NIH Directed Care - Alice

Client: IAT438 SFU

Result: Prototype of an app for NIH (National Institute of Health)

Role: UX/UI Designer, Graphic Designer

Team: Stef Najdovski, Jason Hartz, Izaak Vinthers

Similar to how all other research project starts with, our team began with research. In looking at multiple health care systems in both Canada and the United States, we saw a common issue revolving around the emergency rooms (E.R), which is overcrowding. With the question we posed for ourselves - “How can we reduce overcrowding?”, we dove deeper into the health care sphere to look for possible solutions.

INSIGHTS
Stemming off from WebMD and AskMD, our team thought we could provide a more personable experience than just a short and general online survey that doesn’t cater to each individual patient. We knew that everyone feels symptoms and conditions differently, so we sought out medical apps that are successful in catering to individuals. We saw Doctor on Demand and Health Navigator as examples that incorporates technology into their solutions and communicates health care content in a digestible manner. They provided services where patients could talk to a health care provider via. video calls or text messages, and they also take into consideration how each individual carries different insurance plans.

OUR APPROACH
Our team’s approach is to borrow these ideas from other successful health apps as well as to bring a persona into the web application. We decided to create ‘Alice’ for our proposed ‘NIH Directed Care’ App.

We aim to add more consideration when asking patients what, when and how their symptoms came about as well as whether or not they had medical insurance. We found errors in WebMD and AskMD, and also reached out to professionals in the medical field to gather insights as to what to consider for a general evaluation process. The simplified breakdown can be seen in the journey map.

We also wanted to keep the interface to be very easy to read, so that to consider slower visual intake when patients are at a weaker state due to their symptoms. We ultimately chose to introduce users to the app through web ads when they are searching for solutions related to medical terms, so to reduce the time and cognitive load to download a mobile app. Below are some of the initial mock-ups of how users will view the online survey.

WHO’S ALICE?
Alice is a persona who lives inside the app to guide users through the entire process of filtering out destinations they can resort to, in response to the symptoms they feel. There is a survey component in the app that will be more catered to the patient, in the sense that the patient will need to explain how they are feeling in text boxes, along with suggested words and key phrases to make the process easier.

WHY WEB APP?
Users won’t need to waste that extra time in downloading the app, and for those who don’t own a mobile device, they can access it on other devices most convenient to them. We saw a good interception point where our app can play a big role when people are either waiting to get to a health care facility or are waiting in the E.R. Instead of wasting more time on waiting, they could change their route and hurry to other facilities that could provide treatment for their symptoms.

Full PDF Slide Proposal Here.

Short Proposal Video

The proposal video showcases the focal issues our team were addressing as well as our response in attempt to solve them.