What’s the Seattle Children’s App?
The Seattle Children’s app is your on-demand guide to Seattle Children’s whether you are a parent or caregiver, teen patient or visitor.
Key features of the app:
Locate urgent care locations and book appointments
Login to MyChart to access patient information
Track the status of your child's surgery
Join the virtual waiting room for pharmacy medication pick up or to speak to a pharmacist
Get to where you want to go in the hospital with maps and turn-by-turn directions
See and share patient and family activities happening in person or virtually
My Contribution
Led the design of the Seattle Children’s patient app 2.0. This included restructuring navigation patterns and creating reusable design components.
Led the design of the universal search and patient surgery tracking app tools. Field-tested and iterated designs with real patients.
Redesigned the internal database for all Seattle Children’s patient education materials. Prototyped and iterated with real users to ensure the product worked as intended for all use cases.
Cross-Collaboration
Product Manager - I worked with one product manager who
Development - The Seattle Children’s App is available on both iOS and Android platforms. I worked closely with a tight-knit team of developers.
Patients and Staff - Conducted monthly field interviews with patients to talk through and gather feedback on their experiences with the app. Spoke to various members of staff within the hospital such as nurses, doctors, and clinical coordinators regarding suggestions and feedback on new features.
Marketing - Created assets for marketing such as flyers, poster boards, and social media
Projects I Worked On
Universal Search and App Navigation Enhancements
The first project I worked on was adding an all-app search function. Feedback from patients via the app reviews and in-app feedback revealed users were having difficulties finding hospital resources and navigating the app. The solution was a search feature on the app homepage allowing patients to quickly find almost anything related to the hospital in a few taps. We also took the opportunity to give the homepage a visual refresh.
One of the major navigation changes was to the tab/app bar. The “Maps” and “Guide” tabs were combined into “Locations”. Seattle Children’s has other hospitals in the area and users often need to switch between them to find resources.
My Contribution
Redesigned the information architecture to seamlessly integrate the search feature. This involved reorganizing navigation pathways to accommodate the new functionality.
Created updated modular components for the updated app homepage and standardized text and color elements to adhere to accessibility standards.
Tested early iterations and concepts with patients every step of the way, documenting all research in Figma.
Quick video snippet of how of the search feature in action.
In-App Surgery Tracking
At Seattle Children's, we introduced 'Surgery Tracking' to allow parents to easily monitor their child's progress throughout the surgery process. Through in-person patient interviews and A/B testing, I ensured the design was intuitive and user-friendly. Collaborating closely with developers, we iterated rapidly to implement this feature, providing parents with crucial resources and support during a stressful time.
My Contribution
Ensured designs were consistent with current hospital messaging and HIPAA laws. Held meetings with the hospital surgery department to get feedback on designs.
Shared prototypes with patients and recorded and compiled all feedback in Figma. A/B tested final designs with real users to ensure the feature was easy to use.
Created all designs for iOS and Android in Figma, including documentation for easy developer handoff.
Hospital surgery tracking monitors
The current surgery tracking monitors at the hospital are shown below. Each patient is given a secure code and use that to track their child. Parents are often not at the hospital at all times making it much easier for them to see updates and share status with family members.
Design
Seattle Children’s Patient Education Database 2.0
The PE database serves as a vital resource hub for supporting patients' health and home care needs. It aggregates a wide array of resources, including handouts, videos, and materials sourced from Seattle Children’s and trusted external providers.
Staff actively contribute by uploading internally created resources, ensuring that the database remains comprehensive and continually updated.
My Contribution
Worked closely with developers as they migrated the previous database to understand what data could be displayed to the end user in the new database.
Conduct in-person one-on-one guided interviews with clinical staff who use the database as well as patients who search
Prototyped and iterated with real users to ensure product works as intended for all use cases. This included basic users and “power users” who needed extra functionality.
Old Interface
Ease of use was a big problem as the old navigation patterns were clunky and outdated.
New Interface
The filtering was meant to be as quick as possible. Additions like predictive results and the collapsable left side filter on the results page helped to narrow down the time it took to track down materials. Pages were created for admin users who maintain the database and have edit rights to all materials.
Reflections
Working at Seattle Children's Hospital as a designer was a deeply humbling experience. Witnessing firsthand the challenges faced by patients and their families highlighted the importance small details, like the ability to track a surgery on the app, to alleviate their stress. It was a privilege to contribute in ways that could potentially ease their burdens, even in modest ways. This experience showed me the profound impact thoughtful design can have in healthcare settings, where every element plays a role in the patient and family experience.