Learning to Apply Design Thinking in Participatory Ergonomics: An Exploratory Study of OHS Professionals in Denmark

We propose Design Thinking (DT) as an agile and flexible approach for participatory ergonomics (PE) interventions to solve occupational health and safety (OHS) problems. We aimed to investigate how DT can be transformed into an overall approach for PE. In an explorative case study, we trained six Danish OHS professionals in a full-day DT training course, which included a DT guide. We then observed and interviewed the OHS professionals who applied DT to real-world problems within organisations. We asked them to evaluate the usefulness of DT. The results indicated that OHS professionals can learn DT and the double diamond process in a compact training course followed by a learning-by-doing process. The OHS professionals rated the DT approach highly useful for organising agile PE interventions. The double-diamond process model provided a useful structure for organising workshops. We identified challenges for the OHS professionals in shifting their roles from experts to facilitators.

Practitioner Summary: The double-diamond problem-solving model and creative tools from DT provided a useful structure for agile PE interventions in OHS problems. OHS professionals in Denmark were trained successfully in a full-day course to apply DT in PE. This was supported by a free public resource, a DT guide: https://designthinking.dtu.dk/english/.