SnipChat
An service app that helps caregivers screen patients at anywhere and anytime
The Design Challenge
Surgery causes tissue injury and can trigger an inflammatory cascade that may patient’s susceptible to cognitive decline. In UPMC, the existing screening system provides different screening tools for older patients to minimize the risk of Postoperative Cognitive Dysfunction (POCD) and Delirium before the surgery, but the process is not only time-consuming but also bringing ethical concerns to patients and their caregivers.
The Goal
To deliver high-quality care that does not place large burden of time or resources on providers and families before the surgery
Type: IDI Challenge My Role: UX/UI Designer
Duration: 24 Hours Tools: PhotoShop, Illustrator
Facts that we learned
In order to know how to prepare older patients for surgery, we interviewed 10 people including older patients, their caregivers, and doctors. The key pain points we got are:
less involvement: the doctor is often worried about telling the truth
less trust between the doctor and the patient
Ethical concerns: the doctor is often worried about telling the truth
Define the Problem
Based on our findings, we hypothesized that if we can distribute the responsibility of clinical staff to other stakeholders, more patients could avoid disadvantages by systematic barriers. So we narrowed down to the main problem:
How can we leverage non-clinical stakeholders to pre-operatively screen for behaviors and risk factors associated with the onset of POCD or Delirium after surgery without systematic barriers?
Scenario & App Interface
We choose caregivers as our primary stakeholders, because they usually know patients better, and they have more time than clinical staff to take care of older patients. Since the cognitive assessment is a delicate subject to discuss with patients, the independent screening test conducted by their caregiver is a simple way to increase comfort and help affection.
Frustrations:
-
Cannot spend much time on accompanying his sick father in the hospital
-
Has no knowledge of his father's disease
-
Doesn't know how to help his father reduce the stress
Goal:
-
To learn more knowledge of healthcare
-
Go traveling with his father
"Our attitude is such that doctors are always right, but knowing more would have made us feel much better.”
Name: Fred Status: married Age: 34 Occupation: teacher
Scenario & App Interface
Fred is doing daily screen test for his father at home. He opens SnipChat and sees the personal assistant Snippy sent him a daily tip.
Scenario & App Interface
He sees different types of screen tests and chooses a Clock Draw screen test to conduct with his father.
Scenario & App Interface
He reads the instruction and records the testing video of his father.
Synchronize the Phone with the Computer
After recording the video, SnipChat auto-uploads the video to the patient's journey on the website. The website journey is mostly for the doctor to review the patient's situation in time. The caregiver can also take the test or updated the information of the patient via the website.
Ideate
After synthesized our findings, we brainstormed ideas related to screening service before surgery and narrowed down to the best possible concept which is to design an mobile service app that helps caregivers screen patients at anywhere and anytime. The expectations we want to reach are:
-
Builds trust with doctors.
-
Screens for risk factors & behaviors.
-
Provides baseline cognitive profile.
-
Keeps caregivers involved and informed.
Design criterias we built upon:
-
Make the screening process natural and easy to conduct
-
Make the user interface natural and the icons universally recognized
-
Make it come alive with a delightful color
Our solution is designing an app that helps caregivers screen patients at anywhere and anytime. Since the cognitive assessment is a delicate subject to discuss with patients, the independent screening test conducted by their caregiver is a simple way to increase comfort and help affection. The expectations we want to reach are:
-
Builds trust with doctors.
-
Screens for risk factors & behaviors.
-
Provides baseline cognitive profile.
-
Keeps caregivers involved and informed.
Mobile Screens
I choose color blue as the brand color, because blue conveys calm, strength, and trust.
The cute guy's name is Snippy, which is the patient's personal assistant. He is friendly and always smiling, which changes the stereotype of serious doctors.
Choose a Screen Test
There are four screening tests provided by SnipChat. Each one will take less than 10 mins to conduct. The caregiver can a choose different one to test the patient every day.
Desktop Screens
The user interface of the desktop has two
entrances. One is for the doctor, and another one is for the caregiver.
Start the Journey
The caregiver records and uploads the daily video of the patient to the website till the day of operation so that the doctor can know the situation of the patient via the daily video. If the caregiver has any questions about the patient's situation or the screening test, the caregiver can chat with the doctor by clicking the personal assistant - Snippy.
