Duration: June-August 2021
Role: UX Design intern
Company: 3M (Medical Solutions Divisions)
Result: Proceeded to Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
BACKGROUND
Understanding the pain patients with chronic wounds go through
Chronic wound: A wound that does not heal in a predictable amount of time and may take years to heal. Diabetics, accidents, or infections usually cause patients with chronic wounds. The pain in chronic wounds arises from either tissue damage or irritation of nerve endings. This resulted in mobility issues and poor clinical outcomes. Patients use negative pressure wound therapy to help the wound heal more quickly. (Image shown below)
Negative Pressure Therapy is a vacuum pump to promote healing device with a specialized dressing attached to patient's wound
BACKGROUND: THE MOBILE APP
Introducing MyWoundHealing: a mobile app to support patients to achieve clinical outcomes
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Chronic-Wound Care app, a.k.a MyWoundHealing app, is an existing mobile app that supports patients with chronic wounds (diabetics, accidents, etc.) to achieve a holistic positive health outcome. Since these wounds are severe, patients use negative pressure wound therapy to help the wound heal more quickly.
The key features include:
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Wound tracker
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Wound dressing supply orders
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Educational content
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Troubleshooting info about the therapy device
MY ROLE
What I am contributing to this project...
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End-to-end design process including information architecture, prototypes, concept generation, UI designs
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Collaborated with UX researchers to find out about the key insights and findings from user interviews
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Actively participated in meetings with external stakeholders, including the global marketing leader and project manager for design feedback and iterations
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PROBLEM STATEMENT
A team of UX researchers conducted user research (I was not involved in this research) to discover patients' needs and pain points of using the MyWoundHealing app while undergoing wound therapy. One of the findings was that patients do not feel engaged with the current app's educational content due to poor usability issues. This resulted in only 2% of patients downloading the app. Hence, the question statement is: ​
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How might we engage patients with educational content to
feel confident with their wound care and achieve clinical outcomes?
PERSONA
Meet Robert, a 72-year-old chronic wound patient undergoing wound therapy and have been using the MyWoundHealing app for the past six months​
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Thirteen patient interviews were conducted, and the following persona is derived from insights gathered during one of these interviews.
RESEARCH: PART 1
To find out why the education content was not engaging, user flow and information architecture were created to find out UX issues.
A bird's-eye view of the mobile app from one screen to the other, highlighting the educational content
A simplified version of the user flow focusing on the educational and help features (highlight in purple)
Findings
There were repeated contents, cluttered information, inconsistent video length, and
too many clicks
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Noted repeated content, highlighted in orange.
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Observed cluttered content with a mix of video and text-based instructions.
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Inconsistency in video length, ranging from 2 to 20 minutes.
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User flow indicates that more than two steps are required to learn about a topic.
RESEARCH: PART 2
To solve the UX issues of the app, I looked into a few existing apps that provide educational content
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I looked into several apps, including Headspace, Wonar Health, Duolingo, Hinge Health, Coursera, and Khan Academy. This market research gave me valuable perspectives on user-friendly interfaces, engaging content from visually appealing UI designs, and the user experience of the overall navigation.
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APPLYING FINDINGS FROM RESEARCH
With bite-sized, personalized video content, and less number of clicks, Robert is able to learn about wound therapy step-by-step​
I redesigned the information architecture based on my learnings from the market research. Since educational content was important for wound patients, I reorganized the home screen features by prioritizing educational content. The top section includes personalized education content based on their wound therapy status. The navigation to access videos has also been streamlined, reducing the number of clicks.
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PROPOSED CONCEPTUAL DESIGNS
A low-fidelity visual representation of Robert watching the educational video on the 1st day of his wound therapy
I translated key UX and UI features identified in market research into a low-fidelity wireframe for a basic representation of the app's layout and functionality. This iterative design process, lasting two weeks, involved ongoing discussions with the UX team and external stakeholders to receive feedback and continue refinements, aligning business goals with patients' needs.
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The rounded edges make the interface appear softer and more inviting, which makes it look intuitive and user-friendly.
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This layout provides gamification experience. Ussers completed onoe module will be rewarded with badges and points.
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This layout allows users to preview the video's content in an easy-to-digest information. This helps users know the topics covered in this module.
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RESULT
With the redesigned MyWoundHealing app, Robert is able to learn about wound care easily so that he feels more confident to go through this journey and achieve positive health outcomes.
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I presented the conceptual designs to a team of internal and external stakeholders. This project proceeded to the MVP. Due to confidentiality purposes, I am unable to show the final designs or the metrics of the result. Learn more about the value I brought to this team, the limitations of the project, etc, at the bottom.
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PERSONAL INSIGHTS
A few highlights from my internship
Met a group of amazing interns on my first day of working virtually
A selfie of me when I received 3M swags
Entrance to the Design Center
Ate 3M cookies and it was delicious
What the Healthcare Business Group team said about me
"Angeline, what great work you've done these past few months. You've been eager to learn, open to feedback, and appreciative of everyone's contributions." -Adam, UX Principal
"You did such an amazing job this summer on all your project work for My Wound Healing. I am amazed by your thoroughness." -SarahMarie, Sr. Product UX Designer
"You've been an amazing part of our [MSD] team, and we'll miss your engagement and positive energy." -Jason, Design Director
"It has been a pleasure to work with you.Your excitement and passion for your work and healthcare design is invigorating to see!" Jamie, Sr. UX Researcher
PERSONAL REFLECTION
Overall, I had an enjoyable and fulfilling experience working in the healthcare space. I am grateful for the opportunity to learn from my UX team and the people I've met at 3M.
What were the challenges/limitations?
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Understanding the complexity of the product's ecosystem and the end-to-end patient journey
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Due to time limitations, I was unable to conduct user testings with patients to validate my wireframes
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What values have I brought into the business?
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Redesigning the mobile app from scratch, guided by user research insights.
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Conducted market analysis to inform strategic decision-making.
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Restrategized the information architecture to align with both business goals and the specific needs of patients.
What was my biggest takeaways?
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Present using compelling storytelling and communicate effectively across cross-functional team
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Understand the importance of short and long-term project goals and structure of the organization
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The impact of product value on business revenues