Helping young patients build resilience
“Promoting Resilience in Stress Management”, also known as PRISM, is an an emotional wellbeing program developed by doctors at the Seattle Children’s Hospital to help adolescent and young adult populations facing chronic or terminal illnesses such as Type 1 Diabetes or cancer. At Artefact, I led a team to evolve this paper intervention between coach and patient into an engaging, self-guided digital experience. When working collaboratively with the Seattle Children’s Hospital Digital Health team, I guided the visual design and architecture of the application, and gave them tools to build their organization’s culture of human-centered Design.
Role
Lead UX Design & Strategy
Context
Seattle Children's Hospital
2017: 5 Weeks
Team
Andrea Kang (UX Design)
General UI (Engineering)
Dr. Abby Rosenberg (PRISM co-creator)
Dr. Joyce Yi-Frazier (PRISM co-creator)
The PRISM intervention powerfully demonstrates that supporting the personal and emotional journey of patients is an important aspect of treatment. The guided paper-based intervention to help young patients develop skills in four areas:
Stress management and mindfulness
Goal setting and problem solving
Positive reappraisals
Finding meaning in adversity
A digital companion became the most appropriate way to scale this program to reach more patients, and allow young adults to be open and forthright about their stress, worries, hopes and goals as they manage the challenges of serious illness.
Supporting Emotional
Well-being
Approach
Building Trust
I advised our client on the design process and shared how to incorporate a culture of Design into their growing Innovation team.
Strategy
I worked with stakeholders to establish key project objectives and design principles to help guide decision making and set direction for the user experience.
Visual Direction
I broadly explored a variety of form, color and visual concepts before narrowing on the theme of the application. The structural theme we used provided geometric patterns, bright colors, and illustrative qualities that aligned with the structural guidance and encouraging tone of the PRISM program. I used this direction to develop the icon and branding throughout the experience.
Designing for Young Adults
An engaging user experience was paramount because the PRISM app is designed for teenagers and young adults and deals with difficult emotions. PRISM welcomes users with thoughtful interactions, a rich tactical and interactive navigation experience, a conversational tone, a youthful aesthetic, and none of the clinical, sterile feel found in many digital health solutions.
Because the app allows for the patient to serve as their own facilitator, we designed prompts throughout the experience to inspire self-reflection and the honest expression of emotions, as well as space for patients to reflect on goals and moments of gratitude. Altogether, the PRISM app provides young patients a listening ear and a moment of calm when they need it most.
Impact
Growing Audience
Patients have expressed positive feedback and found PRISM to be an important emotional tool to use throughout their healthcare journey.
Patient Satisfaction
After a successful 2 year pilot program with patients from the Seattle Children’s Hospital, The PRISM program has committed to expanding to 10 participating clinics and eventually to children’s hospitals across the country.
Press
PRISM User
“...I write what I'm grateful for every day. So even if the day is rough, it's like 'well you know, there's still this thing going on' or 'this thing makes me happy'. So I just have it all [in PRISM] so I can see what things make me grateful.”
PRISM User