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GLIOBLASTOMA & AGING RESEARCH PROTOTYPE
Patient-Focused Website Prototype, Interactive Design
Summary
Designing a patient-focused website prototype for people effected by glioblastoma and aging, and researching how effective UI/UX design theory can better translate novel therapy in the healthcare field.
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Audience
Glioblastoma patients and loved ones
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My Role
Lead Design, UI/UX Design, Prototyping,
Graphic Design, Illustration
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Timeline
13 weeks in Spring 2024
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Tools
FigJam, Figma, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator
The Problem
There is a need to communicate potential clinical treatments to patients. The benefits of conducting proper studies can lead to more treatment options, better quality of life, and advancement of the medical field.
Dr. Wainwright’s research introduces novel discoveries within the field of oncology and neurology which can lead to major leaps in the field. In medical research, including therapeutic advancements, the oncological and immunotherapy concepts of these studies are often very niche and complex for even a highly educated audience.
To make this research more accessible to the general public, an interactive platform for clinical research was created to make the study more available, lessen the cognitive load, and be more engaging.
Design Goals
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Improve the transfer of knowledge of their aging research to the patients who are interested in the treatment and who are crucial to the trial’s success.
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Mitigate feelings of distrust by giving the patients a sense of autonomy in their decisions to learn more about the research and the clinical trial.
03
Inspire patients to work in tandem with researchers.
Content Research
First, I started off by compiling the research from Dr. Wainwright’s most recent manuscript on GBM and aging, conference presentations, and meetings. Sketches were made using pencil and paper to better understand more of the pathophysiological processes of Dr. Wainwright’s research.
User Research
This process involved breaking down who the user was and what they needed. The goal of user research was to incorporate empathy into the final product and design thoughtful solutions. The user research encompassed categories such as: who are your users, what are their needs, what do they want, how do they currently do things, how do they like doing things. For the user research, these categories were designed in radial diagram style to ensure equal value to each category.
Style Guide and
Wireframe Iterations
A style guide for the prototype was created in Figma along with the wireframe. When creating the style guide, past medical apps were referenced along with Dr. Wainwright’s research to ensure the style and direction fit his research. Purples and cool gray tones were picked to match themes in the neurological research.
Low-fidelity wireframes for the prototype were drafted using pen and paper. Then, the structure of the wireframes was drafted in Figma to test for basic flow of the prototype.
Home Page
For the home page, it was important to make sure it was a landing page for users who wanted to find contact information, learn more about the research, and feel confident in the potential treatment's validity. It was essential that the users didn’t feel overwhelmed but they could easily find the information they were looking for.
Easy Access to Clinical Trials
When I was creating the website, I researched what the patients needed and wanted to get out of a clinical research resource. Many patients highlighted that they needed:
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Information to be accessible and quick,
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Know when, where, and who they should contact in regard to clinical trials, and
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They need to have more trust in the clinical research they are applying for
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The 1st and 2nd need was solved by having both a separate section for clinical trial contact information and a link to this section right on the home page for users to navigate easily. The 3rd issue was solved by making sure the research section was full of key points in Dr Wainwright’s research along with links to primary sources.
Breaking Down The Research
Originally, the source material was being delivered in the form of manuscripts and PowerPoints, which are not easily accessible to a patient-oriented audience. For the research section of this website, my main priority was to break down some of the key points in the research such as:
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The effects of IDO1 protein levels on older adults,
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Cellular senescence and how it’s related to aging patients, and
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The importance of understanding how aging affects immunotherapy results.
Feedback & Next Steps
"Accessibility could be slightly improved by making sure that the website works well with screen readers and that the language is overall at a 6th grade reading level."
"I mentioned in my previous notes about the value of creating customized illustrations…even when using stock photos…many fun techniques like color grading, adding texture, etc can help bring the site together visually... I would recommend paying attention to websites you like and study how they've used
color blocking and other techniques to create a sense of graphic cohesion and resolve.”
“The graphics and language in the science sections are rather dense for laymen to understand. These would benefit from animations, Infographics, and other methods of breaking it down further.
A glossary could also be useful."
Peter Morville's Honeycomb Committee Results
Strengths
Weakness
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Credible
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Useful
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Findable
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Usable
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Valuable
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Accessible
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Desirable
Future Iterations
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Conduct more extensive user research with patients including more formal one-on-one interviews, gathering focus groups, and diary studies to build stronger empathy-driven design.
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Conduct more iterations and user testing with the GBM patients and loved ones to polish the design.
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Updating the current content to match Dr. Wainwright’s latest research.
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