CAREWorld: a design mapping tool for developing future visions of care

TY - JOUR

T1 - CAREWorld

T2 - a design mapping tool for developing future visions of care

AU - Urquhart, Lewis

AU - Rodgers, Paul

AU - McGuire, Neil

AU - Woods, Mel

AU - Lim, Chris

AU - Bruce, F-S

N1 - © 2025 the author(s)

PY - 2025/10/14

Y1 - 2025/10/14

N2 - This paper introduces CAREWorld, a co-design tool centred around a fictitious map that supports the exploration of how future design interventions might be implemented within NHS Scotland’s operational structures. It enables an abstract yet practical understanding of the complex landscape of NHS health and care services. Given the NHS’s pivotal role in public services across Scotland and the UK, engaging with it through a design lens is essential. By applying multidisciplinary design research methods, CAREWorld facilitates meaningful discussion and analysis of key challenges, particularly those related to sustainability, by connecting NHS Scotland with external systems and interventions. Design research offers both analytical insight and imaginative capacity, helping to clarify real-world problems while envisioning alternative futures. The tool is readily applicable to health and social care contexts and can be adapted for other domains. Crucially, it allows conceptual links to be drawn between different design proposals, revealing both synergies and tensions. We demonstrate its utility through a co-design session in which CAREWorld is used to map and interpret design innovations within an NHS Scotland context. RELEVANCE TO DESIGN PRACTICE This research explores how speculative mapping can be utilized directly as a design tool within the context of project development. Crucially it offers a framework by which to address both infrastructural design issues and issues related to climate, sustainability and resources.

AB - This paper introduces CAREWorld, a co-design tool centred around a fictitious map that supports the exploration of how future design interventions might be implemented within NHS Scotland’s operational structures. It enables an abstract yet practical understanding of the complex landscape of NHS health and care services. Given the NHS’s pivotal role in public services across Scotland and the UK, engaging with it through a design lens is essential. By applying multidisciplinary design research methods, CAREWorld facilitates meaningful discussion and analysis of key challenges, particularly those related to sustainability, by connecting NHS Scotland with external systems and interventions. Design research offers both analytical insight and imaginative capacity, helping to clarify real-world problems while envisioning alternative futures. The tool is readily applicable to health and social care contexts and can be adapted for other domains. Crucially, it allows conceptual links to be drawn between different design proposals, revealing both synergies and tensions. We demonstrate its utility through a co-design session in which CAREWorld is used to map and interpret design innovations within an NHS Scotland context. RELEVANCE TO DESIGN PRACTICE This research explores how speculative mapping can be utilized directly as a design tool within the context of project development. Crucially it offers a framework by which to address both infrastructural design issues and issues related to climate, sustainability and resources.

KW - care

KW - NHS Scotland

KW - mapping

KW - design fiction

U2 - 10.1080/24735132.2025.2572272

DO - 10.1080/24735132.2025.2572272

M3 - Article

SN - 2473-5132

JO - Design For Health

JF - Design For Health

ER -