HCI and Intimate Care as an Agenda for Change in Women's Health

TLDR

Designing for women's healthcare remains an underexplored area of HCI, especially beyond maternal health information systems. The study explores how advances in HCI design and technology can shape future women's health care. Using a urinary incontinence case study, the authors illustrate patient and therapist perspectives and discuss how HCI innovations can inform care. They find that knowledge, esteem, and agency are crucial for remedial and preventive care, and that HCI can transform women's care experiences.

Abstract

Designing for women's healthcare remains an underexplored area of HCI, particularly outside informational systems for maternal health. Drawing on a case study of a body disruption - urinary incontinence in women - we illustrate the experience of women's health both from the perspective of the patient and the therapist. We show how knowledge, esteem and agency play crucial roles in remedial women's care practices, as well as preventative. In describing these challenges we deliberate on possible futures of women's health that take advantage of the many advances in design and technology from across the spectrum of HCI research. We show how with some care and courage HCI has the potential to transform women's experience within this setting.