Diving into the patient experience with research sprint
The thorough user-centered research process of identifying needs and forming empathy
Last week, Team Panacea had completed their first research sprint and presented research findings to the client, MedRespond. The main goal of the research was to empathize with our users and define the problem space. Therefore, over the course of 2 weeks, we utilized various qualitative and quantitative methods to understand MedRespond’s products, the users, as well as the opportunity spaces for our next move.
Why user research?
Before we walk you through our research process, let’s talk about why user research is important.
Research insights are the foundation of design
Always keep in mind the motto of User-Centered Design practice: “You are not user”. Designers could fall down the proverbial rabbit hole if we didn’t know our users. Therefore, it’s always helpful to break down the silos and talk to people.
Gaining empathy
Empathy is at the heart of design, without the understanding of what others see, feel, and experience, the design is a pointless task. – Tim Brown, the CEO of IDEO
Design is not only about the visual aspect. More importantly, is about meeting user needs and solving their day-to-day pain points. Another thing to keep in mind: everyone comes from different perspectives and experiences. What we find from the research could remove our assumptions and help us understand the holistic user experience.
Better understand the problem space and the healthcare industry
Based on our personal experiences in healthcare, we might come up with some thoughts in mind. However, we won’t know the right problem to solve without conducting user research. Not only can user research help us build common understandings of the status quo within the team and with our client, but it can also help the team narrow down the focus for our design.
So, what have we done?
During the research sprint, we created our research plan, executed the chosen methods, and synthesized the research findings. By the end of the sprint, we presented a detailed report with the following deliverables:
- Semi-structured Interviews with 10 participants, including patients, caregivers and healthcare experts.
- Affinity diagram which was generated from interviews (with over 500 notes!)
- Evaluative research methods that helped us understand the Information Architecture, usability, and usage of MedRespond’s current products. We conducted Heuristic Evaluations, Task Analysis and Log Data Analysis. Each method came with different goals.
- Design Artifacts that visualized and synthesized our findings, including Personas, Patient Journey and Empathy Map.
What we learned from the research
From the research, we identified that there are a lot of factors that affect patient experience and emotion. The complexity of the healthcare system is intertwined with stakeholders, workflows, regulations and administrative processes. Therefore, to better understand the emotional flow throughout the process, we created a Patient Journey Map to visualize when and where patients will be facing emotional fluctuations and concerns.
As we can see on the map, patients experience many ups and downs. Starting from having a symptom, to getting through the diagnose process and committing to the surgery, this is what we define as “pre-surgery phase”. After the surgery, patients would still have to deal with their conditions and keep working on treatments or therapies.
Here are the top themes we identified from the research:
Patients experienced a blend of emotions, and the most prevalent one is Uncertainty
Patients encountered a challenge where they weren’t sure about what’s going on, and what they should do before and after the treatment. This lack of information played a key role that caused patients anxiety, helplessness and distrust. Even after the treatment, they still felt negative emotions.
Patients were facing two key barriers to asking more questions: fear and lack of knowledge
Patients were in a dilemma where they wanted to know more, but they were afraid of what might be scary or overwhelming. Also, patients felt that they couldn’t overcome the barrier of asking questions due to the lack of domain knowledge. Often times, they came up with more questions once they got to learn more about their conditions.
The majority of patients interviewed want access to as much information as possible
Have you ever tried to search your symptoms or surgery information? We found out that even though patients were provided with information by various stakeholders throughout their treatment journey, if they were dissatisfied with the information, they would turn to other sources, such as the web.
Patients are keen to communicate with other patients who have had similar experiences
All patients interviewed expressed a desire to hear other patients’ stories. They felt that such interactions would have been positive influences in their treatment journey. Furthermore, some patients also expressed being open to mentor relationships with other patients who have had similar illnesses or conditions.
To sum up, patients experienced a lack of certainty throughout the process. By analyzing the semi-structured interviews with patients who have received both major and minor surgeries, we have validated patients’ need for more information than what is currently provided to them from their healthcare teams.
Our Next Step
Healthcare is a broad and complicated domain that impacts so much of every individual’s everyday life. In this 8-month long capstone project, we are trying to immerse ourselves in this field. We learned from our client MedRespond, our participants, and from our research. We know there is still a long way to go, but from the research sprint we had just finished, we got a good foundation of understanding.
In the following week, we will begin our Conceptual Design sprint to brainstorm and flesh out design ideas. But we will still keep interviewing people to gain more insights, and incorporating those insights into our research findings.
Stay tuned!
About this PublicationWe’re writing the MHCI 2019 Capstone: Team Panacea Publication for a couple of reasons.First, we want to give you an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of our capstone experience: the successes, failures, thoughts, insights, and innovations.Second, we would love to engage with you around the healthcare domain (Pittsburgh’s #1 industry!), so please follow / clap👏👏👏 / comment / share /reach out to us — we’d love to hear your thoughts
