Ancrod
Digital Healthcare Product
Project Completed
April 2021
Task and Planning
The task for our final project at the end of our second year at IXD was to create a digital healthcare product based on a specific need. I decided to create a tablet and desktop application specifically designed for paramedics and hospital staff. The app would show and locate available beds for each hospital in NI. This was during the COVID-19 Pandemic where hospital beds were in short supply. The paramedic team would file patient details at the scene on the app and would directly notify the staff at the hospital that a patient would be arriving shortly soon, ultimately creating a more efficient process during emergencies.
Ideation and Research
Ideation originally began with a mind map and brainstorming on certain ideas on what could help locals and or medical staff. Some ideas were a refined system for patient medical records, a nutrition and health app for people recently diagnosed with diabetes and an app that could help communication between EMT staff and hospital staff. In the end, I went with the EMT app. Research began with looking at various articles about the growing crisis in NI about the shortage of beds in city Hospitals. This led to panic and confusion with staff, patients and locals. This gave me to the idea of creating a service that could be used to identify available beds in each hospital and cut out the confusion and uncertainty. I created a user journey map of a paramedic at the time of the crisis and highlighted a pain point frustration upon the lack of communication between staff.
The sketching process started off with a user flow diagram to get a sense of the journey the EMT staff would take to identify, file and submit a patient into the database and send over to the hospital staff. I wanted to have as few screens as possible to make the process as fast and efficient for the paramedic inputting the information during an intense emergency. Multiple concepts of each screen were produced and eventually I chose one to start refining for digital design.
Sketching
Digital Design
The digital design process was carried out on Figma. I focused on a tablet design as the EMT staff would need something quick and portable to use during an emergency. I used a blue colour scheme to maintain a professional and calm look. This would also not be a distracting colour scheme for the user. Large icons were prioritised to keep the momentum fast, sharp and efficient for the user.
Challenges Faced
Challenges faced during the design process came down to branding, specifically the logo. I wasn’t happy with the original design and wanted something bolder and punchier while also relating to the name. Eventually after a few different concepts I created a new logo I was very pleased with as it looked much better visually and related well with the Ancrod title. Overall, a slight hiccup during the process but nevertheless dealt with.
Final Design
