Medical
-Finder
OVERVIEW
When Omicron hit Shanghai in 2022, the city was put into a full lockdown. Since medical resources are assigned mainly for COVID-19, and the information of hospitals dose not update in time and inaccurate. As a result, people who have demand for certain medical resources(eg: chemotherapy) were having a hard time locating available hospitals. Consequently, a great number of people in fact lost their lives during this period.
ROLE
TOOLS
TIME SPAN
UX/UI DESIGNER
UX RESEARCHER
APP DESIGN
FIGMA
PHOTOSHOP
2022.4.30 -
2022.6.10
-PROCESS OVERVIEW-
01.
BACKGROUND
Background Cases
When Omicron hit Shanghai in 2022, the city was put into a full lockdown. Since medical resources are assigned mainly for COVID-19, and the information of hospitals dose not update in time and accurate. As a result, people who have demand for certain medical resources(eg: chemotherapy) were having a hard time locating available hospitals. Consequently, a great number of people in fact lost their lives during this period. Our product is designed to provide a up-to-date platform for people in shanghai to locate accurate medical resources within a short time.
There is already an official website of HealthCare Commission that provides medical information. However, the drawbacks of this website are obvious and can be listed as follow:
1. It is hard to search for certain services such as the opening of department.
2. It is not real time information.
3. The mapping function is unavailable.
HealthCare Commission Website
02.
RESEARCH
INSIGHTS FROM RESEARCH
In order to figure out what makes it so hard for people to get immediate medical treatment, we actually did a lot of desktop research: the information people updated online for help. And we went to the related organization to interview some staffs about the whole process of getting medical treatment during the lock-down period in shanghai 2022.
User Journey Map
Affinity Map
Pain Points
Whenever there is a COVID case, there would be temporary roadblocks. It is inconvenient for people to get to the destination without knowing it.
In order to get out of the neighborhood and get to hospital, people have to
go through a complex process to get the permission.
Since the medical resources are reassigned during the lockdown, many departments of hospitals are closed. In addition, it is extremely difficult for people to locate accurate medical information.
Persona
03.
FEAETURES &
PRIORITIES
Pontential Solutions
Value-Effort Diagram
To solve the pain points mentioned above.
According to the diagram, there are 6 features that are valuable enough to be designed. And they are listed by the value-effort ratio:
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Address of hospitals
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Phone numbers of hospitals
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Emergency & outpatient
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Navigation
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Comments board for hospitals
04.
IDEATE
Why WeChat mini program？
WeChat is the most commonly used social media application in China. In addition, during the lockdown, WeChat became people’s go-to application for pandemic prevention and control.
Platform Comparison
As for implementation cost, WeChat mini program is much lower than web and mobile applications, because WeChat mini program has a ready-to-use design system. As for use effort, people have to download an app and register， which could take several minutes, or have a computer around. Consequently, WeChat mini program is our best choice.
Data Processing Diagram
We collect detailed information about hospitals from the Healthcare Commission and the location of hospitals from the official website. Then we put all the data into our product.
Step1：We use python and jupyter to convert hospital addresses to longitude and latitude
Step2: We use mapbox to map the longitude and latitude to the map of Shanghai City
05.
UI DESIGN
First, the platform will ask for the user's location. Second, after authorization, the opening hospitals and available services are sorted and listed by distance. If it is unauthorized, the list will be out of order. Third, users can search with keywords or filter districts based on their specific needs. A map model is listed.
How to find a hospital that fits your medical needs?
LOW FIDILITY
Map Model
Search & Filter
Hospital List
Asking for Location
How we process hospital information?
MAPS VERSUS LISTS
We offered two modes for users: list mode and map mode. And we interviewed 5 people and showed them wireframes of map and list to find out which mode they prefer.
06.
TESTING
"I prefer list. It contains more information. I can check out its location on secondary page"
"I don’t like map. I am 80 with presbyopia. the texts on map are too small for me"
"The list looks more clear for me"
After interviewing, we found out that most of people prefer list mode for it was more clear and contained more information. As a result, we decided to make list mode the default mode.
* - All original screens are in Chinese
07.
STORIES
Location
Though many people are willing to give third party access to their location, there are still some people don't want to share their locations for privacy reasons.
Detailed Information & Navigation
After doing research, we found out that the most important information for users and the ranking of importance are:
1. Hospital basic information
2. Giving secondary important information that is not officially available online.
3. The location and navigation of the hospital.
Since third-party navigation applications are fully functional, it is more convenient to use them than to design a new map. Based on the order and the importance while using it, we designed the home page of the hospital.
Comment Board
As it is mentioned above , it is very difficult and complex for people in need in shanghai to locate in time, comprehensive and accurate information on the exsiting product. To solve this problem, we designed exclusive place for users to post their experience to provide secondary information for users to check specific service.
08.
Conclusion
1. There's no right or wrong design
From the process of doing this project, I've learned that there's no wrong or right design. Different types of design methods fit different types of users. For example, when we are hesitating between map mode and list mode, we find out that elder people prefer list mode because the map mode is hard to operate as far as they are concerned.
2. Accessibility shall be considered
Due to limited time and resources, we did not get a specific design for people with disability to interact with our product. I would love to look into that in my future projects.