The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 279 No 7471 p341
29 September 2007

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Royal College of Art and Lloyds explore pharmacy design

Lloydspharmacy has teamed up with the Royal College of Art to come up with a range of “design proposals” on how pharmacies could look in the future.

James King/Royal College of Art

The design process illustrated

Unveiled at the RCA this week, “Potential pharmacies” has involved two departments within the college — the Helen Hamlyn Centre and Design Interactions. Research associate James King canvassed opinion from six individuals using various interactive drawing- and diagram-based interview techniques to bring the concepts to light.

Commenting on the project, Andy Murdock, pharmacy director, Lloydspharmacy, said that the design proposals are not intended as business models to be implemented; rather, as concepts to provoke and stimulate debate.

“While we know a growing amount about the technical, logistical and retail display aspects of the future, we identified … a ‘knowledge gap’ in our understanding — the ‘soft factors’ of how pharmacists interact with their customers, the nature of those relationships and the new types of pharmacy that might emerge to support them,” he explained.