Client
Personal project
Tools
Figma, Adobe Photoshop
Role
UX designer (solo)
TIMELINE
2 months
An overview of Relay
I worked at a hospital where the communication technology between nurses, patients, and receptionists was outdated and inefficient. I designed an app to make this communication more organized and inclusive.
My role
I was the sole designer for this app, as this was a personal project inspired by my firsthand experiences working in a hospital. In my design process, I conducted market research, performed accessibility testing, and created detailed wireframes and prototypes.
Dell Seton Medical Center in Austin, Texas. The hospital where I regularly volunteered.
I started my college career as a nursing major and spent a lot of time volunteering at a hospital.
I admired the dedication and hard work of the hospital's staff. They demonstrated unwavering commitment to providing the best care for patients, but despite this, the technology in the hospital was outdated and didn’t match the level of dedication the staff brought to work.
Inspired by my experience as a hospital receptionist, I designed this app to solve the most common communication issues faced by patients, receptionists, and nurses.
Problem statement
The technology used by inpatients at Dell-Seton Medical Center to communicate with hospital staff is outdated, inefficient, and doesn’t accommodate the needs of the hospital’s patients or staff.
To better understand the problems being faced, here is a breakdown of the current technology used by the hospital for patient-nurse communication.
I created an analysis outlining the total addressable market (TAM), serviceable available market (SAM), and serviceable obtainable market (SOM) to validate the need for an application to improve hospital communications.
This analysis validated the problem by revealing a significant demand for updated communication between hospital staff and inpatients. It highlighted a large audience of hospitals with a high number of inpatients who need modernized communication technology.
For nurses, the choice is clear: a smartphone is more practical than a tablet due to their need for portability and hands-free operation. This technology is also familiar to them, as the median age of hospital workers is 42, and 96% of this age demographic owns a smartphone in the US.
For receptionists, their administrative tasks are rarely done on a smartphone and are typically done on a computer or tablet. To stay consistent with building a mobile app, I designed the receptionist interface for a tablet. This also allows them the flexibility to move around with their device if needed.
For patients, a tablet interface is ideal due to age demographics and accessibility. In 2019, 16.6% of people 65 and older were hospitalized during the year, compared to only 6.6% of 18 to 44-year-olds. Therefore, we can prioritize the older audience, as they tend to be less familiar with technology and comprise a larger proportion of hospital patients.
For adults 65 and older, tablet and e-reader usage slightly outnumbers smartphone usage, making tablets a more familiar choice. Furthermore, the larger screen size of a tablet makes it easier to navigate for those with vision impairments.
Additionally, considering business needs, the average tablet costs less than a smartphone, making tablets a more cost-effective choice for hospitals.
(Based on unfamiliarity with technology and visual impairments)
With these insights in mind, I drafted low-fidelity wireframes.
Then, revised these to create high-fidelity wireframes.
CHALLENGE #3
⅔ of people age 70+ have hearing loss. Additionally, deaf patients are 32% more likely to be readmitted to hospitals than hearing patients, regardless of age.
These statistics make it crucial for this app to be inclusive of this group. This solution, in comparison to the current technology, gives these patients with hearing loss independence while also benefiting other users.
Similarly, 18% of people age 65+ have visual impairments — three times greater than the rest of the population.
In this case, this means ensuring the app is visually accessible.
I used the “Stark - Contrast and Accessibility Checker” plugin on Figma to test the contrast ratio of the colors on my design.
The plugin displays the WCAG rating for different components in your app. AAA is the most accessible rating a contrast ratio can receive. I changed a few colors on my app to meet this standard, including the primary blue for the entire app.
While it may not make a big difference to some, this helps improve how more severely visually impaired people view the app.
I ensured that most of my designs would be readable for visually impaired users by using high contrast and limiting the color palette. For the most colorful page (the "Food/Drink menu"), I specifically checked to ensure the UI was accessible for different visual impairments, such as different colorblindnesses.
Similar to the receptionist interface, but on mobile, key components of the nurse interface include the requests dashboard and messaging system from receptionists. A new feature is the 'Active / Inactive' toggle.
The importance of creating accessible designs: Some people view designing for accessibility as unimportant, seeing those with impairments as "edge cases." This belief is harmful because everyone should have equitable access to technology. For this app, it’s especially untrue, as blind, deaf, and elderly users form a significant portion of the user base. Not making the app inclusive would isolate people from receiving equitable care.
WCAG standards: 'Accessibility' is often thrown around as a buzzword in UX, but through this project, I learned more about the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and how they determine and quantify if an application is 'accessible'.
Conduct user testing: By the time I designed this app, I no longer worked at the hospital, so I faced the challenge of being unable to conduct user tests with real people. Going forward, I would test this app to ensure it is usable by my target audience.
Create more device interfaces: Create different versions of the app to be used on existing tech (e.g. developing the receptionist interface for desktop may increase adoption).
Increase accessibility for blind patients: Going forward, I would like to test my designs with screen readers to ensure it is visible to more people.
Relay supports nurses by replacing outdated systems with a program that is efficient, organized, inclusive, and intuitive. This app saves nurses time and effort, enabling them to focus more on patient care, and less on managing outdated technology.
By implementing Relay, we are not just upgrading technology; we are empowering nurses, enhancing patient experiences, and driving the future of healthcare forward.
Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed learning about my design and thought process for Relay. Check out some of my other projects below.
