This prototype's ultimate goal was to delete the need for paper charting, in turn removing much of the repetition noted by users and saving time by not needing to input the same data multiple times.
At the start of this project our initial focus began with looking at digital adoption within businesses and how emerging and everyday technologies can be used to simplify everyday work that hasn’t seen much change in over a hundred years.
After our initial survey of over 150 individuals we decided to focus on 30 respondents from the medical field that all seemed to face the same if not extremely similar problems with things they do every day in their jobs.
These initial pain points were:
Repetitive/Redundant Steps
Charting is unrealistically difficult
Iconography inconsistency/ misunderstanding
System doesn’t function how its expected or supposed to
From here we began building out our solution for this problem. We wanted to create a platform that would act as a plug-in for all medical fields that uses existing technology that most if not all individuals have on them from the moment they wake up till they fall asleep, there smart devices (I.e. phone, tablet, etc.).
This plug-in’s ultimate goal was to delete the need for paper charting, in turn removing much of the repetition noted by users and saving time by not needing to input the same data multiple times.
Roles & Responsibility
What I brought to the table
Over the course of this project my role shifted and changed throughout this process to fit the needs of my smaller team. While all three of us were able to be flexible with whatever challenges were met.
For this project my main focus was on:
Breaking down our giant original survey of over 150 participants into manageable chunks of data as well as graphs and charts.
Previous medical experience and knowledge had me lead and flesh out the journey map creation for the Surgical RN persona.
Was also able to lean on this knowledge to flesh out and create the IA quicker final touches were proven through a card sort.
Assisted with writing interview script questions, scenarios, as well as performing tests and synthesizing data from it.
Built out the entirety of mid & Hi / Fi prototype for the tablet as well as lead iteration changes for this platform, while also assisting with creation of components & animations.
Executive Summary
Problems Addressed
Addressed repetition seen from the use of both paper charting and electronic charting.
Developed a way for individuals to collaborate together at the same time when updating patient files.
Created this system to be flexible enough to run on tablet or from a nurse’s phone.
Competitive Analysis
Currently the market is saturated with dozens of different medical charting software. Another thing we ran into was some of the most reputable services like
Meditech for instance are who is widely used. However, different versions of the software are used depending on the facility with versions from the mid 00’s still in use today.
User Testing & Iterations
While there was 3 major iterations, multiple rounds of testing were performed on different users for each iteration. Changes were then made after each round of testing. Predominantly the users tested were not in the medical field due to scheduling conflicts, however multiple medical professionals were tested during the final phase.
Final outcome
Our most current Hi-Fi Prototype after many rounds of iterations and testing finally is in a healthy enough place that we feel based off our starting goals our prototype could easily be described as a success.
After implementing, our plug-in would immediately cut out the excess paper work that has a tendency to get misplaced or shuffled into the wrong spot.
It creates a way for medical staff to work together and know when other individuals were updating a certain aspect of a patients profile.
Most importantly this plug-in eliminates the need for individuals to hunt down a free computing station to work on charting giving them back extremely valuable time for patient care.
While as described in the “Going Forward” section of this document it is by no means finished. Our prototype is beyond beginning to take shape and show how powerful it can be!
Problem Statement
The Why
The current state of healthcare workers has focused primarily on paper & personal computer charting. What existing products / services fail to address is the amount of time and effort spent by healthcare workers when charting. Our product will address this gap by eliminating the need for paper charting wile also streamlining the patient check in process. Our initial focus will be RN’s who deal with patient care on a one on one basis.
Hypothesis
We believe we can implement/increase digital adoption among healthcare workers who use paper or personal computer for charting as part of their job if we streamline & make the process more efficient through the use of our plug-in service that uses existing tech most workers already have.
Target Users
Defining our audience
This Project began with a large survey that focused on digital adoption among over 150 individuals ranging from their late teens to mid sixties.
After categorizing the individuals into trades of work, my group and I found a pain point that a good portion of the 30 medical workers we surveyed all seem to face in some way or form. This is how my team & I were introduced to our three proto-personas: Rachel, Ellias, & Stacy.
Scope & Constraints
A few barriers crossed
From the start of this project my team was faced with barriers from day one that we were forced to overcome every step of this project.
To begin this project only had 4 months of time from start to finish, included during this period was our original survey of nearly 200 individuals.
Other things that plagued us throughout our development period was a small to inexistent budget that forced us to think outside the box when it came to safe testing in a COVID climate and market research.
When it came to the testing phases, our group was forced to, for the most part, carry these out on normal everyday users sliding in medical professional colleagues of mine from my time in the military when they were available in later phases of research and iterations.
In person precautions like face masks and keeping distance as well as online testing implemented to assure safety of all individuals throughout this process.
Lastly when it came to market research a immediate barrier we faced was gaining access and understanding to initial systems & how they were used. Forced to rely on old YouTube tutorial videos. Extra time had to be spent not only taking screen shots to be able to view existing platforms but also to help understand how these systems are currently used.
Ideation & Brainstorming
Figjam brainstorming sessions
Due to Covid-19 in lieu of holding in person brainstorming sessions on whiteboards. Team members used FigJam for these sessions as an alternative. These sessions were held toward the beginning of the project to help our team find the real problem these medical professionals were facing and how we were & weren't going to fix it.
Journey Maps
Multiple Journey maps were constructed based off of personas to help illustrate not only for team members but stakeholders alike the limitation medical professionals have toward completing there jobs every day.
Competitor Research
Individual team members looked at different major medical software providers such as Meditech, Epic, and Dentrix to get a better understanding not only of what is currently being used in offices but also how it was being used and what specifically it could do.
A bit of what we found
Currently the market is saturated with dozens of different medical charting software. Some of the most reputable services like Meditech are widely used however different versions of the software are used depending on the facility with versions from the mid 00’s still in use today.
For some reason in the year 2021 none of these communicate to each other.
Design Iterations
Lo-Fi Sketches (Iteration 1)
Individual team members brought 20 different ideas each to the table as quick sketches to try and flesh out how this new software might feel, flow, and function. All three member sketched out options for both tablet as well as phone.
Next Step
Once we had our 60 ideas each team member had a limited number of votes for each of the different directions that interested us and that we thought worth seeking another iteration of in a higher fidelity.
Digital lo-fi (Iteration 2)
To help define for us what success would look like for this product we defined three tasks from the start that we wanted to have this first real prototype perform.
A tablet version that could admit patients when they needed to stay.
We wanted a mobile version that could perform and update vitals.
Lastly for both we wanted to incorporate a form of collaboration.
User testing
Some of the most interesting things we found from this stage and its testing was what all we hadn’t accounted when linking this prototype. Users subverted expectations in how we thought they would want to navigate this system especially when offered the status bar to navigate back and forth between pages. Otherwise users felt little resistance when navigating through Mobile task.
Multiple rounds of iterative testing were implemented during this iteration.
*The individual results are available within the main case study*
Final Solutions
Hi-fi prototype
Moving from iteration 2 to 3 a lot of the changes made from previous testing were done while creating this Hi-Fi prototype. This allowed for us to have it be not only fully prototyped and working but saved us significant time during the testing phase that at this point we began implementing aspects of collaboration into the system before we starting initial testing of this iteration.
Hi-fi Prototype test results
Two rounds of testing were able to be performed during this iteration. The first round of testing brought up some problems with how users navigated around the mobile platform using the status bar. Another issue that arose during testing was how well users noticed collaboration in situ.
Updates to navigation were made as well to how bold our collaboration would be when it occurred. Both of these tested much better during a second round, however at this point small readability and formatting issues re-reared their head.
Atomic Design
Going Forward
Next up
Our Final test brought up some legibility issues with the Tablets final screen, finding a way to restructure it into chunks so it is less strain on users is something needed to be looked at going forward.
Throughout this project we prototyped the mobile version to run vitals and the tablet version to admit a patient. Creating the counterparts for each of these would be another big thing we would want to look at very soon.
Furthermore going forward we would want to more fully develop this application to do more for its users. Personally, I wonder what an alert system might look like for emergencies and how getting that notification out quicker could assist in making sure enough help is available during a critical moment.
