JUL 2023 - AUG 2023 (3 WEEKS)
Redesigning a clinician-facing Parkinson’s diagnosis product and patient experience for Qr8 Health’s Cognition Suite.
CLIENT
Qr8 Health
ROLE
UI/UX Designer
COLLABORATORS
Brian Hoffer (Design Director)
CONTRIBUTION AND IMPACT
Accelerated the visual re-design of an existing product draft through 3 rounds of iterations.
Led 1 round of user testing with surgeons and the product design team at Qr8.
The Context
Parkinson's disease is a progressive disorder that affects the nervous system and the parts of the body controlled by the nerves.
Initial symptoms start slow, including mild tremors in one hand. This makes Parkinson’s disease (PD) a “clinical” diagnosis based on an individual’s medical history, symptoms, and physical exam.
Sources: Mayo Clinic, Parkinson’s Foundation
Demystifying the PD diagnosis
A scoring criteria was developed by the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society (MDS), known as the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS).
-
The UPDRS rating scale has 4 parts to measure the severity and progression of PD on the basis of motor, non-motor, and behavioral components.
Parts I to III are scored on a 0-4 rating scale. Part IV is scored with yes and no ratings. Higher scores indicate increased severity. (APTA: American Physical Therapy Association)
The UPDRS scoresheet is highly technical and interpretive increasing the margin of error during diagnosis.
Complex data visualization, or lack thereof, can thereby limit the efficiency of clinical decision-making in a Parkinson’s diagnosis.
THE PROBLEM
The team at Qr8 recognized this problem and attempted to simplify result interpretation by developing a clinician-facing viewing dashboard.
We were approached to enhance the dashboard experience – making it more intuitive and human-centered.
Annotations helped dissect preliminary design decisions such as layout, color, text hierarchy, and UX copyrighting.
-
Reconfigure labels like Mild, Moderate, and Severe to clarify meaning.
-
Create layout and navigational hierarchy by experimenting with color and typography.
-
Explore other forms of data visualization to simplify score interpretation even further.
Affirming conscious design decisions:
THE SOLUTION
Restructuring the display of score information to help physicians make more well-informed diagnosis decisions with increased efficiency.
Various versions of exploratory concepts were aimed at reducing the complexity of the UPDRS scoring system through defined elements of visual information.
⇣
Concept: Dashboard with Browser
This concept explores a cohesive dashboard experience that balances light skimming and detailed viewing of score information.
-
Diagnosis alert to view score results.
Combined trend graph with total and individual scores.
Option to view medication history
Alert pop-ups to redirect to items of urgency.
Concept: Informational Browser
This concept focuses on information access creating a navigational hierarchy that allows scores and sub-scores to be expanded and collapsed.
-
Explanation and synthesis for every score item.
Options to expand and collapse viewed scores.
Early Visual Brainstorming
Explorations were categorized into visually-distinct layout approaches that restructured information hierarchy and visibility.
Experimenting with all the different ways visual information could be arranged allowed for a divergence of ideas and approaches to re-design.
Concept Variations
Variations in text hierarchy, scale, and color of individual elements were created to gauge information density.
Feedback was aimed at minimizing visual noise and using specific colors and type weight to prioritize quick skimming and information absorption.
Version 1 Concept Iterations
The viability of score navigation was assessed by designing clickable mockups that featured a combination of score graphs and test details.
Concept: Dynamic Combined Graph
This concept allows clinicians to make distinct visual comparisons between test categories as shown over time. The hovering elements can be pinned to expand on score details.
Concept: Alert System + No Graphs
This concept explores the idea of using an alert box to redirect the clinician to test items of urgency. Upon clicking, a detailed test report is viewable.
Concept: Individual Graphs with Sub-test Details
Score navigation is streamlined in the concept making the most essential score information viewable with fewer clicks.
Concept: Data Browser
The Data Browser affords space for comprehensive data visualization with graphs supporting score details under each test category.
Concept Testing
V2 sketches includes visual components that accommodate a variety of potential use cases recommended by Parkinsons’ specialists.
Interviews with two Parkinsons’ specialists were synthesized after the first round of testing. Their feedback helped guide the iterations of V1:
1. A patient that has low symptoms but likely PD
2. A patient that has PD but needs their meds changed + more advanced disease and something urgent needs to be taken care of (fall, rigidity), need to be re-medicated to be brought back to a “safe zone”
Graphs with state changes (medication prescribed, initial diagnosis, score increase/decrease)
Alert boxes to report urgency and Suggestion boxes to call-for-action
Opportunities for Future Explorations
The second round of user testing revealed numerous opportunities that are continuing to be explored by the team at Humancraft. Some of the feedback included:
Space for a motor diary to track symptom changes over a period of 24 hours.
ON/OFF states for each individual symptom (tremor, bradykinesia...).
Having a switch to view score numbers instead of plain language
As a part of preliminary brainstorming, my mentor and I explored possibilities for score display and motor diary graphing.
Labeling Variations
Motor Diary graph
Final Thoughts
This project was my introduction to designing for the visualization of numeric and informational data. While it was essential for me to have a strong foundation of visual design skills, I found it even more necessary to have a good background knowledge of the nature of the data I was designing for.
I read multiple UPDRS score reports to familiarize myself with the conventions around score categorization and ensure data accuracy. Like in all my health design projects, I learn more about the people I design for, including, Parkinson’s patients and the clinicians who treat them.
