Ravenhealth is a startup health-tech company. They reached out to us to build their very first product with the same name - Ravenhealth- from scratch. The software can help ABA(Applied Behavior Analysis) clinics collect patient behavior data and manage clinicians’ daily tasks.
ABA clinics are for kids with autism. Technicians collect patient’s behavior data like “in 10 times how many times the kids can identify an object correctly” to decide if the patient’s symptoms get improved and what the next step of treatment is.
The current traditional way of data collection is using the data sheet on paper, but it is inefficient because technicians can’t focus on patients while writing down patients' every response.
Ravenhealth asked us to build software (tablet for MVP) that can digitize the data collection process so that users could document patients' responses by simply clicking on the button on the screen.
For this case study, I will focus on one of the critical features of Ravenhealth I designed - Program Builder.
Overall we are following the user-centered design process - research, define the problem, and design. But our client came with very clear requests for features, and we have a tight timeline, so we used the discovery workshop to understand the context and validate their requirements. Then we started two tracks of design to build out all features. (see the timeline graph below)
*Each feature would be developed right after its design phase was finished. Our design team closely communicated with the development team every day, and we had daily scrum meetings to make sure there was no road blocker or confusion.
As the UX design lead of design track 1, I prioritized the program builder feature for the team from over 30 loosely defined requirements based on our discovery research due to the following reasons:
01 The usability of Program Builder decides if users' high-priority pain points can be solved properly, which is:
Clinicians(target users) struggle to understand program mechanisms while creating new ones, slowing down their workflow.
See detailed persona & journey
02 The MVP needs to be new-user friendly and easy-to-understand
Ravenhealth was focusing on expanding the market after the MVP release. There should be as few understanding barriers as possible for new users.
03 Other features are impacted by or related to Program Builder
Unnecessary iteration is not needed. And program builder is the basic feature that directly affects many other functions of Ravenhealth software. We need to do things right at first instead of rushing to conclusions.
04 Database setup of programs is essential & time-consuming
Data collection program experience decides the data that needs to be stored and the relationship between the behavioral data, which needs to be set up at first.
Therefore, this is the key problem I prioritized and would like to solve through the Program Builder experience design:
• So that clinicians create programs more efficiently and save more time for other management work.
• The communication effort between clinicians and technicians will be less.
• The program created through this builder could be easier to use and speed up data documentation for technicians.
How might we eliminate the gap in understanding program mechanisms for clinicians?
I took responsibility for the design track 1 (as displayed in the project timeline diagram below), crafting the features to solve the user problem as an end-to-end product designer.
I help our team prioritize the program builder feature to solve the problem - "how might we eliminate the understanding gap between users and program mechanism." And I earned extra week for this feature to do more research so that we can define the understanding gap in current program creation experience.
To better understand the gap, I conducted the following research activities in a week.
I researched over 20 current popular ABA data collection methods to identify the patterns.
I set up five online follow-along sessions via Miro with clinicians to observe how they create a program and understand their mental model, workflow, and behaviors.
I conducted 16 quick surveys to understand challenges in clinicians’ current digital experience
The way clinicians think about the program is not aligned with how a program has been structured in the form. The Current program is a black box for clinicians. It packed the raw data collection methods in itself, like identifying frequency, timing duration, and counting steps, which really matter to clinicians.
For example, this app only has text fields. New users might not be clear about the information format they need to input. So users have to write a lot in the fields to explain the parameters and their relationship, which increases the time cost.
3 rounds of iteration, 7 variations(scenarios) of primary user flow, and 2 rounds of testing with 8~10 participants within 4 weeks.
So that users can
create programs that are aligned with their mental models without spending time decomposing the original program
have more flexibility to create more dynamic and suitable programs for patients
So that users can
have a quick understanding of program structure which surfaced by each step in the form
navigate the program creation experience easily with a guided flow (especially for new users)
spend less time on making mistakes or recalling the process of how to create programs
So that users can
decide which type they want use quickly with precisely define program type and abundant introduction to program type
save time by quickly building expectations of the upcoming steps (especially for new users)
So that users can
edit the options of each parameter to flexibly customize and create programs with surfaced parameter structure
efficiently manage parameters globally to save more time for other tasks
So that users can
be familiar with commonly used input patterns and has less understanding barriers
make fewer mistakes with clearly outlined error states
So that users can
clearly understand the complicated structure of the parameter "prompt" by the input fields without redundant explanation
make fewer mistakes while identifying it in the program creation process
I conducted 2 focus group sessions with 8 clinicians to validate the program builder experience design.
7 out of 8 Clinicians left positive comments and felt confident that the new design would drastically improve current experience.
After I finished the design for the program builder, I also helped another designer iterate on related features. For example, the patient data collection result page, Since I separated the old program into 7 types of smaller programs, now it can display the detailed progressive change of patient’s performance in one activity. So clinicians can make decisions more quickly without reading a long paragraph of text description
Re-designed the program building flow, which positively impacted the overall usability of the top 3 critical features of Ravenhealth app
Helped team prioritize the key feature among 30+ loosely defined requirements
Initiated the design system for Ravenhealth
The Ravenhealth software was released on App Store in Sept. 2021.
