Who are you designing the experience for?

We redesigned a paediatric clinic by looking at everything from 3 to 4 feet off the ground.

That is what a child sees. Not what the parent sees. Not what the doctor sees.

The smell was the first thing we changed. Clinics smell like stress. You walk in and your shoulders go up.

That is true for adults.

For a child, it is worse, they do not have the vocabulary for it yet, but the body remembers.

The layout followed.

Adults notice the reception desk first.

Children notice the floor, the chairs, whether there is somewhere to hide.

We built the play area at the centre of the lobby, not tucked in a corner. It was not decoration. It was the logic of the space.

Vaccines were administered in that same play area. Not in a separate room with a closed door and fluorescent lighting. In the open. Where the child could see what was happening before it happened to them.

Most "child-friendly" spaces are painted bright and covered in cartoons. That is design for the Instagram story. It is not design for the child who has to sit in the chair.

The real work was asking a different question:  "What does this space feel like to a three-year-old who is scared?"

When you shift the point of view from the decision-maker to the actual user, the entire solution changes.