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Virtis™ SNM
Virtis™ SNM is an application to configure an implanted stimulation system inside a patient for the treatment of bladder and bowel problems.
MY ROLE(s)
User Experience Design • Usability Engineering • User Interface Design • Interaction Design
Synopsis
As the organization was waining and my unwillingness to sit idol, I proposed a complete redesign of the sns software package. I set out to take the lessons learned from the other neurostimulation interfaces I worked on. The interface still required many of the same requirements as the previous, but there was an opportunity for a new "blue sky" interface.
UNDERSTAND
The project lived outside of our standard operating procedure so the primary constraint was stakeholder acceptance of breaking the current therapy software paradigms.
Research
The number one issue with the previous neural stimulation interfaces was they were designed by engineers to cater to engineering methodologies. User polls showed few clinicians with an engineering background.
Findings
I kept notes from observations of previous projects at Nuvectra. There were several areas where the application could improve the experience for the user and maximize company revenue.
- New Clinicians have difficulty understanding the therapy system
- Patient therapy programming process is convoluted with unexpected interactions
- Existing Interface is intimidating and overwhelming
- Clinicians are expensive to train & maintain
- Interface language uses jargon that is too technical for many users
- Interface is designed by engineers for engineers... (not the end-user)
CONCEPTUALIZE
The data gathered from early research identified the pain points that needed addressing.
Strategy
- provide heuristics and affordances of existing mental models to aid in application usage
- simplify the application flow to a task-based context workflow
- remove erroneous tasks and features from the application
- implement a redundant visual communication system (shape, color, context, and text) to cater to clinicians with impairments.
- create a new therapy programming paradigm (anyone can learn to adjust therapy)
- add tools to make a Clinician's time more efficient
- allow higher patient coverage with fewer sales reps by:
- Implementing a patient Scheduler; giving reps better coverage with fewer resources (minimize travel time between sessions)
- Implementing remote programming (telehealth option)
- reduce the training time of application usage
- Implement a secure cloud-based patient metric system to provide insight on therapy effectiveness
VALIDATE
The project did not have any additional resources apart from my annual compensation, so true validation was not acheived.
Validation Testing
I managed to crudely validate some of the early designs with working prototypes, a/b tests, and interviews.
Findings
Observed improvements showed a 62% increase in user task performance. Clinicians interviewed favored the new paradigm of visually representing electrical fields and programs on a "video editing-like" timeline.
IMPLEMENT
While building mock-ups and functional prototypes, I made a library of visual assets. The various states of the assets were also code-ready.
REVIEW
Inspiration can strike anywhere and sometimes unusual sources lend to some incredible solutions. This project showed that working prototypes can sell a complicated idea far better than static mock-ups. I loved working on this project partly because there were few constraints, but also because I was able to convince major stakeholders and engineers that this was a better solution for the user.
