Can you see the room numbers? Why is here the Blue Hallway?
To better understand the design problems and the medical system, we went to CHOP cardiology department for multiple further observations. From our observation, we discovered more pain points other than the unclear signages and organized our observation into several journey maps.
From our observation, we discovered that problems stem from the lack of communication and misunderstanding between doctors, staff, and patients (families). One time of miscommunication at one point may create sequential consequences which finally leads to a roughly 1.5 hour delay for both patient and staff’s experience.
Then, how might we help?
How might we navigate patients and staffs to be
in the right place at the right time?
First, during our trip to Chop Cardiology, we received many feedbacks about unclear signages and patient not checking out issues.
Second, we were told that many staff, especially physicians, still working in the previous building and only come the new place once a week. Therefore, some of staff and doctors are not familiar with the new building, particularly with the confusing signages and hallways.
Third, while shadowing the hospital’s communication, we discovered that there existed a lot of miscommunication among doctors, staff, and patients. One of the most concerned issue was that doctors need to upadte patients’ status manually, which they often forget to do. Then the patients have to wait until being called by names, during this process, patients might get worried, anxious, tired, and hungry. So they might think they are forgotten by the doctors and leave the hospital to get some food or to go to another appointment. The consequence is that when the doctors finally remembered to update the information and call the patients’ name, they cannot find the patients in the cardiology department!
This is a circle, a mallaneous circle!
What can we do?
We decide to focus on three solutions, which two are short term with low effort and high impact, and the other is a long term inclusive solution.
No. 1
First, we try to solve the problem of the waiting area. In other word, we want to ensure that the patients can find the right place to wait for the doctors.
We devided the two waiting areas with two different themes, to clarify the separation while also being user-frienly to the color blindness.
No. 2
During our observations at CHOP, staff mentioned that patients frequently ask for the checkout table's location and sometimes leave without checking out. We noticed that the checkout table is difficult to see from the hallway, and some patients pass by it without noticing the sign on the wall.
Furthermore, the cardiology department has four hallways that all look identical unless one looks to the end and sees the colored blocks. However, these blocks in pink, red, teal, and blue are quite similar and challenging to distinguish for newcomers to the department. As some staff, particularly physicians, visit the Buerger building only once a week, this remains a new environment for them every time.
The issues stem from CHOP's constant growth, leading to temporary signage that is poorly designed and merely labels locations without effectively guiding directions. To address these problems, we asked: How might we help navigate patients and staff to their destinations, and how might we create signs that are visible from the middle of the hallway?
We first decided to design corner signs visible from the main hallway and then made them more inclusive for color blindness and easier to differentiate. After receiving feedback on our ideas, we removed the protruding design for safety reasons and continued refining the concept.
By combining the checkout issue, we created signage visible from the middle of the hallway, containing room numbers, checkout signs, and testing room guides. Later, we brought vinyl stickers to CHOP for prototyping. After a week of testing, we received positive feedback, such as "I can glance and know immediately if I'm going in the right direction or not," "It's easier to distinguish between colors," and "Most patients can find the checkout place and won't miss it anymore." However, as CHOP plans to add testing and equipment rooms to its silver signboard, they requested larger room numbers and checkout signs while removing other elements.
Based on the final feedbacks, we improved our design of signage to make it more obvious and accessible.
