The start of this project is all about research so I thought it would be beneficial to look at some ways design has been used in healthcare.

IDEO – PRIME App

Improving Quality of Life for Young Adults with Schizophrenia

I listened to a talk and read the case study on this app and became very inspired. The goal of the app was to create a space for people with Schizophrenia that improves their quality of life. A lot of treatments fail to improve their quality of life so an interface that uses design thinking was very much needed.

 

Research

Areas that involve mental health can be difficult to tackle so I think researching and getting to know users is very important. In this case, they did interviews with patients. I really liked the designer’s approach to these interviews as she didn’t use clinical terms or talk to them like patients. Instead, she spoke to them like people, making them feel more at ease. This is something I will consider when researching for my project.

 

Problems and solutions

Issue: People with Schizophrenia struggle with procrastination.

App Feature: They have endless amounts of small goals that users can achieve. For example: walk your dog for 5 minutes. I think this is great as the goals are not overwhelming and they can choose which they feel most comfortable with.

Issue: Remembering things negatively

App Feature: Users can take pictures of things that make them happy and share them with the online community. This helps reinforce positive memories and emotions.

Issue: Social anxiety and feeling isolated

App Feature: There is an online community where they can connect with people who have had a similar experience to theirs.

 

Evidence that it worked

Usually, when testing a product, designers may hand out questionnaires on how the users felt while using it, etc. However, with sensitive topics in healthcare, they took a different approach.

One of the features of the app encouraged users to take pictures. They looked at the pictures users took before and after using the app. One user’s pictures before they used the app were all indoors e.g., their TV and video games but there were no people. They then looked at his pictures after he used the app and they involved friends, going on a road trip, etc. This showed that this app has dramatically improved his happiness levels and social life.

 

Final thoughts

I have loved reading about how they research issues people are having and how they problem solve and create features that are hugely beneficial. I think healthcare can be difficult to tackle and can be a sensitive topic but after reading about this, my confidence has grown. I find this very inspirational and am excited to create something that could really help people.