BACKGROUND
Medical practitioners currently only have one option for intubation training: the mannequin, which does not account for complications that may be encountered during a real intubation.
We designed an augmented reality application to simulate difficult airway conditions on a physical mannequin while navigating the phases of the process using voice commands.
The application also includes a built-in educational feedback system to ensure users are able to learn from their mistakes, elements of gamification to keep users having fun, and a rewards system for professional development.
TEAM + ROLE + SCOPE
Time: This was a 10 week client project in the DALI Lab
Role: Product designer
Team: 1 Project Manager, 3 Software Engineers, 3 Product Designers, 2 partners
Tools: Figma, Mural, Google Suite, Slack
SOLUTION
We centered our ideations around the question: How might we teach busy paramedics who all learn in different ways difficult airway intubation?
Give yourself a competitive edge and save more people. Simulate difficult airway intubation in unique and tough environments.
Learn how to improve your intubation techniques through shadowing another intubator, reviewing past sessions, or parsing customized tips + feedback.
Schedule time for training manually or link your practice schedule to your Google Calendar!
Track your progress and tell others - including jobs - that you're a DHMC certified intubator.
USER RESEARCH
After stakeholder research and 8 interviews with paramedics, medical instructors, and advanced EMT's, we synthesized our findings using empathy maps.
Here's what we learned from talking to our users:
PERSONA
To further narrow down who we are designing for, we created a user persona. Meet the busy + info inundated physician.
The Busy + Info-Inundated Physician (Medical Resident)
This user is anywhere from 20-45 years old and has a decent grasp on standard intubation. As a resident in medical school, they have a high level of competence navigating technology and are often described as motivated, busy, exhausted, curious, and studious.
IDEATION + SORTING
We centered our brainstorms around a series of how-might-we questions derived from our key insights and persona. Our features were then sorted on an impact-effort matrix to see which we should implement.
We chose the starred features.
USER TESTING
After hundreds of greyscales and a hundred more initial hi-fideltity screens, we decided to show our simulation to our users. It turns out that quite a few things needed fixing.
Here's how we used our user testing to solve additional pain points and craft an easy-to-use final product:
WRAPPING UP
I would like to continue to test the product on paramedics, medical students, and instructors to continue getting feedback.
In the coming term, we will work with 3D modelers to develop the augmented reality airway. Lastly, I would like to continue to refine the dashboard interface to reduce the cognitive load it takes to process all of the options.
WRAPPING UP
This was my first project designing for AR/VR! 10 week terms are super short, and it's super important to dedicate enough time to user testing, especially when you are relatively unfamiliar with the equipment.
Our team got along pretty well, especially towards the end of the project. Everyone works better when they are having fun + when everyone is friends. Going forward, I'm going to be more proactive in fostering a fun team dynamic so that the team can be friends throughout the duration of the project.
