Project Tryone : Inclusion for the American Healthcare System

Project Tyrone is today’s solution to addressing the negative impact of low health literacy levels among under-represented communities by transforming the patient-provider relationships with innovation grounded in technology and cultural sensitivity.

NOTE: This project is fragmented due to an NDA some parts of the process are left out and some of the pictures are edited to protect the agreement.

       Process: Initialization & Discovery

Overview:

Project Tyrone is an early stage HealthTech start-up incubated from an accelerator program at Johns Hopkins University.

The company was founded by one public health professional and one education and non-profit professional. Their company is based in Washington, D.C.

My Role: 

I participated in this project as the lead UX/UI Designer. With a list of requirements we needed built into a mobile phone agnostic clickable prototype, I felt with a few more methodologies we would be able to produce a competitive product.

Goal: 

The goal was to build a digital product which would help bridge the gap between healthcare professionals and minority communities in America.

Challenges:

Low health literacy impacts every community and represents our biggest threat in healthcare.
According to a study, African-American adults in Washington, D.C. who had a doctors office
or clinic visit from 2012-2017 have the highest incidence of indicating that health providers
sometimes or never explained things in a way they could understand.

A personal challenge I faced was my connection to the problem. As a designer I knew content
design would play a huge factor in the application achieving its goals.

I was very eager to get to this stage. I had to take a step back and consider the current maturity of the product and start from the bottom. I knew I had to look at the product objectively as just another HealthTech app.

Another challenge I faced was my own health illiteracy, limited knowlede of the industry and of the regulations surrounding HealthTech. One major entity I had to consult included HIPPA compliance. 

Comparative Analysis:

As this was my first time working with HealthTech I took my approach very seriously and ensured my references were extensive and thorough. I was lucky to have the founders as primary consultants with whom I was able to constantly check-in to make sure I was on the right track. 

The features the founders wanted, encouraged me to explore parallel solutions in addition to health literacy applications. These included fitness and health and wellness applications.  

                 Information Architecture

System Architecture:

I was able to define the system architecture by consulting with the founders on where their app would be positioned in the healthcare ecosystem. The application is unique in that it takes into account legacy systems and considers of how they currently operate. What is also unique is there are interactions which take place offline which greatly affect how the product is used.

Ultimately, we discovered as it relates to health literacy, healthcare professionals live on one side of a gap and patients on the other. Software and hardware can act as a bridge between the two sides. Digital solutions allow these two worlds to connect and interact with one another in a culture and under a heuristic where they only come into contact when an immediate need arises from the patient side. 

Site Map:

After reviewing a few of the already existing solutions I began to map how this app might function. What really stands out is the profile tab on the bottom nav bar which acts as a host to a supplementary function menu which collects data as well as shortens and streamlines the initial onboarding.

Userflow:

NOTE: This project is fragmented due to an NDA some parts of the process are left out and some of the pictures are edited to protect the agreement.

This is an example of one of the basic user flows. It helped us to visualize and actualize the environments for interface design. The product relies heavily on incubating interfaces which need to be designed to keep the user focused and calm to complete immediate tasks. 

User Interface Design

Design System:

One of the goals I had in mind for the design system was to communicate a feeling of calmness and control. One color that is associated with such is blue. I used cool blues and associated greys, blacks and whites. Repeating their use with icons, texts, and components.

The font used is a simple modern Roboto presented in multiple weights. Familiar, serif, and accessible. This prototype is mobile phone agnostic I felt comfortable using Google's Material Design Icons for the menu and navigational  and other use icons.

Wireframes:

This is one of the early sets of wireframes used to communicate to shareholders how the app could  function. Screens were created in addition to what was originally planned in the site map as we realized it would take more steps to accomplish our goals and stay compliant and relevant in HealthTech.

Unique Aspects

Designing for Machine Learning:

One feature in the app required me to build a simulation of machine learning. I was lucky to have a former mentor who holds a PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Georgia Tech. He was able to give me a few starting points on neural networks and the basics of machine learning. I also have some prior understanding of python for AI/ML which I was also able to effectively consult. 

The interface presents multiple choices to be selected and moves the user through a funnel asking qualifying questions to suggest a final agreement. 

Conclusion:

This project was extremely rewarding and made me truly understand how tech can make legacy systems more accessible. It also taught me the importance of thorough research. I felt it saved time in the architecture process because I had the chance to do a deep dive into the compliance and heuristics of HealthTech.

Another takeaway was the realization of how many different professionals across disciplines were able to be consulted to the completion of this UX project. It makes you understand as a designer the User Experience process does not have to be completed in a bubble and there are many external stakeholders and professionals who can give valuable insight.