Designing Care from the Service Outward
Experience Architecture for Consolidated Care Clinics
Calgary Foothills Primary Care Network was bringing four clinics with different services, teams and ways of working together in one new location. To ensure the new environment supported the people and services inside it, J5 collaborated with Holland Design to connect service design with interior design from the beginning.
J5 engaged clinicians, administrators and support staff to understand patient journeys, employee workflows and the moments that mattered within the existing clinics. We translated these insights into experience principles and operational requirements that Holland Design used to shape the physical environment. Together, we designed the service and the space as one connected experience.
INDUSTRY
Healthcare
CLIENT
Primary Care Alberta
WHY IT MATTERS
Healthcare environments are often designed around spatial requirements before the desired patient experience and staff workflows are fully understood. This can create operational friction, confusing journeys and spaces that struggle to support how care is actually delivered.
Our Experience Architecture approach began with the service. By combining J5’s expertise in service design with Holland Design’s expertise in interior design, the new clinic could be shaped around accessibility, safety, privacy, connection and the practical realities of delivering care.
PROCESS HIGHLIGHTS
We engaged more than 100 employees to understand their current environments, surface concerns about the consolidation and define what the future clinic needed to enable.
We translated patient journeys and staff workflows into seven Experience Design Principles and nine “Big Moves” that informed the floor plan, interior concepts, operational processes and change strategy.
Impact
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User Level
Brought patient needs into the spatial design process by considering accessibility, navigation, privacy, safety and the emotional experience of receiving care.
Created a foundation for a more welcoming and inclusive clinic where services are easier to navigate and different forms of care can work together.
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Employee Level
Gave clinicians, administrators and support staff a meaningful role in shaping their future workplace.
Through scenario testing and rapid prototyping, employees could see how proposed layouts would affect their workflows and help resolve concerns before major design decisions were finalized.
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Organizational Level
Connected service strategy, employee experience and interior design within one multidisciplinary process, giving leadership clearer evidence for complex decisions and trade-offs.
Of participating employees, 87% believed the process would positively influence the clinic consolidation, 81% felt their concerns and insights were heard, and 89% would recommend the approach to other organizations facing similar challenges.