Zonder – Varenya Raj

TL;DR

A MedTech company needed to move elderly clinicians from paper-based wound assessments to a digital tablet workflow without slowing them down.

I led the design end-to-end bringing down documentation time from 90 mins on paper to ~14 mins on digital tablet, tested successfully with 17 of 22 clinicians.

A MedTech company needed to move elderly clinicians from paper-based wound assessments to a digital tablet workflow without slowing them down.

I led UX/visual/interaction design end-to-end bringing down documentation time from 90 mins on paper to ~14 mins on digital tablet, tested successfully with 17 of 22 clinicians.

My role
Design Lead
Research
Prototyping
End-to-end UX
Visual Design

Team
CEO
Product Manager
Business Analyst
Engineering Team

Team
CEO
Product Manager
Business Analyst
Engineering Team

Outcome
A tablet-first wound assessment and docuemntation platform which clinicians carry with them to provide care at patients home.

~14

Minutes documentation time down from 90 minutes

92%

Clinicians prefer the new documentation method

59%

Percentage increase in patients covered per day

The ask:
Bring the documentation time under 15 minutes

Clinicians follow linear order for documentation or an order as they deem fit.

I had to accomodate for linear and non-linear workflows.

Documentation flow

The flow on which the success of the product depended upon.
There are 4 more screens in the entire workflow.

Clinicians followed a linear or non-linear method for wound treatment and documentation.

Tab for non-linear flow and floating action button for linear flow were designed matching clinicians mental model.

Tab for non-linear workflow

Floating action button for linear workflow

Patient page

The patient's details are kept at the top along which are followed with other details.

Wound page

Typically a patient can have not more than 7 wounds.

Categorising them into current and past and further in active, inactive and resolved helped clincians to scan through them faster.

WoundSwipe-ezgif.com-video-to-gif-converter

Faster wound identification
Sped up overall documentaion process

Treatment page

Treatment step was part of the documentation flow.
This ensured that clinicians cover all the medical protocols.

Research:
Understanding how Clinicians work

I took interviews to understand their ways of working and how they think.

Everyone assumed the goal was a faster form.
It was actually about building trust with clinicians who feared technology would slow them down or make them look incompetent.

Wireframes used for initial understanding of Clinician-Patient encounter.

KEY OBSERVATIONS

Workflow can vary based on the patient's case

Accuracy getting the assessment and treatment done correctly

Time conscious to cover more patients in a day

RESEARCH INSIGHT

The clinicians were highly skilled, many especially those around 55 yrs and older feared that unfamiliar technology could disrupt their efficiency and undermine their expertise.

KEY DESIGN DECISIONS

When designing for the elderly, every interaction had the potential to make or break the solution. This shaped the design decisions and the design system.

Checboxes with outline

Clinicians would read the options and return to the checkbox to select the option (right). I recommended checkboxes with outlines (left) for faster selection.

Large buttons

The buttons were made larger so that Clinicians can tap on the button during treatment procedure without difficulty.

Radio buttons with outline

Similar approach with outline was taken for radio buttons with the outlines. The shape was made rounder without any icon for easier and faster differentiation from a checkbox.

High contrast colours

The colour contrast had to pass AAA accessibility guidelines therefore the contrast between text, background and accent colour were carefully picked.

Similar colour interactive components

Consistent colour usage across interactive elements enhances recognition and supports faster recall for efficient task completion so button, checkboxes and radio buttons were made from same colour family.

Large font scaling sizes

Larger font size were picked for faster reading and type scaling factor a higher number.

Usability testing:
Passing the 15 minutes bar

The product team was able to arrange testing sessions with a group of clinicians who were part of the facility where Zonder was being adopted.

I took interviews to understand their ways of working and how they think.

Everyone assumed the goal was a faster form.
It was actually about building trust with clinicians who feared technology would slow them down or make them look incompetent.

TESTING 1

Method
Moderated testing

Outcome
9 clinicians finished the goal in ~40 mins

Learnings
Mirroring physical behaviour digitally didn’t work

Where a clinician is navigating to is unclear

TESTING 2

Method
Moderated testing

Outcome
Clinicians finished the goal in a range of 20 – 40 mins

Learnings
Clinicians struggled to know which form they were at

Length of the page being very long felt exhaustive

TESTING 3

Method
Moderated testing

Outcome
Only 6 completed treatment within the 15 minute target with most taking 20 minutes or more.

Learnings
Visibility to access to other forms worked

Interaction slowed the process down

TESTING 4 (Successful)

Method
Moderated testing

Outcome
17 clinicians completed treatment within the 15 minute target making this version successful

Learnings
Navigating to different forms was quick

This iteration enabled linear or arbitrary order for selecting a form

Next steps (if I cont'd)

Test assessment workflow with edge cases

Work on inventory workflows

Navigation of the clinicians to the patient’s home can be stressful and needs better preparation

Role of the app in cases where a patient is critical

You can read more about the design approach on a Medium blog post here.