overview & impact
The Eden Online Support group is a non-profit organization run by medical students from the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Their platform provides the latest medical information about select chronic illnesses, creates a safe space for patients to discuss relevant topics, and informs them about clinical trials. Our UX team of six was comprised of UCLA students with a mixture of academic backgrounds studying UX Design at the UCLA Graduate School of Information Science/Studies. As one of the six, I worked closely with Julian Gautier, Yang Guo, Wenbo Qi, Geno Sanchez, and Yaqi Zhang. Our UX student team completed research that explored users’ experiences beyond the digital platform. Our UX research not only informed the future design of the Eden Online Support platform, but it provided the client with a deeper understanding of the “patient experience,” and broadened the opportunity landscape of their platform.
 

   Understanding the Problem Space

The Eden Online Support group requested help with improving the UI and interaction design of their Eden Online Support platform in effort to retain users, increase engagement, and organically build a community of patients. With regard to UX, the areas of focus included the platform’s information architecture (e.g. layout and navigation), visual and interaction design and Facebook integration. Understanding the problem space was a continuous iterative process throughout our work.

   UX Research Proposal

After meeting with EdenOS representatives and understanding the problem space including their needs and wants, our team of six presented a proposal covering the projected goals and scope of the research, clearly communicated the dependencies of activities, explained the methods in detail, and listed the planned deliverables along with a timeline and cost for our services. Because we completed the project through the UCLA iSchool, we volunteered our time and did not ultimately charge the client anything. The estimate of labor time put the project at a cost of $20,520 at the rate of $60/hr per UX Design Researcher.

 
 

   Research & Design Activities

Research and designs revolved around the patient experience coping with main three chronic illnesses that the Eden team identified as very common:

  • Hyperhidrosis
  • Eczema
  • Ulcerative Colitis

We completed UX expert reviews to constructively critique the existing platform and identify the ways in which it met (or not) targeted goals and design principles. We also conducted a competitive review to find out how the Eden platform compared with other similar solutions. After gathering and reviewing research data and further informing the problem space, we conducted a design thinking workshop in order to generate new ideas, designs and approaches. At the end of the workshop, we had a design approach and strategy to improve the Eden Online Platform.