bAY aLARM MEDICAL

Removing Stigma From Medical Alert Devices

Bay Alarm Medical is an emergency medical alert device company. We added an app and Apple Watch integration to expand the companies utilities and services to their customers and their families. Lastly, users are able to send alerts and useful information to family members and emergency services (paramedics, hospitals, doctors, etc.).

Tools

  • G Suite

  • Sketch

  • Figma

  • InVision

Team & Duration

  • 2 Week Design Sprint

  • 2 UX Design Apprentices

  • 1 UX Research Apprentice

Our Process

My team collaborated on all aspects of the research and design process; however, I led on as lead researcher, data analysis, prototype iteration, and usability testing. Lastly, I acted as project manager.

Bay Alarm Medical wants to engage their clients to use the emergency medical alert devices. Our research showed that clients are reluctant to use their medical alert devices due to shame in wearing traditional medical alert devices that draw them out to attention that they are “high-risk” for medical services.

The Problem

The Solution

Bay Alarm Medical wants to find solutions to make their product efficient, while destigmatizing the the use of their products. Recognized, the primary business goal that our solution addresses are to improve our customer relationship by establishing trust by being keeping a users medical information HIPAA compliant. Our goal is to help users feel comfortable and secure knowing that our service will take care of them.

My Role & contribution

Lead Researcher and Project Manager

  • User interviews (formulated questions during qualitative & quantitative data synthesis)

  • Qualitative data synthesis (gathered insights by affinity mapping all of the qualitative and quantitative data)

  • Creation of user flow (displayed the order of questions in the on-boarding form from start to finish)

  • Prototype usability testing and iterations.

Contributed To

  • Creation of user archetypes (communicated the goals and behavior patterns of brands)

  • Formulation of hypothesis and solution statement (combined user archetype with business needs)

  • Comparative analysis (compared design features to understand what works and what doesn’t work)

research Key Findings

  1. Not many people use an emergency medical alert devices, but see its benefits. 

  2. However, these devices make primary users feel vulnerable.

  1. Some are doubtful about the efficiency and usability of emergency medical alert devices.

““Knowing that there would be helpful in the case my loved one is hurt is very assuring. It would break my heart knowing someone is hurt merely because no one was near to aid them.”
”
— User

We combined these primary needs to create a list of values and needs to redesign Bay Alarm Medical’s alert devices.

Design Outcomes

Phone Application

  • A help button where users can immediately call for help.

  • Users can edit their personal, medical, and emergency contacts.

Apple Watch Interface

  • Users can trigger that their Apple Watch call Bay Alarm Medical by saying, “Hey Siri, medical alert.”

Retrospective

Challenges

Sample of Informational Interviews (N=4): The data collected through these interviews is generalizable to individuals who have used medical alert devices and their families. However, it would be beneficial for future iterations to interview other types of clients as well such as the client’s families.

Scope of time: As this project was a 2-week design sprint, the scope of time allotted for user interviews made it difficult to recruit participants and schedule interviews. With more time, we would have been able to connect with a larger sample size.

Final Thoughts

This project allowed for me to contribute to human-centered design based in empathetic research.

My previous experience as an environmental systems change researcher enhanced my contribution to this project, which depicts the importance of finding the underlying themes and patterns.

While synthesizing all of the qualitative research, we cultivated empathy by discovering unmet user needs and gained insights about how to best quantify them. I am content with how we implemented the findings into our design solution for Bay Alarm Medical’s products and services.