Healthcare at the Edges

How do community relationships and regional context shape experiences of healthcare?

A ten-week field study with 15 participants explored healthcare in rural communities through interviews, photo studies, storytelling, and mapping. Jana worked with Macks Brooks and Kaitlyn Ellington, advised by Audrey Desjardins, to investigate trust and informal care, synthesize accounts, and develop speculative design concepts.

Original mapping and research documentation from Healthcare at the Edges, 2025.

Year

2025

Institution

University of Washington, Interaction Design · Field Studies

Jana’s role

Collaborative design researcher

Adviser / collaborators

Macks Brooks, Kaitlyn Ellington · Adviser: Audrey Desjardins

Collaborative research. Jana’s specific responsibilities in recruitment, interviews, analysis, and concept development remain to be confirmed.

Listening across experiences of care

Interviews, asynchronous photo studies, storytelling, and mapping created different ways for participants to describe healthcare. The study included ten rural residents, three rural healthcare providers, and two experts.

Original study documentation: participant pseudonyms, regional distribution, a circle-of-trust activity, and a remote-research illustration.

The original research report grounds its analysis in four participant accounts, represented through bird pseudonyms.

From technological realities to community relationships

Participant accounts shifted the team’s emphasis toward culture, trust, and the relationships through which care is practiced.

Care is not only a service. It is also a set of relationships.

Support and uncertainty coexist

The team developed four themes from participants’ accounts. Together, they describe care as both a response to crisis and a practice sustained through relationships.

Pending · Anonymized accounts + analytic connections

Reactive care and crisis

Close-knit networks: support and misinformation

Community and nature in health practices

Reciprocal advocacy

Town Health Herald

Misinformation concerns led the team to revise Town Health Herald to incorporate medical-professional perspectives.

Pending · Original concept

Pending · Revised concept

Pending · Concept revision + anonymized feedback

Care Calendar

Following participant feedback, the team revised Care Calendar to incorporate professional guidance.

Care is situated

The study offers situated insight from a small, varied sample, not a general account of rural healthcare. The concepts are speculative design responses, not evidence of clinical effectiveness. Future work could examine community-centered care across additional settings with healthcare expertise.

Documentation URL pending