Continuum iPad

Background

One of the first projects I contributed to when joining Mercy Virtual in 2019 was a redesign for an iPad app. The development team wasn't happy with how the app looked and had specific issues around main navigation and how they might enable some new features on the road map.

The core iPad app allowed patients to take daily vitals like heart rate, blood pressure and oxygen levels, weight, etc. It uploaded this health information into a service that tracks trends and identifies potential risk patients. The app also let patients connect with care teams via chat and video visits as well as prompted the patient to complete a daily survey - how are you feeling today, any new or concerning symptoms, that type of info.

Design Process

I worked with the iOS team to understand the limitations of the current app design. I wanted to find out how they arrived at the current UI and what they hated about the experience. I then interviewed the nursing staff to get more feedback. We weren't able to speak with patients directly so the care teams and nurses were vital in relaying concerns or support issues they ran into with patients.

After evaluating the current app I set out to consolidate user flows and update the layout to work on an phone. I presented a series of mockups and a prototype to the product managers for review, did some iteration, then the developers began implementing these changes in code.

The entire process took less than a week thanks to the close proximity we worked in at Mercy.

Outcomes

The redesign was received well and the developers were able to start rebuilding the iOS application to include iPhones. This was huge because Mercy provided a kit to patients that included a tablet and the sensors. Enabling the app to function on different devices meant the hospital could use more diverse hardware and save some money.