P.A.R.T.:
Physical Augmented Reality Therapy
The physical therapist (PT) experience has always been a mixture of appointments and patient motivation. Currently clinics see on average 100 million - 200 million patients a day. Patients wanting to lower treatment costs for long term pain saw an average of 72% savings compared to treatment costs via traditional treatment medicine. An average of outpatient care for PT were from 7 - 10 sessions and only 35% of patients fully adhere to at-home exercises.
The goal of the project was to design an end-to-end experience for both PTs and patients to improve completing at home exercises for physical therapy. We wanted to create a seamless transition for physical therapy exercises from clinics to patient homes. This included a WebXR product to guide exercises for patients at home and a web platform to track patient data for PT clinics.
Christine Jahng (Product Designer), Joseph Hayashi (UX Researcher), Wyatt Olson (Project Manager), Jason Estrada (UX Designer), Zane Marcinyshin (WebXR Developer)
Prototyping (Figma)
The Problem:
1) Patients felt a lack of motivation of completing at-home exercises
2) Physical therapists had no idea of patients’ progress data in-between visits and whether patients were keeping up with their at-home exercises
How did we address it?
1) We leveraged WebXR to help guide patients to complete their exercises at the comfort of their own space
2) We designed a web platform for PTs to help keep track of relevant patient information and their at-home exercise data
Initial Market Research:
The user research was done in primary and secondary research methods. The primary research focused on patient survey and interviews, and clinical PT interviews. The secondary research encompassed domain immersion methods, AR subject matter experts, competitive market research, and generative product user story methods.
Based on patient surveys and interviews, majority of participants felt ambivalent or unmotivated to complete at-home exercises. Furthermore, half of the participants answered that they complete the at-home exercises at a casual or not often level, despite 75% of participants agreeing with the efficacy of the exercise. Likewise physical therapist interviews have shown the lack of confidence in patient’s diligence for at-home exercise regiment adherence.
In understanding that the two user bases needed separate products, our team decided to create a side by side experience to transition between the different two products. For the patients, we decided on a WebXR product to help with guide their exercises at home, and for PTs, a way to access the exercise data in clinical settings.
Post-research, my product ownership were the web portal and the overall platform experience.
Research Report (Full Report PDF Link)
Physical Therapist Web Portal:
We understood that the web portal for the PTs needed to encompass the data from the WebXR product while also being able to integrate patient electronic medical records (EMR) to maintain workflow. Our team took the time to explore different user flows and feature sets to see what would be plausible in our given time frame.
Once the team had a potential user flows for the overall product and a detailed information architecture, I started the design on the web portal. I took ownership of the scheduling, dashboard, messaging, and HEP library screens and user interactions. The designs were completed during second half of Q1 (sketches to high fidelity prototype).
During Q2, our team made the pivot to host video analytics of patient exercise videos, after hosting stakeholder interviews and revisiting the overall product space. We knew that we wanted to leverage the patient exercise data to help PTs make data driven decision while preparing for the patients' next visit to the clinic. We understood the privacy concerns with the pivot and took the time to explore possible tech workarounds regarding patient privacy.
Once the pivot was greenlighted, I helped to oversee the integration of the video analytics workspace and the web portal during the pivot. Based on the new feature set for the video workspace, I partnered with another interaction designer to fully breakdown the video analytics workspace interaction and used the specs to help deliver a companion video filter/tagging system.
Web Portal Design Development (Comprehensive PDF Link)
Designing filter systems:
To pair with the patient video analytic workspace (PVAW), our team recognized the need for video file systems and video filter/tagging feature to coexist. I designed video filter/tagging system both within and outside of the video workspace for easy video access within the file system.
The first few iterations focused largely on creating the correct filter set relevant to PVAW. This included comparative/competitive research for different video search filters as well as going over PT interviews for key decision points in regards to patient exercises. I then took time to explore different visual treatments to communicate the effect of the filters on the PVAW file system and coordinated interaction elements with the file system feature owner.
The final designs included an updated preset filter system PTs to utilize in the general workflow as well as PT generated tag system for binary tags on the video. The feature was also updated to match the overall visual elements of the platform as a whole both within and outside of the PVAW pages.
Filter Design Development
Concept Video:
Video filmed and edited by Wyatt Olson
Product Impact and Results:
Due to project time constraints, there were limitations regarding post-design validation data. However, the product validation methodology was to leverage Microsoft product desirability methods to determine market feasibility. Based on the data, the team would've either moved forward with product launch + implementation or back into design development.
The products were also visually displayed at an exhibition. The exhibition hosted a proof-of-concept of the WebXR + Web portal product and product design artifacts to communicate the design process. You can access the exhibition materials here.