Promoting hospital
efficiency
PULMAPP
Improving the
collaboration among hospital staff.
OVERVIEW
Our team of three had to develop a prototype for VCUHS's Pulmonary and Critical Care Division to remedy their scheduling and onboarding issues for a two-week sprint.
We set out to solve the problem of
disorganized schedules, lack of onboarding process, and a difficult contact list.
The outcome optimized the schedule, consolidated procedural information, and simplified the contact list so staff could easily become more connected.
MY ROLE
UI/UX Design, User Interviews,
User Research, Visual Design, Wireframing, Prototyping
IN A NUTSHELL
RESEARCH
Based on the brief, we created an actionable problem statement. We gained valuable insights from conducting user interviews as well.
IDEATION
We arrived at a holistic view of the problem, and conducted a "How might we?" session to ideate for each problem area; schedule, contact, and tutorials.
OUTCOME
A centralized calendar, intuitive contact list, and accessible tutorials for a more cohesive, organized and productive pulmonary division.
UNDERSTANDING THE DIVISION
DISCOVERY
The initial sprint brief was very detailed. Our team dived in for a better understanding to prepare questions and assumptions for later interviews.
RESEARCH
KNOWING OUR USERS
Kicking off the sprint, we met as a team to consolidate the information from the brief. Visualizing and condensing information was key in helping our team build a shared knowledge base of the issue at hand.
Making sense of the brief
The brief was dense with background on VCUHS's Pulmonary and Critical Care Division so we created an actionable and simple problem statement.
Initial problem statement and users
“Staff have trouble with onboarding,
maintaining a shared knowledge base,
and workflow across sub-services”
Based on the problem statement above we listed the needs, unknowns, and assumptions about the problem. These lists helped us better prepare interview questions because it made us aware of important information that needed clarification.
Needs, unknowns, and assumptions
Clarifying our assumptions
We went on to interview key stakeholders involved with the project. The majority of our assumptions held true. We interviewed them in their office so we had firsthand experience of their situation.
The contact and calendar system were stored locally in an Excel document that users had to frequently check. Their contact form is physically stored in the office. Tutorials for new residents aren't centralized so they are difficult to find.
IDEATION
CREATING VALUE
We had a good understanding of user needs and painpoints. The next step was ideating
ways to best reach their desired outcomes.
Prioritizing the right features
The ideation session helped us produce features for each section based on the problem statement, pain points, and user needs. The schedule was the top priority for the project due to its high usage rate and daily impact. There are plenty of examples of calendar, contact, and tutorial apps so the challenge was in identifying how to customize to fit their specific needs.
Ideation session
BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER
DESIGN
We assembled all of the pieces from the discovery process in order to build the final prototype. Rachel and I worked together to refine the final flow and look of the app.
Calendar
The Pulmonary and Critical Care Division’s schedule is hectic. Considering the amount of rotations and shift locations, we implemented features such as filtering shifts by location, and the type of calendar (the unit that needs to be worked, e.g. MRICU). We set out to reduce the amount of time faculty spends navigating the calendar by centralizing all of their dates and times in to one organized list view.
Toggle different locations
Locations are assigned different colors
Easily find contact information in the event
Contacts
The amount of information on the existing contact list is overwhelming. The paper copy had various markups and edits, and provided irrelevant information. When tackling this section, we wanted to centralize all contacts into one section, and put the most critical information with the contact. We added features based on user’s top needs, such as a linking to the calendar in order to see whom they work with next.
Easily get in touch with a variety of options
Contact recommendations based on schedule
Users can filter contacts based on specific needs
Tutorials
VCUHS's Pulmonary and Critical Care Division utilize a running document of tutorials to train new staff members. Their current system poses problems because it’s difficult to find tutorials and keep them up-to-date. The key to tackling the unorganized document was condensing, organizing, and increasing the accessibility of the tutorials. We implemented a bookmarking feature, added a search function, and created
a better way to ask for help by linking relevant contacts to specific tutorials.
Instructions are broken down step-by-step
Tutorial recommendations based on schedule
Sections are nested in dropdowns
Me, Rachel Buggé, and Isaiah Harvin
PULMAPP
A great example of human-centered design in the field.
CONCLUSIONS
PulmApp was created from the hard work and dedication of Isaiah Harvin and Rachel Bugge. This was our second time working together, and it was great to build off of our experience on the Nautilab project.
The two week sprint was a great exercise in quickly synthesizing information for a real problem, conducting user interviews, and rapid ideation and prototyping.
VCUHS's Pulmonary and Critical Care Division loved the concept.