORDS:

• Dialogic
• narrative
• health
• digital
• speculative
• fabulation

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the research participants for sharing their stories and making this work possible.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by Scotland’s Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre.