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Depression Decision Aid
Physical cards concept to a mobile app that helps physicians and patients identify the medicine
Time frame
3 Weeks
My Role
Team lead, Researcher, UX/UI Designer
Depression is a common mental disorder affecting more than 264 million people worldwide. It is characterized by persistent sadness and a lack of interest or pleasure in previously rewarding or enjoyable activities. It can also disturb sleep and appetite; tiredness and poor concentration are common. Depression is a leading cause of disability around the world and contributes greatly to the global burden of disease. The effects of depression can be long-lasting or recurrent and can dramatically affect a person’s ability to function and live a rewarding life. (who.com)
The Project
Choosing the right antidepressant can be a daunting task. With so many choices and such unpredictability in their individual effects, patients with depression often spend months or years casting about for the right medication, while clinicians are often uneasy or unwilling to offer options other than their preferred prescriptions
A new study shows that a simple series of conversation cards can dramatically improve both the patient’s and their physician’s satisfaction with the discussion on and comfort with the choice of antidepressant. The findings appear in the journal
Source: KER UNIT YouTube
Problem
Right now, The physician should sit near the patient to do the test. The physician is using the physical cards to communicate with the patient is effective, but the physical paper card losses the fresh looks after a few presentations. It makes them print more papers for the test again.
Design Process
We decided to follow the Human-Centered Design Thinking process to make sure that our design decisions were supported by user research and feedback in one-week time span.
Deep-dive into the Current System
Stakeholders Interview
Patients often abandon antidepressants because of unrealistic expectations, lack of treatment efficacy, or unacceptable side effects. Physicians, meanwhile, often focus on a medication's stated effectiveness, rather than the patient's broader needs and preferences. The decision aids tested in this trial come in the form of evidence-based conversation tools, designed to help patients and their doctors use the best information about depression medicines to address the specific situations of the patients using the medicine. Used in the context of these conversations, these decision-making tools can help the patient and doctor arrive at more informed, patient-centered choices.
A set of five paper cards was developed by the Clinic’s Center for Innovation. The series of physical cards showing weight, sleep, sexual issues, the patient to visually compare the various side effects of medication and cost to decide which drug to take, based on the patient’s expectations from the drug he/she choose from the list. They already have some research data.
RESEARCH
Research
Physical card for the test
User Interview - Physician
This is a great opportunity to get more data/details about the focus user group from the experts( Physicians)
We had 7 detailed discussions with Doctors who are experts in depression treatment.
NB: Unable to post real interview photos here
Key points
Emotional attachment with patient
Patient history is VERY important
Physicians find the relevant medicine through the detailed discussion
Different patients react differently
Depression is a private and personal issue
User Interview - Patient
After the discussion with Physicians, we decided to have a detailed workshop to learn more about the user group. Based on the discussions and the learning through the internet and expert interviews, It gives us more clarity about the user group.
We try to find answers to the major questions. How? Why? When? How to solve it?
Image courtesy: medicalnewstoday
Semi-Structured
User Interview & Survey
This is not like the regular interview with the end-user. We participated in 7 user interviews with a Patient & a Doctor. Lots of information was gathered through secondary research. But It's important to get real-world data and information from the real patients.
Key Quotes from Users
"Getting more comfortable while talking with Physicians"
"Initially worried to visit Physician"
"Surrounding"
Depression is a private and personal issue
Observation
We got an opportunity to see how the current concept work and what are pain & bliss points
Source: KER UNIT
IDEATE
Ideate
We synthesize the qualitative and quantitative research data. We create an Affinity map for the date nights.
Persona - Physician
Mutual user expectations
Typical User Journey
How current testing is working. Patients typically come to the hospital for the test and the Doctors find a good, calm, cool, and private place for discussing with patients. The physical cards are the main ingredient for the test.
Source: KER UNIT YOuTube
Typical Users Journey
Emotional Experience
We decided to create an emotional experience (Mood map) based on the typical customer journey. The patient diagnosed with depression should be a different experience and emotion from the other user category patients.
Emotional Experience map (Mood map)
But, Different patients have different emotions
Identified Pros & Cons
Based on the Qualitative & Quantitative I list out the pros and cons that were identified while using physical card concept.
Identified Pros & Cons
Emotional attachment is the key role here!
That's the primary challenge....!!
Design Principle
We created four design principles based on this concept, to focus on supporting positive human interactions with technology and adding more value to improve the conversation.
Revisit
Easy to go back and forth when the user needs. Because the users always swapping the physical card while the discussion
Simple
It should look simple without any complicated design or experience.
Comparisson
Easy comparison between the medicine the cards they chose
Choose
Users should select the medicine with a seamless experience.
Decision making
After all the research(Qualitative & Quantitative), Observation, and mapping we rely on the brainstorming sessions.
How the decision made
Brainstorming
Brainstorming & Solutions
User Flow
DESIGN
Design
First-Stage of Story Boarding
and Wireframe
We create a visual storyboard to study how they will explore this feature. And made the initial paper wireframe for the design review with my team.
The primary user behavior is an important part of wireframing. Current evidence suggests that depression is linked to traits such as neuroticism/negative emotionality, extraversion/positive emotionality, and conscientiousness. Moreover, personality characteristics appear to contribute to the onset and course of depression through a variety of pathways.
Early Wireframe Explorations
First stage of wireframe
Use case 1: Test in Hospital
Use case 1: Test in Hospital
The patient will come to the hospital and discuss with the physician choosing the right medication through the mobile app.
Use case 2: Test in Online
Use case 1: Test in Online
The patient requests an appointment with the doctor. Hospital arranges a video call with the patient on their internal system or other application. Doing remotely with face to face video call
Validation & Design Critics
We come up with 3 shortlisted different ideas There are some of the pros and cons we identified. After the detailed discussion of experts and 17 end-users, and the technical feasibility, We decided to go with the mixed option of ideas 1 & 2.
OPTION 01
Real world design
without profile
OPTION 02
One application and use other apps for video call
OPTION 03
Like playing game: Both users will get instant visibility. + Profile
Redesigned the current solution for the
same experience as when patients in the hospital
To avoid learnability, Usability, Zero interaction..etc: for the Patients, we use an existing application
for the face-to-face communication.
Final solution with FaceTime
Prototype
The important part is to convey to the patient, this test they can't perform without a physician and share the exact information before they start each time.
Very few interactions to get the result. I always focus on not use any design animation while the user clicking for the response
Choose Multiple & Compare
Multiple Medicine
Users can choose multiple medicines.
Easy Comparisson
Users can compare shortlisted medicines.
Finalised Medicine
Users can see and save finalized medicine.
Working prototype
Validate
VALIDATE
User testing
We did the task-based test (Remotely moderated test ). We the prototype with 5 doctors and Patients. In progress of user testing we test the entire application with the end users.
1/1
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Demo Image. Courtesy: Unsplash
User testing result & Test
Initial user feedback
& Heuristic Evaluation
Few screen based feedbacks that captured on the user testing.
1/2
User feedbacks captured in the design
Unmoderated User Testing
We used the MAZE app to do unmoderated user testing with more than 20+ users in minimal time and gathered data and make it more insightful findings.
1/4
Reversed Design and Experience
Based on the user feedback and the usability tests, we redesign the screens with the most important and common user feedback and the gap we identified.
Measure the KPIs
Impact & Learnings
This project helped me to work on the projects for 1 week with minimal research. Creating a strategy is the core of the UX project.
Listening to users' stories gave me extra mileage to do the project. Be a good listener and observer.
Remote brainstorming sessions should me focused and result-driven
Remote research (Qualitative &Quantitative) went very well
Continuous usability test is the key for making a better product
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