c.chen

Keept .

Creating a platform patients and doctors can utilize for consistent physical therapy .
ROLE
TIMELINE
SKILLS
TOOLS
Product Designer
April 2024 - July 2024
Ideation
Research
Prototyping
Usability Testing
Figma
Adobe Creative Suite
Google Drive

THE PROBLEM

Patients have a hard time remembering when and what exercises they need to perform in order to continue therapy at home after they are discharged.
PROBLEM DISCOVERY + TARGET PAIN POINTS
What issues can arise when patients are sent home after short-term rehab?
After my grandma's aneurysm surgery, my mom and I worked with the physical therapist to expedite her recovery. However, the instructions we were given proved insufficient, especially as she regained independence. The main pain points that I wanted to target with this project are:
1. Forgetting to do the exercises / lack of motivation
2. Recalling which exercises to do and how many times
3. Doing the movements of any exercise wrong
FINAL SOLUTION
How can we ensure patients continue physical therapy at home in order to have a successful recovery?
TO THE BEGINNING .. if you're curious
Brainstorming ideas to build off of
WHAT COULD THIS LOOK LIKE?
Drawing possibilities
From the ideas that stood out, I took time to draw out what any of them could look like and a site-map:
HOW CAN WE ENSURE FLEXIBILITY AND PERSONALIZATION?
Users (including doctors) can create a training plan
Categories, filter / sort, and search will make it easier for users to find what they're looking for.
A drag and drop feature will allow efficient and easy-to-use customization.
To account for user preferences: speed, reps, and time can be adjusted
Users can then share this plan through links (ex. physical therapists can share with patients).
ENSURING USERS DON'T FORGET
Reminding users to do their plan
Mobile and desktop widgets + push notifications + add to calendar option
--- Users will be reminded when they open their laptop or phone (from home screen).
RECORDING PROGRESS + KEEPING PATIENTS IN CHECK
On a scale from 1 to 10 ... // sharing our progress
To check their progress, users can rate how they feel at the end of the plan (e.g. pain level, difficulty), and see an overview of the number of times they did their plan / view any streaks.
They can also share their progress with their physical therapists to showcase improvements or get motivation.
LEARNING WHAT WE CAN DO BETTER
Testing usability
Since I was not able to contact any target users (doctors or patients), I asked my family (grandma included) and friends to test the usability of my initial prototype. Here's a summary of what I found:
❌ Low visibility on some pages
❌ Hard to navigate for some
✅ Easy once user is set-up
✅ Good communication features
✅ Straight-forward exercises // easy-to-follow
❌ Takes a while to create plan
IMPROVING USER EXPERIENCE
Reiterations
From the results, here are the changes I made:
Increasing accessibility - adding view section for users to adjust icon size / change preferences
Maximizing efficiency and clarity when creating a plan - adding an "apply same for all exercises" vs typing for each exercise + clearly representing goals by showing targets
Making it as easy as one click - add play directly to widgets (just click to play from home screen) // this also helps remind users whenever they open their device
WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS
🪞 Exploring possibilities
Virtual Reality
When I was at the rehab center, the physical therapist would always tell me to do the exercises in front of my grandma and at the same time. Otherwise, she would often make mistakes or rush through the movements, which was useless or could cause further issues.
VR could provide an opportunity to have someone mirror the exercises in front of her in the future!!
Accessibility
Increasing accessibility through increased language options + mobile app design
REFLECTING ON KEEPT
Learnings + challengings .
✰ Testing limitations.. keep on learning !!
- Though I wanted to incorporate VR, without the tools and knowledge, it is something to build upon in the future
- Was not able to get test the prototype with target users (physical therapists + patients)
✰ There is so much more to product design than research and UX
- The future is unknown, but technology is advancing fast
- This project has taught me how to think more about the future than the past and present and what the possibilities are
Thanks for scrolling through my case study!! Feel free to reach out, I would love to chat ✚ connect .
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