Empowering Patients through Education
CLIENT
Princess Margaret Cancer Centre
Toronto, Canada
SERVICES
UX Research & Design / UI Design / Co-design / Usability Testing / Branding / Content Strategy
MY ROLE
Design & Research Lead
HIGHLIGHTS
Research published in scientific journals
Program licensed to other hospitals throughout Ontario, Canada
CHALLENGE
Receiving a cancer diagnosis can be a troubling experience that is filled with anxiety and uncertainties for patients and their families. The Princess Margaret Cancer Centre sought to create an educational platform that supports people in navigating this new reality and learning how to take control through self-management.
My role.
As Design & Research Lead:
managed a team of 2 designers and 1 human factors specialist
directed all UX, UI and branding decisions
managed and led co-design sessions with client for organization of the platform’s educational content for optimal UX
managed client and stakeholder interactions and expectations
designed and facilitated journey mapping workshops with patients
designed test plan and facilitated usability testing
led qualitative data analysis
PROCESS
To achieve this goal, primary and secondary research was conducted with patients and their families to uncover gaps in their experience and identify core needs during the period of cancer diagnosis. This was followed by the design and facilitation of a journey mapping workshop which informed the first iteration of the I-Can Manage Cancer e-learning UX and UI design. Usability testing was conducted on a hi-fidelity, working prototype with 12 patients and their family caregivers to uncover any issues with the user experience.
Co-design
A group of 12-15 patient and family caregiver partners was identified at the outset of this project to ensure accountability in carrying out a true co-design approach. These partners were continuously involved throughout the process of this project to gain their perspectives along the way as it was being designed and developed. Their involvement was in initiated through the facilitation of a journey mapping workshop. This workshop focused on chronicling the thoughts and feelings, pain points and gaps they experienced throughout the process of receiving a cancer diagnosis and the initial stages of treatment.
Snapshots of the journey mapping workshop with patient partners.
UX Design
The journey mapping workshop, along with previous desktop research, helped us to identify some key design principles and prioritize certain features and functionalities to include in the MVP version of this platform’s user experience design. The following images showcase some UX design elements and features that were included to help improve the platform experience for the targeted user populations, such as navigation pop-ups, the use of larger text and buttons for easier vision and tactile engagement, simple and clean designs to reduce cognitive load, and prompts to take breaks to prevent feelings of overload.
Usability Testing
My team conducted one round of usability testing with 7 patients. We used a high fidelity, functional prototype of the platform with targeted user tasks to help us pinpoint problem areas and prioritize the top use errors that required fixing. These tests were conducted in usability labs with two-way mirrors where we could easily capture video and audio recordings of the tests. The notes and videos were later analyzed by coding the use errors and quantifying their frequency and severity. This allowed us to identify and fix usability issues and improve overall user experience of both the e-learning modules and the navigation of the website.
Giving patients control.
OUTCOME
An e-learning platform called I-Can Manage was designed and developed with 6 online courses that provide patients and their families with educational information as well as actionable skills and tools to self-manage their experience. This also includes an action planning feature, a library of resources to download or re-visit for quick access, as well as health coaches who onboard patients to the platform and track their progress over time. This platform is currently undergoing a one-year pilot study to evaluate its efficacy.
These snapshots of the second learning module display a navigator feature that was created to help patients easily browse through symptoms that might be relevant to them.