HCDE Senior Capstone
Human Centered Design & Engineering, Undergraduate Program
Final project of the undergraduate degree to demonstrate knowledge gained from the Human Centered Design & Engineering program.
My team and I decided to focus our one quarter project to be user research centered, concluding with design recommendations.
We partnered with FUJIFILM Sonosite and their design team to scope the problem, research question, recruitment, and analysis.
Research Question:
What is the opportunity with new technology to support doctors when providing help to patients in their offices?
Problem: Electronic medical records (EMRs) are integral to recording patient data and health history, but they hinder the patient experience and frustrate physicians. Doctors have found alternative solutions to improve the patient experience with medical scribes and speech-to-text technologies, to name a few. Our research began with how medical scribes are being used and evolved into why electronic medical records cause so much hardship and pain. With the help of our sponsor, Sonosite, we were able to conduct two rounds of research and pinpoint two key user stories that help us understand the problem in order to find a successful solution.
Process:
Findings:
Scenarios:
1: The Patient's Information Flow
Current Scenario:
Patient enters the doctor’s office and has to tell 3 separate people the same story about why they’re there (front desk, nurse, doctor) - 4 if you count actually making the appointment. This feels impersonal and implies a lack of communication or a disconnection between members of the office.
Ideal Scenario:
- For the Patient: They would feel as though the appointment is personalized so that they do not have to tell the doctor what is wrong because he or she already knows.
- For the Doctor: The appointment is more efficient because they already know the patient’s needs.
2. Information Generation without Sacrificing Personal Connection
Current Scenario: The doctor goes back and forth between the patient and the screen (EMR), which does not allow for the conversation to flow naturally between the doctor and the patient.
Ideal Scenario:
- For the Patient: They would feel as though they’re in a comfortable environment that they are having a conversation about health with eye contact.
- For the Doctor: They would experience the reason why they got into medicine in the first place–to help people and interact with patients also using eye contact. Also, inputting information is a job requirement that needs to be efficient and satisfying, and there is a need to be “covered” legally by the information in the EMR.
