Synthesis
MOBILE APP DESIGN
Synthesis is an Emergency Room Intake App to speed up the registration process in the hospitals.
CONTEXT
Within the healthcare sector, safety-critical systems remain ubiquitous. Crucial to the network of patient care, the digital interactive interfaces utilized within these spheres are a necessity for efficiently sustaining the stability of patient’s lives, especially within emergency departments. The current emergency room (ER) intake system suffers from a variety of problems including long wait times, language barriers, and more. Our team decided to design a mobile ER intake system to optimize the registration process for the patients.
MY ROLE
UX UI Designer
Team: Joshua Tan & Iris Chae
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UX Research: 5+ user interviews
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Wireframing & Prototyping
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Visual Identity & Design System
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User Testing: Executed 4+ user tests
PROBLEM
Average waiting time in the Emergency Room is 2 hours
These long stretches of waiting can harm the province’s most vulnerable, with many patients suffering from increasing complications as their access to treatment is delayed (Health Quality Ontario, 2022).
QUESTION
How might we ensure that patient intake and treatment process in the Emergency Room is fast and efficient?
Research
User Interview
We conducted 5+ user interviews of patients who visited the ER to get treatment to understand their needs and pain points.
80% exerienced delayed treatment due to long waiting times in ER
Current ER intake system is slow and inefficient.
There are needs for telehealth and remote medical services using digital platforms.
20% had difficulty communicating with medical professionals because English was not their first language.
Competitive Analysis
Our team researched 2+ healthcare websites to evaluate the current attempts to solve the issues with emergency rooms and healthcare services in Ontario.
Government of Ontario,
Health 811
Provides 24/7 virtual healthcare through calls, chats, and information about illnesses.
Toronto’s Virtual Emergency Department
Allows virtual follow-up appointments with healthcare providers.
Pain points
Although these websites try to assist patients through telehealth and virtual emergency department services, they lack immediate access and treatment for urgent patients and multi-language features for international patients.
Wireframe
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Register
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Home Page
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Book ER Visit
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Choose a Hosptial
Visual Identity
Logo
Logo design symbolizing medical cross and harmony
Icons
Soft colors and intuitive icons creating a friendly & welcoming brand image
Typography
Clean and simple typeface to increase legibility
High fidelity prototypes
After creating the design system, we incorporated the designs into our wireframes to develop high-fidelity prototypes.
Register
Home Page
Book ER Visit
Select a Hospital
Final Product
Synthesis optimizes the Emergency Room Intake process by providing 3 key features: Book a ER Visit, AI Symptom Checker Chatbot, and Multi-Language Support.
1) Book a ER Visit
Speed up the ER Visit by providing your medical information, stay updated with your ER visit and promptly get treatment.
Start Booking
Choose a Symptom
Select a Hospital
Select Hospital
2) 2) AI Symptom Checker Chatbot
Ask our AI chatbot about your symptoms and see what steps you need to take next without the hassle of calling EMT services.
Start Chat
Describe Symptoms
Recommendations
Next Steps
3) Multi-Language Support
Select your language to understand and answer medical questions with ease.
User Flow
Login/Register
Select Language
Insert Health Info
Home Page
Book ER
Choose a Symptom
Select a Hospital
Your Wait Time
User Testing
After developing interactive prototypes, we used 2 types of usability testing methods, PSSUQ and SUS, to assess the usability of the Synthesis App. Our team conducted +4 user tests and these are the results.
System Usability Scale (SUS)
Post-Study System Usability Questionnaire (PSSUQ)
75% answered the app design was user friendly and easy to navigate
Average SUS score was 86.25% indicating high usability
PSSUQ scored low (2.5) on the information quality section meaning it is necessary to improve the error recovery
50% suggested adding security steps to protect patient’s medical information
CONCLUSION
Conclusion + Takeaways
It was my first time designing a safety-critical system, and this experience made me get out of my comfort zone and grow a lot as a UX designer.
1. Research in-depth to understand the industry. Designing safety-critical systems requires a lot of background knowledge since it directly relates to the lives of people. Thus, researching in-depth about Emergency Intake Systems and statistics about the healthcare industry helped me to understand the industry and create a better end product.
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2. Focus on a few key features. While designing the product, I found myself getting lost in adding too many features. I decided to simplify the app by focusing on a few main features.
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3. Share constructive feedback to improve the product. The greatest benefit of working as a team is having a chance to share feedback. At first, I was scared of offending my teammate, but I decided to voice my opinion to improve the weakness of the product.