The NHS project
Design question:
How might design improve the patient journey by reducing the overwhelm of information?
The Part Team:
Haili Wu
Zoe Reiful
Alice Xiao
Federica Bruschi
Holly Thomson
The Project Outline:
In this project, the team and I collaborated with the NHS gynaecology department at Crosshouse Hospital. We aimed to improve the user experience throughout the patient journey.
We investigated the current service model and identified opportunities for improvement by working closely with patients and healthcare workers.
As a result, we redesigned the user journey and information touchpoints, from the appointment letter to the recovery guidebook.
Design Process
.jpg)
Site Visit
- Interviewing patients and staff.
- Experiencing space.
- Understanding how the department operates.
Making Sense
- Consolidating our notes.
- Mapping out what we know.
- Determining pain points.
Research & Development
- User journey mapping.
- Diving deeper into specific pain points.
- Forming insight into the design environment.
- Seeking potential design opportunities.
Design Opportunity
During the research process, we notice that the unpleasant experience is caused by the wrong amount of information provides to the patient at an improper time. Therefore, we thought the user experience should improve if we can work out the correct amount of information and the proper time to inform the patients.
Prototype For Testing
We started redesigning and creating information by experimenting with prototypes. We tested different ideas with our user group. In the end, it shows the concept of designing an information package which provides essential information and makes the user journey more transparent. Users would not know too much or too little, which causes them to feel anxiety.
Outcome
Our final solution was to design an information package for patients. The package includes the right amount of carefully developed and selected information, plus a folder to store it, which can also serve as a place for users to keep their post-surgery recovery exercise instructions.
We designed everything around two styles. One style is based on the current NHS branding identity. The other one is what we think is more comfortable for the patients to look at. I designed the folder, appointment letters, and their envelope, and communicated our progress to the client throughout the project. Reflecting on the project, I learned that communication is essential during the design journey, and that it's useful to work across disciplines.
Storyboard
