Time
Sep. 2023 - Dec. 2023
Role
UX Designer
System Designer
Team
2 UX designers
1 Product designer
Tools
Figma
Flex
I'm a designer who pays great attention to social topics. I care about inclusive design and barrier-free design, and I am committed to providing people with equal and harmonious survival rights. In 2023, I worked with two classmates with the same ambition to create a product for ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) patients.
Flex is a software and hardware-integrated product designed to offer improved muscle detection and muscle massage tutorials for ALS patients. It helps families of ALS patients take better care of their patients, relieve their muscle pain, and improve their quality of life. This project won the 17th International Design Award (IDA) Bronze in Industrial & Life Science Design / Inclusive & Equity Social Products.
Background
Problem
Starting from October 2022, due to the serious epidemic in China at that time, the government began to implement closed management of public places such as schools and companies, and imposed travel restrictions on large group of people. Universal Beijing Resort has experienced a noticeable loss of visitors that has resulted in many financial losses.ALS is a neurodegenerative disease that causes muscle wasting and weakness. It's an incurable disease, and the pain it causes can seriously affect a person's quality of life. According to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), the prevalence of ALS is increasing year by year. Good and effective care is necessary to help people with ALS reduce pain and continue to gain motivation for life. However, we found that there are many problems in the current care of ALS patients. Thus, our design challenge is to optimize the care flow of ALS patients and extend their life cycle.
Design Challenge
HMW optimize the ALS care process so that patients get better care, and a longer life span
Market Research
How do people do now?
To better understand what the issues present in ALS care processes, we conducted market research on how family members learn about and care for ALS patients. There are three mainstream care methods on the market, but they all have their weaknesses. It's shown that due to financial reasons, care costs, and psychological factors, most ALS patients prefer to stay at home and be cared for by family members
Insights
ALS patients prefer to stay at home and be cared for by family members
User Research
What are people saying?
After market research, our design scope was narrowed to "caring for ALS patients at home". In order to better understand the needs of ALS patients and the difficulties that family members may encounter in taking care of patients, we conducted in-depth interviews with them respectively. Meanwhile, we also interviewed professional doctors, hoping to know whether there are any simple and easy ways to help family members take better care of patients.
Patients x2
Doctor x1
Families x4
Insights
# Patients could be offered professional massage tailored to their symptoms
# Massage methods need to be easy for families to learn
# Need to find way to reduce the burden of care for family members
Ideation
Explore possibility
In order to provide users with professional tutorials, we need certain technical support. We investigated the muscle condition detection technology on the market, and chose ultrasonic detection (US) as the main technology by comparing feasibility, price and easy to learn. Ultrasound imaging can examine muscle tissue structure and blood flow, aiding in the detection of issues like painful muscle inflammation. Based on it, we can offer professional massage tailored to patients' symptoms.
At the same time, through research and brainstorming, we identified ways to teach muscle massage through video tutorials, and will reduce the burden on family members through real-time equipment monitoring.
Key features
HMW design tools for ALS patients' families that ease muscle pain for patients and provide easy updates on their conditions? Through research and analysis, we create "Flex" and expect it to solve design problems in the following ways:
Ultrasound detection and muscle data analysis.
Recommendation of training and massage tutorials based on data.
Medical devices interconnection.
US based problems detection
Identify varying muscle conditions in ALS patients for tailored tutorial recommendations.
Professional Learning Tutorials
Simpler and more direct methods that are easier for family memebrs and patients to learn and adopt
Intelligent monitoring of status
Helps to understand the patient's condition in real time and saves family's physical effort
What is Flex?
Flex is a combination of software with hardware that helps the families of ALS patients better understand patients' muscle conditions to carry professional massage care, and it reduces the care burden of the family through device interconnection
System Design
Service process
The overall service process consists of four parts:
Software Design
User flow & Wireframe
To better determine the content of key pages and sections, we carried out information architecture and wireframe design.
Prototype
Function 1 - Muscle scanning
Muscle scanning is a key function for family members to understand the condition of the patient's muscles, through which family members can learn about muscle problems in different positions, resulting in learning specific massage tutorials. Through big data and bone analysis, we provide muscle images to help users correspond to the scanned parts, and provide position error correction function to help users better record the muscle condition of patients.
Function 2 - Muscle data record
Muscle data recording can help family members track the patient's progress and get targeted care recommend tutorials. We investigated and screened the most important ALS muscle issues of concern: muscle atrophy, muscle stiffness, muscle fasciculation, and designed different information visualizations based on the type of data available.
Function 3 - Massage tutorial
After scanning the muscles, the program analyzes the user's muscle problems in the background, and provides the user with tutorials for specific positions in the foreground.
Function 4 - Devices interconnection
We provide intelligent interconnection, linking many care devices for patients, reducing the burden on families.
Design System
How do I unify design specifications?
A large area of green is used to make users feel calm and hopeful, and the UI style is more concise, adapting to the theme of medical healthcare services.
Hardware Design Goal
Improve man-machine comfort and create experience consistency
Design Process
Design research
Through the investigation of competitive products and user research, we have also carried out more in-depth innovation in hardware, and brought users a more smooth experience in the front, middle and later stages.
Final Design
Effect display
We provide three main functions for better user experience:
