Inclusive Design for Pediatric Patients

Using gamification to improve wellbeing of hospitalized pediatric patients during their developmental cycle.

VR
UIUX
Emotional Design
Protytyping
Market/User Research
2024.1-2024.4
Highlights
Multimodel Podcast and Welcome Kit
A platform where the narratives are not just for the children, but by the children. Each podcast is an opportunity for young patients to share their stories, actively engaging in the creation of content.
Analog Newsletter
Writing and receiving letters fosters mutual support and emotional connection.
Community Map
Children can  actively add their stories, transforming the hospital into a space they help shape.
Challenge
Challenge
A Unique Challenge
Children's hospital of Atlanta Sponsored ths project
We are asked to improve the sense of wellbeing of pediatric patients in the hospital  collaborating with child care specialist, doctors and nurses in Children's Hospital of Atlanta.

To Understand the Problem, we...

In visiting children's hospital in atlanta, talking to child life specialist, nurses and patientss we found that long term pediatric children experience a "prison" like lives in the hospital.

No one can understand them because of their "abnormal" situation.

Pediatric Children on average spend 4 days every month in the hospital.

Children feels insecure since the doctors never report to them about their treatment process.

User Research
Peter Helps Us Understand Our Target Audience
We interviewed a 17 years old long term pediatric patient peter who has spent all of his life in Children's hospital of atlanta and learned about his medical history.
Peter
8 years old
Primary school student
About
- He spent most of his time in her own room at the hospital.
- He became more aware of his situation at 7 years old.
- He visits the hospital multiple times a month.
Age-Appropriate Interactions
- He needs peer interaction and group activities that enable him to feel like a kid.
- He would like to be able to communicate more with caretakers
Communication Barriers
- He feels other people don’t understand his situation.
- He feels stressed about the uncertainty at the hospital.
- He dislikes the way the staff don’t communicate directly with him.
Opportunity Statement
How Might We...
Foster a senes of community, enhance personal significance, and nurture children’s communication amongst peers and caretakers
Sense of Normalcy
Foster a sense of community and personal significane
Empowerment Through Choices
provide multiple avenues for expression
Emotional and Social Dynamics
Facilitate communication between peers + caretakers
Key Insights
Striking a balance between positive design framework ingredients
Dashboard mockup
IDEATING AND SELECTING
Ideated various concepts that touched on our key insights
Final Concept： System Overview
Multi-Model Experience
Assessed concepts based on opportunity areas and supporting theories， we decided to build service/system lather than single product
ENGAGING STORYTELLING
Nudging engagement + personal significance, one episode at a time
1. Episodes are led by the
children, contributing to different categories
2. Interactive episodes turn hospital into a scavenger hunt/mystery
3. Children can interview peers
and caretakers
Active Involvement
User-Centric Design
1. Provide alternate medium for communication
2. Customizability through mailbox
3. Foster virtuous behavior
Active Involvement
Targeting the Direction of Our Approach
1. Provide a shared space for interaction and ideation
2. Foster virtuous behavior
3. Encourage podcast topic discussion