Case study : Wicked Problems Project — Public Hospitals
Because of its definition, the wicked problem seems complicated even impossible to solve. Many UX/UI designers have had to deal with this type of complex problem one day. In our present society, many subjects can be considered as wicked problems.
For this project, we focused on the following problem: How Might We transform the end-to-end experience in Public Hospitals and especially in the emergencies?
For this new project, we worked as a team with Marion Guitton, F-Anaïs Sidibé and Quentin Massonneau. Let’s do it 😉 !
The Users and their pain points
Before starting our research phase, we had to make several assumptions in order to better understand the first feedback from users through a Lean Survey Canvas.
From our point of view, going to the emergencies is never a pleasure. The hours are often very long and the level of information from medical staff is sometimes very low.
In order to validate our assumptions, we distributed a quantitative questionnaire and conducted several one-to-one interviews to gather as much information as possible. We had the opportunity to interview both patients, attendants as well as some members of the medical staff to compare the opinions of the users and the welcoming ones.
Our goal was to distinguish between different types of patterns and profiles of patients in the emergencies.
I don’t know where to go once I get into the emergencies.
Sometimes, you have “to fight” to get information.
I avoid to go to the Emergency department because I’m afraid there is a lot of people and the endless waiting.
The emergencies : a many-sided problem
Following the analysis of the various data, we formalized several personas including Lucas, our ideal persona for which we wanted to integrate it in a real context.
We have also developed :
- Two secondary personas highlighting their issues as a companion.
- An extreme persona highlighting the fact that he often goes there to the emergencies.
To spotlight the experience of our main persona during his experience, Lucas, we dedicated a User Journey to him. The objective: to show the pain-points encountered by Lucas and identify the key steps of the change and the opportunities to improve his experience.
Thanks to the realization of an affinity diagram, we have identified three major problems that have been defined through three HMW problems:
- Help patients navigate to the right services in the facility?
- Improve the transmission of information with patients and attendants? (wait, stages of the journey, diagnosis, etc.)
- Help the patient live his wait better?
In addition to these HMW issues, the problem statement was established: Emergences patients need to be guided and informed about their entire journey (from the incident to the exit of the emergencies), because the lack of visibility makes their wait and overall experience all the more trying.
Our solution and Low-fi prototype
To answer to the problem statement, we developed a mobile application (paper prototype) with different features :
- An interactive map to answer to the navigation needs of patients: to be able to select emergencies, to facilitate its journey and to orient oneself more easily inside the building
- A profile with all the details of the patient: reason for coming to the emergencies, his health information, his medical file.
- A timeline of the patient’s journey at the emergencies to facilitate the transmission of information with medical staff, with the possibility to share with patient’s companions or friends.
- Various activities gathered together to help patients live their wait better: reading books, relaxing, playing games
To learn more about our low-fidelity prototype, It’s here.👇
Key learnings about this project
It was a very instructive and intense project, in terms of workload, and allowed us to discover new tools of the Design Thinking methodology: Empathy Map, Affinity Diagram or Blue Print.
This new challenge, which seemed complicated to solve upstream, allowed us to create a solution that meets the users’ needs. I really enjoyed working on this project because each member of the teamwork shared their opinion easily.
It could be great to develop the prototype to a High-fi format and iterate on it with user’s tests. Thanks for reading 😉!
