Challenge

How do you design IoT products for a patient that doesn’t know what Bluetooth is?

For several years, I worked on a native mobile application for a client in the medical device industry and this has been the question running through my head. It’s easy and exciting to talk about IoT innovation in healthcare but it’s much harder to design a product that meets all of the following:

• The needs (physical, practical, and emotional) of all types of patients

• The needs of healthcare professionals

• Business goals and requirements

• Technical requirements

To make this even more challenging, many of the needs and requirements listed above are contradictory. For example, patients want to contact their doctor through the mobile application but doctors do not have the time or resources for that type of communication. Both are very valid needs and it can be difficult to find a middle ground.

Another example is the technical requirements to enable IoT technology. Bluetooth and Internet connection is needed for mobile devices to communicate with medical devices in order to collect and send data. For those of us that work in technology, this seems straightforward, but for patients that have never used a smartphone or don’t know what Bluetooth is, it’s incredibly complex. If something stops working and the patient doesn’t know how to resolve the issue, the value of the entire system is lost and the patient will likely be confused and scared. In this example, we can easily meet the technical requirement but without an innovative and intentional design, the patient’s needs will not be met.

Process

Over the course of several months, I collaborated with the product team to find the right design solution using the following tools and approaches:

1. Usability testing - We tested the mobile app with patients and healthcare professionals, focusing on features related to the IoT technology and connection. This was the most important part of the process.

2. Iteration - After every round of internal reviews and usability testing, we iterated on my current designs to address the findings.

3. Mobile expertise - I dug into all the nuances of the mobile hardware and software to understand how it could be utilized to improve the user experience.

4. System expertise - I asked questions and became an expert in the entire product system and the conditions it and not just the mobile application.

All of this knowledge built upon itself and enabled me to design a solution that met all the needs and requirements.

Outcome

The final solution, which I’m unable to share at this time, is an example of innovative realism, a term that best describes my design approach. The realism piece is the technical solution that is grounded in facts about mobile hardware and software. The innovation is distilling all of this complexity down into an experience that meets the needs of all types of patients and healthcare professionals. As a designer, I know this is an IoT product and all the complexity that entails, but the patient just knows that it works and they can trust their healthcare professional.

Looking ahead

As a designer, IoT is exciting and innovative, but this project helped me view IoT from the perspective of a patient who is in a scary situation and is being introduced to something completely new to them. As designers, we have an opportunity and responsibility to ensure products in the IoT healthcare space are designed using a human-centered approach. Innovation cannot come before meeting the needs of real people and scenarios.