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HospiLink

UI/UX Design / Research / Branding / Wireframing / Prototyping

2023

Background

Healthcare in the Philippines has been a problem in meeting patients' needs. I wanted to look into the situation in Iloilo City and find ways to help both Emergency technicians (ET) and hospitals, especially in emergencies. My research revealed that the main issue is poor communication due to a lack of technology between the sectors, and each hospital has its own way of handling patients' needs.

Problem

Dealing with emergencies can be tough, and it can lead to bad decisions that result in poor care for the patient and unnecessary expenses. Emergency technicians (ET) need to quickly decide where to take the patient. One problem is the lack of communication between ET and hospitals, which means nurses in the Emergency Room don't have the necessary tools ready for incoming patients.

Goals

Creating a responsive web-based application that allows ET’s and hospitals to have an information dissemenation of the patients condition and recommends the best suitable hospital for the patient.

My Impact

For this project I validated the need for the product I had in mind and leveraged data from the research to create an end-to-end product as a solo designer.

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Research

Goals

Below are the areas I’d like to explore during the user research. I want to understand:

  • What are the user’s pain points in emergency transportation of a patient
  • The context in which the users seek for finding the most suitable hospital for the patient
  • The process when admitting a particular patient to the hospital
  • What are the hindrance in terms of communication between patient, emergency technicians, and hospital

Methodologies

I'm conducting a secondary research to identify gaps in the market and community concerning emergency cases. I'm examining existing systems and interviewing patients, doctors, nurses, and emergency technicians who have experienced issues with hospital processes and patient transportation. This will help me validate my assumptions about emergency complications in the hospital.

Competitive Research

In this phase of the project, I chose to investigate the existing systems that address hospital emergency cases and evaluate the features they implement. What I found was that there are no related systems in the Philippines that specifically cater to this problem. Some of the systems only consist of geosystems that trigger alarms for specific locations in case of emergencies.

No existing systems cater to transporting patients to specific hospitals; instead, the traditional process relies on users assumptions which hospital is best for the patient's needs. To ensure long-term success for my users, I've realized that designing and developing a product that addresses the problems in finding and recommending the most suitable hospital according to the patient's needs, as identified by Emergency Technicians, is essential.

User Interviews

Emergency cases process are not structured where users starts to frustrate and disappointed because of the different process/es and requirements from diverse hospitals.

Patients appreciates Emergency Technician if they have an assurance and suggestion regarding hospitals and doctor best treatment for the patient.

Emergency Technician looks for a way where they could contact the hospital easily to know the status that if they could still transport the patient or not.

Guardians wants best for their patient to get well and have a proper care and attention by a specialized physician and also the facilities and equipments.

Patient are frustrated once they will be diverted to another hospital due to the capacity of the hospital is maximized.

Research Synopsis

To gain a comprehensive understanding of the experiences of Guardians/Patients, Emergency Technicians, and Hospital Staff, I conducted interviews with five individuals who have been involved in the process of admitting/transporting a patient. I was surprised to find that most Guardians/Patients faced significant struggles in such scenarios, leading to frustration and stress while caring for their loved ones. The same was true for Emergency Technicians, especially those from Iloilo City Emergency Responder (ICER), who faced confusion and communication gaps with hospitals when determining the best hospital for the patient's needs. These discoveries motivated me to develop a solution that would bridge these gaps, ensuring long-term success for the users and enabling them to make informed decisions before transporting patients to any hospitals within the city.

Background

The valuable feedback from the user interviews provided clarity on the project's direction and highlighted a crucial need that can be addressed through a main product feature. The communication breakdown between hospitals and emergency technicians emerged as a significant problem, emphasizing the importance of transparent data exchange between them. Additionally, the insights revealed that the product can assist guardians/patients in choosing the most suitable hospitals for patient transportation and proper care.

Define

User Persona

After I compiled the outtakes from the research into the affinity map, I was able to create a persona that represents the main users group.

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User Scenario

After developing my user persona, I chose to envision a specific scenario where Nick could utilize the product. This use case was inspired by a combination of synthesized research from user interviews, a competitive analysis that revealed a market niche, and a persona I could deeply empathize with.

The MVP enables recommending the most suitable hospital for the patient, facilitating interaction and status updates between hospitals and Emergency Technicians. It also allows hospitals to accept or reject requests from Emergency Technicians.

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Ideation

Feature Prioritization

Upon recognizing the solution that would offer the greatest benefit to my users, I chose to delve deeper by generating ideas for the concrete features. I aim for the application to be user-friendly while on the move, featuring a straightforward interface, simplified onboarding process, and direct access to the main functionality. The research phase equipped me with adequate information to distinguish between features that will provide minimal versus substantial value to the user.

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Initial Task Flows

After having defined the features of the app, I created flows for the main tasks.

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User Flow: As a Emergency Technician, I want to fill a form that will enter the data of the patient during emergency cases so that I can deliver him/her to the appropriate and best hospital care.

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Task: File a refusal form to not get care by Emergency Technicians

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Task: File a refusal form to not get care by Emergency Technicians

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Prototype and Test

Hi-fi Prototype

After I created the user flows for the users, I was able to create a wireframe that represents the main user group.

See full protype
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Usability Testing

I tested the first version of the prototype with 5 users to determine the necessary revisions to make the overall experience more intuitive and pleasant. Here are some outtakes.

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Main pain points that were discovered during the tests and addressed in the iteration:

  • Users had problems filling-up the form in the Patient are Report Page
    Fix: add a call-to-action button for a simple or shorter form
  • Users may have issues locating the record they had submitted to the hospital
    Fix: added a history page to allow see the details/history of the report
  • Users (hospital) may have issues accepting the request from the emergency technician
    Fix: added a sound notification to the dashboard of the hospital