In March 2014, the Digital Health & Care Institute (DHI) Experience Labs collaborated with the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) to prototype what the ambulance of the future could be like. The ‘Future Ambulance’ project was informed by prior research carried out by the Glasgow School of Art, and utilised a ‘3-Cubed’ methodology, in which participants collaborated in small groups consisting of two designers paired with an SAS paramedic.

Eleven ambulance crew members of different levels of seniority and experience, from both rural and urban regions, took part in the Experience Labs, which were held in the Alexander Graham Bell Centre for Life Sciences at Moray College UHI in Elgin. Four spaces were created: Studio (group activities); Control (video monitoring, observation and recording); and Interview Rooms (individual interviews and focus group activity).

The Experience Labs included three elements: acting out real-life scenarios provided by the ambulance crews; group discussion; and semi-structured interviews. The outputs included photographs; film; and graphical and written outputs, which were analysed for emerging themes and findings.