Design to empower the experience of living with chronic disease : Migraine as an example

Sammanfattning: With dramatic lifestyle changes, chronic disease has become a significant problem for the health of modern people. The norm for many people is to live with chronic diseases, and migraine is one of the most common chronic diseases.  This thesis aims to investigate whether design can be used as an intervention to empower the experience of living with chronic disease. In this thesis, migraine was taken as an example of chronic disease.  The knowledge for this study was obtained from the field of cognitive behavioral therapy for migraine and gamification design as an intervention for cognitive behavioral therapy. A service design and a qualitative study were used as an approach to the study during the design process.  During the qualitative research, user survey and user interviews were conducted to collect data. Tools such as thematic analysis, affinity analysis, empathy map and persona were used to analyze the data and describe the findings.  The result is a mini-game service for the target group, presented by a concept plan, a system map, a service blueprint and a UI prototype. In this mini-game, the patients and the patients’ families and friends can participate together. Patients can learn more about their illness and adjust their mindset to cope with it, while their family and friends can learn about migraine and provide better support to the patient.  The service concept will be later evaluated by the target group using the Technology Acceptance Model.