Dr. Vacin App
How I used UX Design to help monitor the application of vaccines and help improve a public service
The Challenge
This is a case study in which a government investor intends to create a solution that can help parents monitor their children’s health, with special attention to the vaccination of their little ones.
How to assist parents in monitoring their children’s health more efficiently?
Desk-research
When it comes to children’s health, vaccination is an important step to be taken in the prevention of infectious diseases. The vaccination schedule implemented in Brazil, once considered exemplary, provides for the application of several vaccines from the birth of the baby, in addition to periodic booster doses. The control is carried out by the parents themselves using a booklet in which all doses applied are registered up to 10 years of age.
After this age, the registration of vaccines is done through a vaccination card without national standardization and which is already required in the school enrollment in the public network of some municipalities.
However, this important step registered a fall across the country. See below data from the national immunization program published by the Senate Agency about vaccination coverage through the years:
In addition to this decrease, it is important to highlight that the booklet and the vaccination card are objects prone to loss and damage, when that happens it’s necessary to retrieve the data history, at the risk of the duplicate not faithfully reproducing the information from the original document. That’s why digitalization presents itself as a viable and facilitating solution for this entire process.
Pandemic and Emergency
Added to the above scenario, one cannot forget the global pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus in early 2020. With the development of vaccines against the virus, several countries began to study the use of the “vaccine passport”, which in itself it only reveals the importance of projects like this.
In Brazil, in April 2020, Bill 5217/20 was created with the objective of creating the digital vaccination portfolio and instituting the tracking of vaccines.
The Users
When it comes to providing a public service, it is not enough to merely know the user, but rather to seek solutions that respond to their needs as consumers and citizens at the same time.
Thus, two proto-personas were created: the public health professional and the other representative of a specific population segment, that of citizens who have children or are responsible for a minor.
Constructed Personas and User Context
The construction of personas served to better understand their pain, feelings, attitudes and opportunities. Greater emphasis was placed on the persona Laura, the worried mother.
Laura, the worried mother:
Demographically, the surveys carried out to validate this persona demonstrated the existence of a dominant profile among respondents that is not representative of all users of the Brazilian SUS. However, as this is a case study, the data obtained were considered in the project, aware that in a real case, more detailed studies would be necessary.
Renato, the nursing technician:
Journeys
Proto-journeys were created as a way to demonstrate the step-by-step involved in the link between the service provided and the person-user, as well as the health professional concerning vaccination. In the statement below, it is possible to observe the final journeys with the information already validated through quantitative and qualitative research:
Pixar Storytelling
I also used Pixar’s Storytelling method to more clearly understand the purpose of the product in relation to the persona Laura:
First validation step
a) The CAD Matrix (Certainties, Assumptions, and Doubts)
The methodology of the CAD Matrix was used to raise hypotheses and analyze any assumptions and doubts:
b) Quantitative research
From the questions distributed in the CAD matrix, it was possible to elaborate the questions to carry out the quantitative research with further deepening through qualitative research.
Considering that the surveys were carried out during New Years’ Eve and Summer Holidays in Brazil, between December 30th and January 7th it was difficult to recruit participants. The first quantitative survey that would be carried out only with parents/guardians was redesigned and divided into two segments also encompassing childless vaccination patients. In the latter case, the research was limited to questions about vaccination and vaccination cards that were not exclusively related to children, but to the vaccination process itself.
The surveys were carried out using google forms and distributed on social networks. There were 148 responses from vaccination patients, and 28 responses from health professionals (nurses and nursing technicians), of which only 10 worked with vaccination.
Learnings generated
c) Qualitative research
The qualitative research was carried out with 05 parents and 02 nursing technicians, through telephone calls and brought the following information in its results:
About parents and users of the vaccination system:
- There is no uniformity in the material in the booklet and/or vaccination card given to the parents or people who are going to be vaccinated. There were reports of people who had the booklet or card deteriorating. In the case of adults, it was reported by some people that they took a new card several times because at the time of vaccination they did not have their card in their hands.
- People do not know how to proceed to request a duplicate if necessary.
- Parents prefer to use the health booklet because it contains more information about the child’s health in general than the mere vaccination card and because it has slightly better quality material.
Concerning health professionals, the need for an integrated system that encompasses all spheres of the federation, as well as public and private, was something frequently mentioned.
Asked about what could improve in relation to vaccination in the country, among the answers I highlighted:
- “Being integrated into an integrated system between municipalities and states or with the SUS, so as not to be carrying multiple vaccine cards”
- “Everyone has access to vaccination and a computerized and integrated system…such as a database with access through a personal document so there would be no unnecessary extra doses…due to the fact that the patient loses the vaccination card”
- “In my opinion, it could improve the training of professionals in relation to child care, how to approach children and parents”
- “Awareness. Clear information for all classes and people to understand.”
Benchmarking
The benchmarking analysis can be accessed here!
Wireframe and User Flow
With the result of the low fidelity prototype usability test in hand and the benchmarking research, I started to redesign the prototype as well as define the user flow.
UI Design
Style guide
Since this is an application provided by the Ministry of Health, there was a need to observe the Design System from the Brazilian Federal Government. The briefing was clear that there was freedom to use it fully or to propose changes. In this case, the Style Guide was used as a basis with some changes as will be shown below.
High Fidelity Prototype
At this point, with the final definition of the wireframes and the style guide, it was possible to build the high-fidelity prototype, the result of which can be accessed as follows:
Metrics for the future
Since this is a public service provided free of charge to the population, it was also defined that success results will be measured through the metrics of the H.E.A.R.T type framework distributed, as follows at this first moment:
Other metrics in this period can be added, such as geolocation of users and cohort analysis, according to periodic reviews, once the App is implemented.
Learning and Next Steps
I believe that the greatest learning experience during the preparation of this project was the importance of using a structured process divided into stages to build a solution. With each step performed, the path to be followed and the reason for each step within the design process became clearer, in this way all steps were used to the full if they were neglected.
Quantitative and qualitative research has also proved to be such an important ally that it should not be ignored or even underestimated. It is from them that we can devise strategies to achieve a better result in the following stages.
Finally, I must point out that the Dr. Vacin app is still under construction. There is still a lot to be done and some steps for the future have already been defined:
- To organize usability tests with users so that points that need improvement are identified, especially concerning the UI.
- To prepare UX Writing studies and application of tests to refine writing and better communicate with users
- Work on the iconography for better compliance with the federal government’s design system
- Continuing feature development and interface improvement
- Replacement of the illustrations acquired through the Open Library by custom images to the created application
- Better refinement of illustrations
- To develop studies on accessibility
- Website creation
The Dr. Vacin project is a case study for completing the certification in UX Design offered by the UX Unicorn course. This is the first course in the field that I participated in my career transition journey from Law to UX. To connect with me just send me a message on Linkedin or Instagram(@lari.UX design) and check out my portfolio.
I would like to thank my fiance and my greatest supporter Laurent, my friends Rodrigo Caires and Daniela Cerveira.
