PPE Distribution
Design Thinking Challenge
September 2020-December 2020
September 2020-December 2020
Our team was comprised of University of Michigan graduate students. The entire project was done remotely using various digital collaboration tools largely due to being at the peak of the Covid-19 outbreak.
Our Design Question
How might we redesign personal protective equipment (PPE) distribution used in a healthcare setting to decrease the spread of infection while increasing staff adherence to proper donning and doffing procedure?
Not only is the supply of PPE essential, but also the process of PPE distribution and access is critical. After extensive research, the team concluded that current PPE carts' designs do not take human factors and user experience into consideration. By utilizing a human-centered design approach, the research team will be able to assist frontline workers and provide a superior PPE distribution method. We investigated the role of PPE distribution in a hospital setting and focused on the measures and precautions currently being utilized. This review displays design modifications that assist with reducing transmission and effectively distributing PPE. Keeping our healthcare workers safe is a vital key to staying ahead in this pandemic.
To gain greater insight into the problem we wanted to solve, we conducted user interviews with both Core Users and Extreme Users.
From these interviews we established emerging patterns & themes. We also developed user personas based on these findings.
In addition to user interviews, our team did background research on the counties and hospital systems our interviewees work in.
From here, we developed user personas for different core and extreme users.
User Personas developed from user interviews and other background research.
Armed with a better idea of who we were designing for and what their problems and pain points were, we moved to our ideation phase.
We gave ourselves 5 minutes to add ideas to the Jamboard, organized by the themes we discovered from our user interviews.
After our timed ideation session, each team member explained the ideas they had added to the board. Team members elaborated on these ideas with the "yes, and..." approach.
Team members then sketched ideas based on our ideation Jamboard. From here, everyone voted on the sketches by placing a dot. This gave our team a direction of what direction we wanted to go with our design.
From here, we defined key goals and requirements for our design. This was based on our user interviews, background research, and design best practices/ergonomic considerations.
Next, we began developing our prototype.
Placement & Layout Mapping
This layout was used to outline our PPE placement. Team members joined via Zoom while 1 team member moved labels and product outlines on the board on camera.
Scaled Model with 3D Considerations
Our scaled 3D model used household materials to get an idea of how our design would exist in space. Adding casters and rough 'doors' gave an idea of how this may be interacted with in a medical setting.
Initial Digital Rendering
Our digital rendering clearly illustrates our intended product layout, FIFO, labeling, and touch-minimization.
Due to this project coinciding with the peak of the Covid-19 outbreak, our team had to be creative with our prototype usability testing. Given that our usability participants were our user interview participants, they were scattered across multiple states. To account for this, some testing was done by showing participants digital renderings of the prototype, while other testing was done by having a participant direct a similarly-sized team member to manipulate a physical prototype different ways while observing over Skype, so as to get an idea for how the size and dimensions would work for them ergonomically.
With this valuable feedback, we finalized our design specifications and made our final design adjustments.
We also considered things we may encounter when going to market in the medical space, such as existing contracts with PPE suppliers and maintenance access.
Our final design renderings.
Below, our paper outlining our full process is available.
510group3_healthcare design_v4.pdf