HEART TO HEART
Heart to Heart was the culmination of research, app design, user investigation and video creation for a collaboration project with a fellow student, Evan Bailes, and the NHS Heartwood hospital. The project goal was to provide a trimmed down, fresh and user-friendly version of the patient information booklets that were given out to those who are preparing for heart or lung transplant surgery. Through research and patient interviews we decided the best course of action was to make the information readily accessible and informative but not an overflow of information.
PROJECT AMBITION
During an interview with one of the nurses within the department of organ transplants, we were informed of what the current problems were regarding information and the communication of such. This gives us a clearer idea of the route the final project must take to be most beneficial:
The current platforms of relaying information are not user friendly. This is especially noticeable with younger patients.
Most of the information available is printed and part of older booklets, which may be outdated by today’s standards.
The information is not broken down, and is instead presented in full, which can lead to overwhelming the patients.
Overall accessibility is poor and needs improvement, preferably through digital and interactive means.
We researched heavily into patient experiences during and after major surgeries to gain a better understanding of their point of view, what they went through and how they think things could be improved in terms of information delivery.
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Questions were asked on how/what patients would like to see changed in terms of information provided and procedures and what we, as designers could do to help that. The main take away points from this were that, patients should be able to have more say in what they want and should be allowed to know. Do not provide step by step process ahead of time, instead provide information on the process as steps arise. And that secondary consultations with another surgeon (privately if needs be) should be permitted if you don’t like the information already given, this without referrals being necessary.
Using this information our idea generation and concept refinement began in order to compile ideas together and direct our plans into a more focused route.
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OUR CONCEPT
From gathered data and research, we had a plan of action towards developing our concept with more refined key features. The idea for this concept is all about giving the Patient access to all the information they would need to know for before, during and after their operation/transplantation. However, leaving accessibility and investigation in the control of the patient entirely, reducing information overload or irrelevant information.
VISUAL DESIGN
We wanted the visuals to be clear cut and straight forward so we kept to a similar colour pallet to the NHS colour chart, with the design philosophy of clean and vibrant, remaining visually distinct and friendly to all ages. We decided to go with a pastel coloured vector style, to appeal to both an adult and child audience, as people of many backgrounds may be faced with such surgeries. This translates into the app layout making things easy to understand.
APP FEATURES
Patients can tick off sections they have read, notifying the nurse/doctor that it has been covered by the patient. At the end of each section, patients get to state how well they understood the subject or not. This can be covered in person during consultations, patients can focus on the subject areas that matter most to them. A set percentage of sections will be mandatory to cover, though will still be able to be done in any order.
WIREFRAMES
Before creating the final mock up designs of the app, we wished to perform some wireframe testing, to see what the users think worked best and what they think could be removed, as well as a general critique of the product and how useful it would be in practice to actual patients. The wireframes show the design of a user profile and navigation of the menu, along with present sections that are divided up for easy reading and a way to respond on how well that section was understood.
A notification page for the patient to remain up to date and a way to contact doctors or friends through a call/messaging system.
Plans for the demonstration Narrative
The video follows the journey of a young patient being assessed for an unspecified organ transplant. The video goes through several stages of the patient using the app and the features available, consulting with the doctor on areas he is unsure about, and using it all the way past post-surgery when he has recovered and is resuming his life.
The story uses a mix of presenting the patient’s journey through assessment up until post-op, as well as displaying how the app would work while they are using it to accompany this.
The video is complemented by a voiceover narration explaining the app and what it can be used for as the story goes on, staying in-keeping with the actions of the story’s characters and surroundings as they transition throughout.
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APP MOCKUPS
In order to better present our vision for the Heart to Heart app, we created various mockups of how the app would look on a phone device. Phones were our primary choice to aim the application towards, due to the convenient size and availability of smartphones.
The wish was to create the mockups as faithful as possible to how the actual phone app would look. We received generally positive feedback from user testing, with many seeing how such an app would be useful in delivering information more efficiently and allowing a better means to receive consultations only when needed.