Deep Brain Stimulation - UI

Friend's HCI university project
UI Design, High-Fidelity-Prototyping

A more supportive and efficient parameterization.

Goal

Based on a friend's research on improving UX for medics while programming electrodes of DBS implants I worked based on previous low-fidelity wireframes on a high-fidelity prototype.

High entry barrier for unexperienced medics because of missing support by the system.

Problem

Qualitative interviews with six doctors from the University Hospital of Würzburg have shown that there are sometimes significant deficiencies in the areas of self-description, learning, error tolerance and individualization.

Close-up of an old Deep Brain Stimulation Programming tool. Hand holds touch pen to input data on a no-colored user interface.
Currently used standard device Medtronic N‘Vision.

A new concept worked out with LoFi wireframes.

Solution finding

LoFi Prototypes helped to quickly gather user feedback regarding information completeness and structure. In following tests most users felt comfortable with the structure, but clickable areas needed to be highlighted more clearly.

Screen shots of LoFi wireframe.
LoFi Screens (done by my friend)

Obvious hit areas and better use of space.

Visual exploration

In the LoFi prototype test session users had problems identifying interactive hit areas. So I decided to color interactive components clearly blue. Icons and labels are mostly combined, so it matches the users expectations.

Isometric close-up of programming view.
Blue highlighted interaction areas.
Close-up of program list.
Closeup of the touch optimized list component.
Medic holding an iPad with opened Deep Brain Stimulation Programming app.

HiFi prototype
needs further test sessions.

Learnings & Outlook

1. Unfortunately this variation of a HiFi Prototype is not tested yet with medics, so this needs to be done to move ahead.

3. Thinking about really making the usage easier, especially for beginners and in such important fields is a really good feeling.

4. 3D control is hard to test in prototyping tools. Need to figure out how to deal with it one day.

Thank you for watching.

Special Thanks

Thanks to my friend and former colleague Tim for asking me to help out with your project and for letting me use some insights here on my website. 🍺 (this is for you!)

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