Project Picture
Patients with a brain tumor are treated utilizing an intensive combination of radiation, chemotherapy, and operations. The treatment plan is based on detailed MRI images, but there is no universal standard for this decision-making process. Our client - The VUmc - wants to change this, in collaboration with its medical partners, by enabling knowledge sharing between specialists on a global scale.
At VU Medisch Centrum
Role User Experience Designer | Project Management
When December 2017 - June 2018
Target audience Neurosurgeons
Extra 3 Nominations for the SpinAwards, 1 Golden SpinAward, 1 Silver SpinAward
The Challenge
The goal of the research was to transcend from what we have today; doctors discuss patients on a case-by-case basis. So a patient comes in with a new tumor in a specific location of the brain, and another doctor remembers similar patients from his memory. What we would like to transcend to is to capture in a visual surrounding all the patients that were treated by a team to compare this snapshot with all the patients of another team to try to identify new patterns that we were unaware of so far when they discussed it case-by-case.
The process
Before starting any design work, we started with a small workshop. The challenge of the workshop was that we had precisely one hour (coffee and small talk included) to gain as much information as we needed to start designing. In this precious hour, we discussed persona's and goals. Back at the office, we made overarching epics to make the idea of goals less abstract. During every meeting or discussion, these epics are the anchor of the product. These epics we have created were the starting point of the functionalities that had to be in line with the epics. Every sprint had different focus points.
Project manager
Before I started at Active Collective, there was not a project-based approach to projects. For this project, I took a closer look at the old way and discovered that many projects were manufactured in a short time, but the aftermath was quite long. Sometimes even longer than the project itself. At this point, I decided to give everyone some (head)space by introducing feedback weeks. Designers and developers could work on the project for a certain amount of time, and before they started on the next sprint without a gasp of breath, they had one week where the client could take a look at what has been built and take a shot at it.
Visual Design
Micro interactions
The micro interactions in the tool play a great role in keeping the tool clean and understandable. Keeping the 4 components of a micro interaction in mind (Trigger, Rules, Feedback and Loops and Modes).
Awards
This project won also 3 Spin Awards. So because this is a portfolio, I will brag a little bit and quote the jury reports ;).
'The jury was impressed by this project. The fact that new innovative ways have been found to solve problems that matter in a fairly conventional world, the jury finds phenomenal. The jury is looking forward to the next steps.'
'A concept that opens up new worlds for neurosurgery and is also easy to translate to other areas. As icing on the cake, the jury was also very pleased with the application's beautiful, smooth and simple design.'.
