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iPad Mini mockup for Vital call

Detailed case study 

The case study in one sentence:
Continuous and improved interaction creates a close and harmonious relationship with customers. 

PERS - Personal Emergency Response System

 It’s not what service you provide but how you provide it that matters.

TYPE

Concept 

DURATION

2-week sprint 

TEAM

Neelam Shukla, Antonio Shi and Nikesh Tamrakar

METHOD

Business analysis, Competitive analysis,  Interviews, surveys, Affinity mapping, Journey map, Feature prioritisation matrix, wireframing, prototyping.

MY ROLE

UX Designer 

TOOLS

Pen and Paper, Figma and Miro

Solving interaction/communication issues and putting faith back in the company’s vision “we care about you.”

Overview 

VitalCALL is a B2C company that provides PERS products and services. Their company’s logo states their vision “we care about you”. From the brief we received from the client, their main concern was to keep the sustained number of subscribers. There was a disconnect between the client’s vision and business. What was going wrong? After an initial discussion, we realised the issues were related to the communication in terms of regular updates. Customers felt that communication could be timely and effective. Customer doesn’t just want to be notified only in times of emergency but want peace of mind.

Objective

Our objective was to retain current subscribers by improving the service and by introducing a minimum viable product (MVP) that could solve interaction/communication issues between the service and the subscribers. We also had to keep the feasibility and viability aspects of the proposed solution.

We discovered that customers were not happy responding to the press button. 

Business Analysis

After doing the business analysis, we found that the company was doing just to the point of what industry they were serving. They were responding to the user’s call during an emergency, and that’s where their service ends. Customers wanted more timely and effective communication before, during, and after an emergency. A mobile app update reduces that gap. Regular interaction with subscribers fosters trust in the company and peace of mind.

Wenn diagram-Business analysis of Vitalcall

Competitors provide so much more because of their presence on a mobile platform/ mobile app—an avenue to explore.

Competitive and comparative  Analysis

Comparative and competitive analysis

We used the UberEATS app as an inspiration to build the interface for our current design. Its feature of tracking the delivery in real-time is outstanding. We incorporated this feature into our design to track and update the information upon an emergency when the person wearing the alarm was getting transported to medical care.

Findings 

Customer care portal via a mobile app for subscribing family member 
 

Findings 

Regular updates to the family member
 

Mandatory pressing of a button after 3 hours of getting up in the morning.

Complete medical history, in case of an emergency to be provoded to EMT.

Users were looking for more communication and connection with the service, not just a client number for the company.

User interviews and Affinity mapping 

To gain knowledge of real experiences and feelings. We decided to interview people to understand their expectations during an emergency.  We interviewed 16 people. We collected a lot of information to use Affinity mapping to synthesise the data and saw some emerging themes.

Findings

Services such as VitalCALL feel very transactional and lack communication between the service, subscriber and the person under care.

Subscribers need an interface to recieve updates regularly and check up on their loved ones.
 

Subscribers want their loved ones to feel safe, happy and supported as they subscribe to the service for their sake.
 

Loved ones under the care of the service do not want to be viewed in anegative light and wish to maintain  their inpendence.
 

Who are we designing for? 

Our “worried family member” helped us define the problem - more interaction from the organisation at all times.

From themes, we synthesised data into sub-categories to further understand the feelings and emotions of the users: our Archetype - the worried family member and their journey to discover pain points.

The Worried Family Member 

Archetype- The worried family member

Problem Statement

To achieve that, they must subscribe to a personal emergency response service. But when there are no updates and follow-ups during emergencies, the service becomes unreliable and ineffective.

Scenario 

The worried family member is very busy juggling work, children, and caring for his old mom, who lives independently. His mom has had minor incidents/falls, where he reached late, which caused him much stress and anxiety about his mom’s health. He is looking for a service or help which could provide him with timely updates to prevent such incidents or any emergencies and gives him peace of mind.

journey map
Cause and effect chart

Ideas, findings, and assumptions everywhere – let’s prioritise them and create a win-win for users and business.

Feature Priortisation Matrix

feature priortisation matrix

MVP Features 

Emergency protocol feature -
Constant updates on the end user’s conditions, post-emergency service trigger,
to the caregiver

Daily morning check-in and end of the day aummary 

Calendar for loved ones' upcoming events/procedures

Every good idea starts with white space.

Design studio 

First sketch of MVP features. We did preliminary testing for feedback and did the following iterations.

First sketch

MVP first sketch

Feedback 1 

Sketch iteration after feedack

Feedback 2

Sketch iteration 2 after feedback 2

Feedback 3

Final mockup sketch

It looks like this.

To get a better resolution, please enlarge the window by clicking on the right top corner of the Figma frame.

Next steps 

1. More usability testing 

2. Some other recommendations in consultation with business.

• Side button talk and notification

• Caregiver Tracking app ( Included with Mobile GPS subscription)

• Input/Edit Primary and secondary contacts

• Base box labels in the native language, poster made in the native language and posted next to the box

• Consider secondary user’s ethnicity (related to language)

Reflection

Create win-win scenario 

Keep in mind the feasibility and viability from the business side when designing for users.

Build Archetypes, not personas.

Don’t worry about age, demography, and location but focus on the user’s goal, behaviour, needs, and motivations.

You are not the user 

Try to keep your bias at bay. You are not making the changes to satisfy your ideas.

other UX projects 

Shopassist

Redesigning the MVP for seamless experience for the customers

Abbey's Bookshop

Aliging e-commerce with brick n mortar experience.

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