Miera Lācis Website
UX/UI DESIGN CASE STUDY
Overview
During the Covid pandemic, children's hospitals reduced access to shared play areas and toys to minimize contact with contaminated surfaces. Soft toys, playgrounds, and books had to be replaced with easily disinfected digital solutions. We were tasked with creating a digital tool to reduce children's fear in the hospital. However, user interviews and research revealed many other pain points. Therefore, we expanded the scope to include easily accessible information for parents and entertaining educational content for children, guided by a storytelling character called The Serenity Bear.
Goals
The main goal was to develop a digital solution that reduces children's fear in hospitals, that would make a huge impact in hospitals resources efficiency - shortening procedure times, decreasing waiting lines, minimizing doctors' workloads and overall promoting better healing outcomes.
Client: Project conducted as part of the "Riga TechGirls" mentorship program
My Role: UX Designer, UI Designer
Date: 2023
Project Scope:
• desk research, user interviews;
• creating information architecture, user flows;
• creating visual style;
• creating a UI design library;
• designing low & high fidelity wireframes;
• user testing in two rounds;
• adjusting for responsive layouts.
6 Featured Action Points
#1 - Finding Root Causes
How to identify the real needs of users to reduce children's fear in the hospital?
#2 - Architecture & Layouts
What to include and how to organize information based on real user needs?
#3 - Character for Storytelling
Which character would be most suitable for storytelling in a children's hospital?
#4 - Engagement Features
What features could fulfill both needs: educating and calming a child in the hospital?
#5 - UI Kit
How to create an efficient UI kit for consistent, time-saving use?
#6 - Color Palete
How to create a UI palette that integrates with the existing elements in the hospital?
#1 - Finding Root Causes
User interviews with parents and kids revealed deeper understanding about visiting the hospital with children, highlighting the importance of considering real user needs over assumptions.
Finding #1 - Well-informed parents are calmer and effectively pass this calmness to their children through their behavior and preparation.
Finding #2 - Children who understand what medical procedures to expect and why they are needed are calmer and more willing to cooperate with medical personnel.
Finding #3 - Interactive information for children should serve in two ways: informing them about procedures and redirecting their attention from fearful aspects.
#2 - Architecture & Layouts
The primary challenge was to structure information to be highly accessible and easy to digest for busy, often distracted parents with young children.
The top prioritized information groups:
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Emergency hospital visits
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Planned hospital visits
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Procedures
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Interactive information for children
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Forum for parents to share their experiences with other parents and seek support
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Quick access links to essential information about the hospital, including contacts, maps, etc.
Flows and wireframes were tested on parents and kids for quick feedback and iterations.
#3 - Character for Storytelling
The user research revealed how important it is to kids that there would be some characters, heros, fantasy or fairy tale elements.
The central character selected for the site is a bear, serving as the beloved superhero of BKUS hospital for children, prominently featured throughout the hospital premises, including walls and various areas.
Photo credit: "BKUS" (Children’s Clinical University Hospital)
Disclaimer About Bear Character Copyrights. The main "BKUS" (Children’s Clinical University Hospital) brand character Blue Bear was created by the design agency H2E. However, within this project's scope, the team used this character solely for illustrative purposes to showcase the possibilities of integrating the character into the website design for hospital patients, enhancing the website's association with the hospital's brand. Please note that the website design does not represent any official endorsement or affiliation with the design agency or hospital.
The prototype was tested with six mothers using one scenario on the desktop version and one scenario on the mobile version.
During the user validation process, we confirmed the first three hypotheses, but the fourth hypothesis was proven to be an assumption. Most parents hesitated to participate in a platform where they read about other parents' intense emotions. Nevertheless, we gained valuable insights that revealed parents' preference for a question-and-answer section. They would like to interact with medical professionals and have their queries answered, creating a repository of helpful information.
#4 - Engagement Features
Several video and educational game concepts were made featuring The Serenity Bear (Miera Lācis), helping kids learn about medical procedures and their bodies. This knowledge can calm them, and the games can distract from painful procedures.
Some concepts for parent engagement didn't pass user testing, such as the parent support forum. Most parents hesitated to join a platform with intense emotions, negativity, and false advice. However, we gained valuable insights, revealing a preference for a Q&A section with medical professionals.
#6 - Color Palete
The primary emphasis of the design solution was centered around cultivating a serene and soothing ambiance on the website.
The color scheme was chosen to align with the bear's shades of blue, complemented by gentle and neutral hues, with subtle pops of warm accentuated coral tones.
The Final Result
