Ideation and Design

User Flow

Given all the information and new features to be included, I created a new user flow.

User Flow

Mood Board

There are only a few products in the market which are similar to our headband. This made our task challenging to create the mood board. Thus, I searched for any medical platforms which display tDCS graphs, EEG data for inspiration to design our platform.

Wireframes

Based on our user flow, I divided the application into different features. I created wireframes keeping the application features in mind.

Mockups

After completing the wireframes, I moved on to create the mockups to further develop the design concept. This involved adding detailed visual elements such as color schemes, typography, icons, and images based on our brand playbook. I ensured that the mockups accurately reflected the intended look and feel of our EASE platform.

Usability Study

I narrowed down potential features and created a prototype for our usability study. Given our user base, we found it hard to get time from many doctors to test our prototype. Thus, we conducted the study with 3 users. We conducted our usability study in the hospital where our pilot studies were conducted. Users were asked to use the prototype based on the prompts given by the moderator. Later, we sent a system usability scale for rating.

Goals:

• To understand the user experience with our platform
• To find areas of improvement in the user flow
• To understand major pain points in the flow for Version 1 of the EASE platform
• To understand how users can use all the features

Primary Research Questions:

• Are users able to connect the device?
• Are users able to seamlessly navigate through the platform?
• What are the difficulties users face while conducting the treatment?
• Are there any parts of the process where users are getting stuck?
• How comfortable are users with the software’s flow/language?

KPIs:

• User error rates: how often do users face roadblocks while interacting with the platform.
• System Usability Scale: a questionnaire to evaluate user feedback

Findings and Iterations

Post the usability testing, we re-iterated on the platform design to resolve any pain points that came up during our user testing and create a flawless user experience.

Key Finding 1

Users were not able to recognise the navigation icons easily. I reiterated the designs and finalised adding a collapse/expand icon in the navigation bar, which displays the option names. We had also considered using a hover to expand the navigation. However, it felt more confusing to the users, interrupting their attention from the main screen.

Key Finding 2

EASE treatment protocol was pre-installed on the platform when users installed it. It was a 10+2 days treatment protocol with 2 treatment sessions everyday. Our users did not understand the EASE treatment protocol well. They also found it hard to browse through 10-day session data and understand the next session. Users could also not view the complete 20 session details in one go. To resolve this issue, I used more visuals to create a better protocol section explaining the sessions and information regarding the 20-session treatment protocol.

Key Finding 3

We had initially not covered many edge cases, such as bluetooth disabled in device or laptop; application crashing; laptop battery dead. So, we considered all the edge cases to the best of our capacity and added those in the final application.

Key Finding 4

Users wanted to explore the platform while the session on a particular patient was being run. At the same time, they wished to view the current status, implying the need of our user base to keep switching between tasks while the main task of the experiment was undergoing. We cater to this pain point, we added a mode section to our design that displayed idle, connected, tDCS or EEG at the top. This feature made it easy for the doctors to explore the platform while simultaneously monitoring the experiment.