The role of tablets in better healthcare
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The role of tablets in better healthcare
Intel
Doctors love their personal smartphones and tablets as much as the rest of us. But when it comes to work devices, the interaction often leaves a lot to be desired.
Experientia conducted an international ethnographic research project for Intel, exploring the impact that devices such as tablets have on healthcare workers in hospital systems.
The insights were translated into design directions for future tablet based hardware, software and service opportunities within healthcare. A concept prototype shows how a radically redesigned mobile device experience can strongly impact a physician’s point-of-care capabilities.
3 things to know
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Understanding needs of people
Experientia conducted extensive user research in China, Germany, the UK and the USA, visiting hospitals and interviewing and shadowing doctors and nurses, to understand how they behave in a typical day and how they interact with patients, products and services -
Participatory design
We also conducted participatory design sessions with doctors, exploring their what their ideal work device would do, and how they would interact with it. -
User interface prototype
Working closely with Intel, we designed a prototype interface of a personal device for use in healthcare systems. We also designed various concepts, including platform or service visualizations, product design sketches, feature ideas, and interaction and user interface solutions.
We mapped all the interactions medical staff had throughout the day, tracing their flows and work patterns.
Illustrated scenarios showcase how better work devices could impact doctors' work, and the standard of care they offer.
Personas illustrated the main insights from the research, highlighting charactertistics of healthcare professionals around the world.
The final interface prototype integrated all the research insights into a platform to help doctors offer better patient care.
In-depth
Context While most hospitals are run on Intel-based equipment and Intel chips, sometimes with Intel software, the story is very different for mobile devices, and remains so to this day. Doctors and nurses were increasingly using personal or professional mobile devices to interact with the hospital system, which lead to a range of frictions. Challenge The question Intel asked Experientia was quite simple: try to understand what is really going on in mobile devices by medical staff during their daily professional lives, and derive opportunities from that for new products or services that work better with the Intel-based hospital equipment. Research Experientia conducted an international ethnographic research project within hospitals in China, Germany, the UK and the USA, and explored doctors' daily practices, workflows and communication patterns, through in-depth interviews, on-site shadowing, and participatory design workshops. The aim was to explore the impact that devices such as tables have and can have on healthcare workers in hospital systems. We provided detailed analysis of all findings, maps of current device usage and of opportunity areas for future device developments, and persona profiles of key users in the healthcare industry. 24 emergent insights led to action points and prioritized opportunities. Opportunity maps and scenarios helped researchers to culturally situate concepts and articulate its value propositions and benefits for doctors, caregivers, hospital admins, and insurers Design These insights were translated into design directions for tablet-based hardware, software and service opportunities within healthcare. The most promising and relevant concepts were translated into interaction design and user interface solutions and prototyped. A concept prototype shows how a radically redesigned mobile device experience can strongly impact a physician’s point-of-care abilities. Other deliverables included profiles of all the participants, selected and subtitled research video excerpts, transcripts of participant interviews and workshops, and concept development. Impact Based on our research, Intel has redesigned its hospital services and moved from a pure hardware approach to one where the service experience sits at the heart of the interaction with the medical staff.
