Add Life Technology-Alto
Using virtual reality technology to provide an enjoyable and efficient rehabilitation experience for stroke patients and family.
Alto is a platform containing engaging virtual reality environments specifically designed to help people with their rehabilitation after a life altering event.
Project Overview
Add life's vision is to use virtual reality technology to create a better and more efficient rehabilitation experience for stroke patients and their families.
This graph shows how the mobile interfaces work together with Add Life’s Virtual Reality devices
Our mission is to create a mobile interface to work together with Alto virtual reality glasses to provide stroke patients’ families with the ability to keep on track with the rehabilitation process and to have an emotional connection through technology
My Role
UX Research, Wireframing, Prototyping, User Flow, Usability Testing
Our Team
Madison, Ming, Amber, Xinxin
Tools
Google survey, Figma, Pen & Paper, Miro and Slack
Timeframe
2 Weeks
Users & Audiences
This Sprint
Young stroke patient’s main carer
Young stroke patient
Next stage
Medical Professionals
Stroke patient care givers
We need to understand:
The topic
-Understanding stroke and stroke rehabilitation and the current climate in Australia.
Action: We immersed ourselves in the topic with desktop research.
Result: This takes us to a start point of empathising with our users.
The business
-Understand the company’s journey, our client’s journey and the business environment a
Action: We conducted competitor analysis through desktop research.
Result: We identified the strength and opportunities for Alto Rehabilitation program: Easy access, portable and economical.
The users
-The most important focus for us: what have our users been through?
Action: We conducted user research through surveys and user interviews.
Result: Users’ pain points and our opportunities are demonstrated down below.
Not long after we start the project, we have met the challenge to source users for research due to the reasons:
Users: small segment
The topic is sensitive to talk about
We were not able to physically go out to look for users during the covid-19 lockdown.
Action:
1, We moved online to look for solutions. We joined some closed groups on Facebook and asked for permission to post our surveys in the group.
2, Adjusted the survey with more open-ended questions and publish on the Facebook group page
3, Call to friends and old call to rehab centers
Reaching out to
the admin person of the Facebook groups
Survey response: 18
60% patients, 35% family members, 5% friends.
1-1 interviews:
10
“I’d travel the 20 miles to the therapy clinic about twice a week.”
“Making sure the mental wellbeing of the victim is addressed is even more important than working towards physical rehabilitation.”
“As a younger Stroke Survivor, I found that most rehab services were for the elderly.”
“Please remember that not all stroke survivors are old.”
What interviewees are saying.
“Patients feel frustrated and annoyed to not be able to communicate.”
— Lisa, Chiropractor
“There's an enormous gap in the rehabilitation. We need more engagement.”
— Pam, Mum of a young stroke survivor
“OTs, physio- & psychiatrists give you mind numbing exercises.”
— Peter, young Stroke survivor
Our Persona:
We are applying virtual reality technology in rehabilitation to help younger stroke patients. The target age will be below 45.
The mobile interface we are designing at this sprint is for family members who are the main carers/guardians for stroke patients.
Why are we designing for them? Insights from the research:
Younger patients have more acceptance of new technology.
Younger patients need help more because they need to go back to work and have lots of possibilities waiting ahead.
Younger patients are not benefiting enough from the traditional rehabilitation programs which are mostly designed for the elderly.
How Might We make the users’ life better and easier when we look at the pain points?
1. How might we create greater communication for James and Kelly so that they feel close and connected.
2. How might we improve the rehabilitation experience for Kelly so she is more involved and understands the process better.
3. How might we improve the rehabilitation experience for James so that it is enjoyable.
4. How might we make the medical report easy for Kelly so she can understand James health status and improvement clearly.
Ideation,
Co-design Workshop with our client, Daish—>
Low fidelity wireframe from Kelly’s app
Usability test take 1 feedback:
VR Plan Daily Report: It’s too much data and hard to understand.
Chat page:Users want a pre-written message option.
Bottom navigation barThe icon of ‘VR Plan’ doesn’t look like it.
Home page: Users say they would like Jame’s picture and the emotion indicator to be on the home page
Gift page: Users want the feature to send a gift back.
Iteration after usability test take 1
Usability test take 2 feedback:
Onboarding: It’s better to collect home address for medical specialist and other cares to visit. The Instagram log in is not necessary since our users age group is unlikely to use Instagram.
Home page: The ‘emotion’ looks like a button.
VR Plan page: It needs a button to watch live stream of Jame’s virtual exercise. It needs a button for Kelly to launch the VR game for James.
“You changed my perspectives that I think I should really focus on the users from now on.”
“You guys showed me how an agile team works during these two weeks.”
— Daish, our client.
Learning Outcomes and Reflection
It is essential to empathise with users and always refer back to what users are feeling, thinking and behaving.
When doing a project in an unfamiliar area, it’s important to apply a heuristic method and immerse myself in this topic.
Be aware of bias and ego:
We assumed people won’t answer open-ended question in survey, but we were wrong. The audiences are open to open-ended questions and are willing to provide some good insights