Brian Chen - SKRT - Service Design Case Study
Introduction
The current emergency medical services (EMS) are very costly and unreliable. Patients would resort to digital ride services for a cheaper and faster alternative. The goal of our service design is to deliver a digital ride service that addresses the four following criteria: affordability, efficiency, medical professionals, and traffic bypass. Our service design follows the motto “Save money, Save lives.”
This case study will guide you through the service design process and provide a service analysis about our company SKRT.
Team
Our team consists of the following three members: Brian, Eunjoo, and Vanda. The diverse background and characteristics of our team offer each member a unique role in this service design project.
Brian is a junior studying Business and Technology Management with a concentration in Technology Innovation and Strategy at NYU Tandon School of Engineering. Brian takes on the role of Operation Manager in this project.
Eunjoo is a junior at NYU Gallatin School of Individualized Study with a concentration in Critical Theory and the Future of Technology. Eunjoo takes on the role of Public Relations in this project.
Vanda is a senior majoring in Integrated Digital Media at NYU Tandon School of Engineering. Vanda is a UX/UI + Product Designer and she takes on the role of Creative Director in this project.
Empathize Process
Our ideas revolve around “college students.” The ideas are personal experiences that we wanted to address as well as “life hacks” that can help college students save time and money. We used the mural board to note down our ideas and at the end of the session, we came to a consensus on tackling “Uber ambulance.” College students can’t afford the high ambulance service fee and would often resort to using a digital ride service for emergencies.
Problem
The majority of the patients can’t afford ambulance bills due to the absurd price ($1000+). Furthermore, the process of sending an ambulance to the patient is inefficient as it takes time for the 911 operator to dispatch the service and for the ambulance to reach the patient in a timely manner. Some patients would resort to using digital ride services such as Uber/LYFT and this greatly decreases the potential profits for ambulance services and is also dangerous. Digital ride services do not have emergency medical staff onboard and can’t bypass traffic, prolonging the overall trip time.
Research
Our team conducted research online and also through a digital survey to learn more about ambulance service, rideshare service, and emergency medical technicians.
The key points from our online research include the following:
- Ambulance fees increase with less usage therefore it costs more to operate.
- Basic life support ambulance 911 service would charge roughly $900.
- 71% of ambulance rides have the potential to generate a surprise bill.
- Lyft/Uber is always more than ambulance service and Lyft’s maximum charge hold is $400.
- Digital ride services do not offer medical support and do not recommend using them as an emergency ride service.
- Once Uber enters a city, data shows a 7% decrease in the 911 ambulance rate.
Our survey poll results showed many common themes around the ambulance and digital ride services:
- Ambulance service is too expensive
- Trust 911 ambulance service more due to professional medical staff/medical equipment on board
- Digital rideshare service is more efficiently and arrives faster
- 911 ambulance service is more reliable as it can bypass traffic
Define Process
Using data from our research, we noted questions that we had in mind about our potential deliverable service and customer needs. We keep the questions aligned and relevant to the ambulance and digital ride service. This process enables us to narrow down our target audience as well as addressing the needs of the customers to help us define the constraints for our solution.
Ideate Process
We drafted the solution of a volunteer-run digital ride service app called “SKRT” that functions as an ambulance Uber. It has professional medical staff onboard and the ambulances are zoned in certain areas for the fastest service time. Furthermore, the price of SKRT’s service must be affordable and should be between digital ride service price and ambulance price ($100–$700) depending on path, time, and injury. This service solution revolves around the 4 constraints that make ambulance service and digital ride services successful:
- Having Medical Professionals
- Efficient Response
- Affordability
- Traffic Bypass
The main goal of SKRT is to save money and save lives.
The logistics behind our business model is to run partnerships with car rental service as well as accredited EMT programs to provide volunteer service. A partnership with Zipcar for example would be beneficial in covering vehicle expenses. Partnering with EMT programs would provide job and internship opportunities for potential and qualified candidates. Furthermore, running a volunteer driving program would provide access to volunteer drivers.
Prototype Process
Using the idea model from the ideation process, we want to provide a quick and easy experience for our target audience. It should be usable for teens to middle-aged adults with basic smartphone knowledge and credit/debit card. Our prototype features aim to help users shorten the overall time it takes to dispatch the SKRT service. This includes keeping a simple and minimalistic UI/UX as well as reducing the number of touchpoints.
We used Figma to create an IOS prototype of SKRT that takes the users on a journey through all the touchpoints of the service. It will guide the users through the registration process and showcase the special features that SKRT provides. The prototype is designed to flow like the real app and allow users to simulate touch through clicks.
To access the prototype, please use the following link: https://www.figma.com/proto/PADBTKkg5k1dN0Aw7748j5/Skrt-Skrt?node-id=1%3A5&scaling=scale-down&page-id=0%3A1
Some features of the SKRT App to help reduce dispatch time and improve user experience are:
- Pre-saved information from registration process (Model 1)
2. Keyword detector to autofill injures/health conditions (Model 2)
3. Ambulance within the close radius (Model 3)
4. Hospital selection and autoselect the closest one (Model 4)
5. Live tracking (Model 5)
6. “Call to SKRT” feature to allow live help while waiting for service arrival (Model 6)
Final Presentation
After fulfilling all phases of the design process, we created a final pitch presentation to showcase SKRT. We designed our presentation to be simple yet engaging. We want to give our audience a straightforward and direct message about the problem and our service. We also want to take the audience on a journey through the touchpoints of our prototype so they can get a hands-on experience to understand it better.
Future Improvements
At the end of the prototype phase, our team did an assessment of improvements that can be made for SKRT in the future. Firstly, we want to design a feedback page after the service concludes so that we can get customer insights and ways we can make the service better. Second, we plan to integrate health insurance support to help those who can qualify. We will have to add a “health insurance” section during the registration process. Third, we plan to add a feature to help to call SKRT for friends/family in case the patient is unable to do so. Fourth, we want to add a donation page to help us improve and expand our service. Fifth and lastly, we want to add a volunteer sign-up page for candidates to sign-up faster and easier.
Challenges
We came across many challenges during the design process. Firstly, we had a lot of questions to ask on our survey which made the survey too lengthy. Therefore, we reworded certain questions to address multiple points and reduced the overall length. The second challenge is designing the prototype itself. We went through many versions and designs to position different buttons and features. This part took our team 1–2 weeks to do and we are really proud of how our prototype turned out.
Reflection
Overall, I had an extremely rewarding experience throughout the project. I am really grateful for my team members and the efforts they’ve put in to make everything come together smoothly. I was able to learn more about designing innovative and efficient service from the project and about UX/UI design and collaborative innovation from my team. I also really appreciate the feedback from my team members and I look forward to working with them again in the future. In comparison to myself at the beginning of the semester, I am definitely one step closer to a “service designer” now than I am before.
