Creating the Key Messages

Gathering the knowledge in the room

Last Tuesday the first workshop was held to develop 5 Key messages. These are messages which we want staff across the health and social care system to communicate to people with diabetes about how to care for their eyes.

This was the first of three workshops through which, in addition to the Key Messages, we will develop a self-care document and a dissemination programme.

The methodology is that used by product designers. It consists of:

- research/observation

- synthesising all that has been learnt

- brainstorming ideas

- creating prototypes to test with relevant people

We had a really useful session and produced three prototype sets of messages. They cover a range of possible messages. The ways in which they differ, reflect the debate people had around the tables about:

-  how much the messages should focus on eyes, rather than messages about diabetes as a whole;

-  how hard hitting they should be, in the light of the research that showed that people who do attend the Diabetic Retinopathy Screening service are motivated by not wanting to lose their sight;

-  how to be visually creative about how the messages are presented

-  how many messages we should have- from several through to 1 message

-  how to  ensure the messages are persuasive and contain action that people can take for   themselves.

The prototypes are now being mocked up by an artist and will then be shared with colleagues and people with diabetes to gather their feedback. We will be asking people to tell us what they like about the prototypes and what else could be done to improve them. A small group of participants from the workshop will then re-work the messages in the light of the feedback.