Sight & Sound Centre

Great Ormond Street Hospital NHS FT

Play your way to appointments

At Great Ormond Street’s new Sight & Sound Centre, we brought together illustrations, wayfinding, branding, and multi-sensory interactive artwork – helping patients with hearing & sight impairments to play their way to appointments. This project celebrates and supports its diverse community through use of accessible multisensory design and a gender-neutral gang. 

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We designed an interactive dolls’ house directory to greet families at main waiting area. Children can“meet” an illustrated gang of clinicians & patients in friendly animated scenarios, interacting with the various windows in the house. At the press of a button, a window lights up, and voices play aloud, offering words reassurance –“I used to be scared of eye drops but they’re not too bad once you’ve had them!” All 27 windows feature recordings of real patients, who we interviewed over zoom calls during the lockdown period of 2020. 

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As they virtually probe the various parts of the hospital through exploratory play, children have fun, and get a feel for what goes on in the hospital. They also get a sense of the caring clinical culture, and reduce their anxieties of the unknown. And crucially, the doll’s house also brings a sense of human occupation and presence to a large building where patients won’t necessarily otherwise encounter others. 

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As families move through the space, the same illustrated gang pops up in large-scale wall viyns to offer words of encouragement and direction in speech bubbles, along with mini-doll’s house directories to keep people well-oriented. We also produced notice boards and privacy screens – all of which are branded with the same gang, helping to bring a sense of familiarity and play across the journey.

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We worked with the communications team to extend this friendly welcome to create over 1000 pop-up welcome cards to announce the re-opening, which were sent out to every current patient, along with branded appointment letters, introducing the gang and doll’s house concept before families even enter the building. The centre’s patient demographic will frequently return over their entire childhood, so making a warm, inviting first impression is crucial for community building, and it can even help to combat long-term phobias.

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The gang embraces gender neutrality, and a range of ages/abilities, including people with cochlea implants, glasses, various skin tones, varying heights. Any patient walking into the building will feel included, as they can point to the gang and see someone like them celebrated as part of the community.

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Date 2021

Sector Healthcare

Service Children's: outpatient services for auditory & sight impairments

Commissioned Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity

Artist Art in Site, Martin Jones

User Group Children & Families

Awards European Healthcare Design Awards 2022 Winner, Interior Design & the Arts (for Sight & Sound Centre, supported by Premier Inn)