Signe Lindgren

The Problem

Healthcare systems worldwide are under immense strain due to rising patient numbers, complex cases, and aging populations. These pressures, compounded by staff shortages, increase stress and cognitive demands on medical professionals, threatening their well-being and career longevity. Innovative solutions are urgently needed to maintain care quality and support staff in their roles.

The Result

We created BRIDGE, a friendly and flexible AI framework that supports nurses in their daily work. At the center is MAIA, a calm assistant that explores the emotional side of trust with AI. It lowers the threshold to start using AI by introducing it in a non threatening and supportive way. MAIA helps nurses feel confident and in control while gently guiding them through new tools and routines.

Concept video. made to show the workflow of our system. emphasis on the central station nurse

Bridge -

building trust in technology

Spring 2024

Project info

10 weeks

Group project

Umeå Institute of Design

Focus

Reaserch

UX/UI

Mockups

Team

Mai Eigel

Jonathan Wickström

Signe Lindgren

Bridge explores how AI can support, not replace, nurses in healthcare. Through field research and co-design, we developed a framework around transparency, reliability, consent, and collaboration. Resulting in a digital screen with a supportive AI assistant that enhances workflows while respecting professional autonomy and trust.

Partners

Philips

Norrlands Universitetssjukhus

Building Trust for technology

Reducing Cognitive Burden

Strengthening Collaboration and Communication

Empowering Nurses Through Learning

The four core themes from the stories

From our field research, we identified four recurring themes that guided our design focus. These reflected the emotional and practical friction points in adopting AI in healthcare, ranging from alarm fatigue to a fear of losing professional autonomy.

Capturing experiences, ethnographic stories

We began by conducting ethnographic fieldwork at Norrlands universitetssjukhus to immerse ourselves in the real environments and workflows of nurses. By translating observations into personal, emotionally grounded stories, we preserved the human nuance often lost in raw data. These stories became a powerful design tool, making complex realities more relatable and shaping our understanding of trust as it plays out in everyday care.

Field visit

The approch

Our project used a user-centered design approach focused on understanding real experiences through storytelling. By translating nurses' daily challenges into relatable narratives, we identified key needs and values to guide our design. This helped us create a concept grounded in empathy, trust, and practical relevance.

In the end, this project wasn’t just about designing a tool, it was about designing a relationship which I think is the interesting part about interaction design. Trust is not a feature you can toggle on or off. It’s something that must be nurtured. We grounded our framework in the lived experiences of nurses and healthcare workers, as well as the fears they have toward AI. In their final feedback, they envisioned a hopeful future where they could see themselves using this technology, which to me is a clear sign that we are moving in the right direction.

Final words

BRIDGE

Using concept presentation to get different levels of trust

During our concept presentation, we discovered different levels of trust based on comments from classmates, Philips, and healthcare workers. These variations surfaced rich insights about trust, highlighting the tensions between convenience, control, and perceived intrusion.

Transparency

Reliability

Consent and control

Collaboration

“Hate when my phone adjust lightning without my consent”

“I would not appreciate AI telling me what to do”

“I am worried about the hiearchy between central station nurse and bedside nurse”

“I dont like surveilance and feeling watched”

“Where is this information comming from?”

Is a conceptual framework for integrating AI in healthcare in a way that builds trust. It focuses on our four key aspects: transparency, reliability, consent and control, and collaboration. The framework is embodied in MAIA, a supportive AI tool that works alongside nurses. Rather than taking over, it reduces cognitive load and reinforces professional autonomy.

Challangeing the setup

By choosing a computer and TV setup that is not standard today, we challenged assumptions about how and where technology belongs. It let us question whether technology should adapt to existing physical and digital setups or if those setups should evolve in response to new ways of working.

Transparency

Maia shows where information comes from and how suggestions are made.