Overview
Background
Zishi is the pronunciation of Chinese word “姿式“, which means posture and formula. In this project, I mainly focus on guiding stroke patients in real-time postoperative rehabilitation through the interface connected to the smart garment.
Based on the actual rehabilitation scenarios of patients, zishi's interface is mainly presented on tablet computers and smart wearable devices.
Problem
When stroke patients receive rehabilitation training, they are often troubled by Compensatory Movements.
Compensatory movements can be defined as movements used habitually to achieve functional motor skills when a normal movement pattern has not been established or is unavailable. The existence of compensatory movements will greatly reduce the effectiveness of rehabilitation training, and even cause the patient to suffer secondary injuries.
System
In order to reduce the impact of compensation on rehabilitation, zishi is equipped with a module soft sensor on the user's sternoclaviular joint and acromioclavicular joint, which can determine whether the user's movement is standard by monitoring the joint position.
Then the obtained judgment result is fed back to the patient through the user interface, sound and vibration, so as to provide assistance and guidance for the user's rehabilitation. Allows users to complete rehabilitation training at home alone when they cannot go to the hospital.
New Features
Sign Up Questionnaire
I added a questionnaire page when users are signing up to get a preliminary understanding of the patient's status and previous treatment, which lay a foundation for subsequent training recommendations.
Device Status
On the basis of the original interface, I designed a more integrated device status page, so that users can easily view, connect, add devices, and set the standard posture of the device.
Training Schedule
In order to make the overall training more planned, I designed the schedule module. In this module, users can plan a week's training as a whole according to their own conditions and the advice of the physiotherapist. Meanwhile, it also improves the consistency of training.
Video Training
Compared to the original version using gif for movements demonstration, in the new version, I use live video as a demonstration to guide patients in training. For the seniors, videos are easier to understand and follow than animations.
Therapist Contact
In order to improve the efficiency of communication with the physiotherapist, in the new version, I added a dialogue function with the physiotherapist, and can send recent training results with one click. In this way, the physiotherapist can give the next training plan based on the training results.
Interface Redesign Process
Original Interface Analysis
In order to better redesign the interface, I first conducted a preliminary analysis of the problems in the original interface.
User Study
Persona
AboutMariam suffered a stroke when she was
58 years old. After receiving the initial treatment, she started a long rehabilitation training. For the first 3 months, she took a in-person training with her physical therapist. Because Durham
does not have a professional rehabilitation facility, she can only ask her husband to drive her to the city where the physiotherapist is located. Each time she needs to spend more than
3 hours on the road.
Under the recommendation of her physical therapist, Mariam began to use Zishi for rehabilitation training at home, but encountered some problems during the use.
Because of the stroke, her
hand movements are not very flexible, and her speed is slow when she uses electronic devices. Because of her age, her
eyesight gradually deteriorated, she needs to use larger fonts when reading, and it
takes a long time to learn when she is exposed to new things.
| Goals |
Challenges |
Under the premise of ensuring the standardization and effectiveness of movements, stroke rehabilitation training can be carried out more conveniently. |
Inconvenient hand movement
Vision loss
Learning difficulties |
User Journey Map
Analyze the user's journey when using the original interface.
Scenario
User Interface Design
Wireframes
Visual Guidance
Touch Area
Grid
Then, based on the touch area, set up the grid system to better organize the content.
Card Module
In order to facilitate the elderly with inconvenient hand movements, I chose to present most of the content in the form of card modules during redesign. This operation allows a larger click area when touch is needed.
Typography
Taking into account the problem of poor eyesight of middle-aged and elderly people, when designing the interface, I chose more standard, clear, and larger fonts to ensure that they can easily identify.
Color
In terms of color selection, I chose colors with high saturation and high contrast to make the content more accessible.
Interface Flow
Interaction Design
As for interaction design, my initial prototype uses many different gestures (such as dragging, double-clicking, etc.) for interaction. However, in the user tests, it was found that many target users find it difficult to use multi-gesture interaction, especially when dragging actions are required, they are often interrupted for various reasons. Therefore, in the final version, I try to use more tapping to achieve the target function, to make the interaction method as simple and unified as possible.
Summary
During this project, through several iterations, I deepened a lot of understanding of ui/ux design and became more familiar with the practical methods. UI/UX design is a user-centered. In this project, I pay more attention to meeting the actual needs of users and the achievability of functions, rather than simply designing for better visual or interactive effects.
In the original project, my role is an integration designer. Through repeated communication with engineers and other designers, I have a good understanding of the product itself, which also laid the foundation for my the redesign. Together with the team, I won the second prize of the China-US Youth Maker Competition with the Zishi smart interactive garment.
Although the redesigned interface improves many deficiencies of the old version and integrates many new functions, it also makes the development more difficult. For the next step, I hope that the new interface can be developed and tested as soon as possible, and put into the market together with Zishi’s garment, so that more patients can benefit from it.