Every time I remember my childhood, two images come to mind. One of them is a visit to the dentist that I never wanted to repeat, and to this day, I don’t like it. The other is a visit to the doctor where I remember the nurses being very cheerful. At the end of the appointment, they gave me a strawberry lollipop. It’s interesting how a positive experience can change everything.
A designer of MRI machines transformed the negative, fearful and claustrophobic proves experienced by children needing scans, by redesigning the experience into one in which children took part in an adventurous storyline.
Hospital rooms were transformed into engaging adventure scenes, such as an adventure jungle where children would hop over stickered rocks on the floor to a hollow canoe that floated through the jungle – a disguised MRI machine.
The friendly designs put the children at ease, engaged their imaginations and transformed a pit experience full of anxiety and tears to one of fun and delight that they actually looked forward to.