UX Designer & Textile Graphic Artist
Rescue Rx
Delivering emergency prescriptions to the chronically ill impacted by large-scale natural disasters
A concept project develop as part of U.N.T Interaction M.A program
My Role
Researcher/Product Designer/UI Designer
Time Frame
Six Months
Tools
Adobe XD, Miro, Adobe Suite
Methods
User Surveys, User Interviews, Affinity Mapping, Peer Review Studies, User Testing.
Context
Overview
The Problem
As extreme weather events like fires and large storms occur more frequently and are more destructive, a more significant segment of the population is at risk of being impacted by such events. The most vulnerable are those who need to take daily medications to manage their illness, also known as the chronically ill.
Rescue Rx is a concept for an online pharmacy service specializing in the rapid deployment and delivery of prescription drugs for the chronically ill in disaster zones.
The inspiration for the concept came from the CDC's after-action report of hurricane Katrina and other research on the impact of natural disasters on vulnerable populations.
Providing and delivering needed prescriptions to the chronically ill in a disaster zone.
(The CDC and other government agencies report that most deaths from large-scale natural disasters occurred after the event. The leading cause is the lack of needed prescriptions and lack of care).
Goals
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Identify past and current response and delivery methods of prescription drugs in a disaster area.
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Identify pain points of current response
Develop an MVP that allows the users to have frictionless access to needed prescriptions.
Design Process
RESEACH
DEFINE
IDEATE
PROTOTYPE
ITERATE
Research
My research consisted of two phases. In phase one, I sought to understand local, state, federal government, private industry, and individual citizen preparedness levels and limitations. My goal was to identify response levels, pain points, and opportunities and identify key potential users. The second phase consisted of surveying and informal interviews of potential users.
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My research methodology consisted of an online survey, informal interviews, peer-reviewed studies, journals, and news reports.
Key Findings
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The government at all levels are poorly prepared for a large-scale natural disaster and doesn't have a centralized infrastructure to prescribe and deliver medication on a large scale. Private enterprise solutions don't focus on the most vulnerable populations.
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Most citizens felt unprepared for a large-scale natural disaster and were unsure how to acquire a new prescription if the disaster also impacted their pharmacy and doctors.
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The CDC's after-action report from hurricane Katrin and other government agencies report that most deaths from large-scale natural disasters occurred after the event. The leading cause is the inability to get needed prescriptions to individuals with chronic illnesses and a lack of care. Placing the chronically ill​ as part of the most vulnerable population.
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There are various ways users access their health records and prescriptions. In-person and online are the most common, but not all health providers offer online access. Most fold back to personal interactions for a new prescription request, even if they can do it online.
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Currently, the re-ordering process of prescription medication consists of several interactions and several approval processes that are often frustrating and cumbersome. It take a federal disaster declaration to remove some of interaction but it is still a frustrating process.
Current Process
Re-ordering prescription out of sequence.
(When you loose your prescription)
Propose Process
Re-ordering prescription Emergency Rx
(When you loose your prescription)
Competitive
Analysis
There are several prescription delivery services in the market, but only one has a mobile pharmacy. Their services have several limitations, including limited ability to service users in large disaster zones and a complicated approval process if a user is not a customer of their services.
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FEMA limitations consist of rapid deployment, access to user records and medication needs, and readily available medication.
Defining
Ideation
After synthesizing all my findings, I was able to determine the leading cause of death in large-scale natural disasters, the population segment that is vulnerable to these events, and the services they will need. My findings were also key in developing a provisional persona and scenario used.
I develop an affinity map to help me prioritize my ideas, functionalities that the user will find helpful, and overall development. It also help with creating the initial information architecture of the service and initial task flows.
Persona
Age
47
Income
65k/Year
Status
Married
Kids
1 (16 Year Old)
About
Sarah is part of the 60% of Americans with a daily regimen of prescription drugs that helps her manage a chronic illness.
Like most mothers, Sarah also manages her family's health needs and keeps track of their medical records, medications, and health needs.
Habbits
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Highly organize
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Heavy online user
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Likes to keep a schedule of all she needs to do.
Frustrations
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Feeling unorganized
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Not having access to the information she needs
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Feeling like she is not taking care of her family.
Needs
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Access to family health records at a moment's notice and from one source
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An easy way to order prescriptions
Scenario
A wildfire has destroyed over 75% of your town's infrastructure, including your own home. Currently, you're in a FEMA shelter trying to figure out your next step. Due to the nature and time of the fire, most residents, including yourself, didn't have time to secure any valuables from their homes, including needed prescriptions.
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You notice that your 16-year-old son, who has severe asthma, has difficulties breathing at the shelter. His inhaler was lost, in the panic of fleeing from the fire. Your task is to secure a new inhaler for Ian
Testing the
Solution
Six potential users participated in the usability test for this solution. Three rounds of tests were conducted, one with a low-fidelity prototype and two with mid-fidelity prototypes.
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Users were asked to "think aloud" as they worked through the task. Each round of testing lasted about 15 minutes due to the narration instruction given to the user.
Testing Participant Profile
Age Gender Education Income
55 Female College 65k/Year
45 Female College 150k/Year
30 Male College 80k/Year
33 Male HS 55k/Year
70 Female HS Retire
35 Female HS 45k/Year
Task
On Mobile Device
Task1 Locate & select Ian's Medical records
Task2 Place an emergency prescription order for Ian's inhaler
Task 3 Have prescription deliver to the FEMA shelter
Task 4 On tablet use log in with code
Task 5 Confirmed your order
Post-Test Task
Participants also completed an online SUS 10 item survey after the last iteration (TEST 2 MID FIDELITY PROTOTYPE) of testing.
The test consisted of choosing from a 5 point like scale that ranges from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).
Prototype
Low Fidelity
Positive Comments
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"I think this service will put a lot of minds at ease once people see what it offers."
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"A service like this would make me feel safer since ordering a new prescription at a time when I most desperately needed, would be reasonably easy."
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"I like how this takes care of something I didn't even think about."
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Negative Findings
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"It was a little hard to follow when there is not much text to describe what I'm looking at."
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"Need better symbols to describe what I'm looking at."
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"Didn't understand the picture of the emergency button."
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Recommendations
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Research iconography for a better emergency prescription button option.
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When doing paper prototyping make sure to include more context data
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Continue to research the current conventions related to ordering prescription drugs online and online pharmacies.
Prototype
Mid Fidelity
Positive Comments
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"I like how I can have access to all my family's medical records in one place."
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"Being able to order a replacement prescription without the hassle of the approval process makes this something I would happily pay for."
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"This solves a problem that, in all honesty, no one thinks about until they are in that situation."
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"I think it's great that it gives you the option to pick up or have the medication delivered."
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"It would be great to see how it would work in the real world."
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Negative Findings
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"I wasn't sure what the FEMA button did or was for.""
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"Didn't really notice the FEMA button."
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"I was moving really fast without thinking and didn't notice the FEMA button."
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"I would like to see an actual picture of the medication."
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"There was a lot of text in some of the pop-ups."
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"It would be great if I could search for the locations of emergency shelters near me."​
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Recommendations
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Rename the FEMA button.
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Change the color of the FEMA button, maybe invert color.
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Change the size of the Emergency Rx button.
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Re-look at the hierarchy and placement of the emergency prescription button.
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Research the impact of adding pictures of the medication.
*Tablet use when picking up Rescue Rx prescriptions from the mobile pharmacy
What I learn
The last round of testing reveals a strong positive response to the emergency prescription order functionality. Testers felt value in users' ability to order an emergency prescription refill and bypass all approval processes after a large-scale natural disaster event. They also felt that having the medication delivered to them at a shelter in a secure way is an essential part of the service.
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The need to expand testing of the digital prototype with a larger user group would be my next step in the process. The expansion of testing can reveal additional functionality concepts and pain points to help our users and improve usability.