- Usability And User-centric Design Process. A Reflective Essay On Introductory Lecturers/tutorials.

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User-centric design

User-Centric Design involves an iterative design process that focus on user needs. the purpose is to create highly accessible and usable products that lead to customer satisfaction. The healthcare firm adopted UCD for providing all-digital features to the organizations that aimed at surviving in the technological world and achieve a competitive edge. The company's agenda of incorporating UCD was focused on offering unique health assessment tools and surveying options to the clients. The approach involves end-users. The digital applications developed include Tracking Health, My Fitness, and Diet. Involving patient-clients in the process of design enhances the likelihood of improving health outcomes.

My experience of working with HelathUnlocked allowed me to witness the adoption of User-Centric Designs for addressing the needs of its clients. UCD was incorporated for building model for providing services through an online platform to various health institutes including health graphs and artificial intelligence along with health care recommendations. It also provides other effective tools for assessing the conditions of disease and offers useful information to patients that can help them during their treatments. The company is working in association with many stakeholders who are engaged in providing health solutions to patients. The adoption of technological design emphasizes on enhancing care provider-client interaction CITATION Ann09 \l 1033 (Dabbs, et al., 2009).

Four distinct stages of User-Centric Design (UCD) involve; understanding the context of use, specifying user requirements, designing solutions and evaluating requirements. The primary phase involved determining the context in which clients could use the online platform. The focus is on identifying ways that improve patients’ engagement with the providers and services. The interactive system aims at making system practically usable by stressing on the needs of clients. Factors like human wellbeing, increase in efficiency, fast response and user satisfaction are considered. In the second stage user requirements are specified such as they need for accessing fitness, health or screenings. The organizations take feedbacks or adopt other methods for assessing client needs CITATION Ana13 \l 1033 (Bharadwaj, Sawy, & Pavlou, 2013). Conducting research on customer preferences regarding healthcare services is an effective tool for identifying requirements. The third stage includes designing solutions such as cost-effective methods for maintaining fitness. Tasks are defined in this phase that will be used for addressing customers needs. The final stage is evaluating the outcomes of the solutions. Techniques and process are determined in this stage. The user-centric design is thus employed for identifying how changes will affect customers-patients.

The criteria for integrating a user-centric approach involves;

Allowing the generation of a large amount of information and transformation of experiences into knowledge.

Providing effective solutions online.

HealthUnlocked will be involving more than 50,000 patients in 75 hospitals through technological care plans.

The target of the company will be achieving more than 4 million visitors each month through the online platform.

The company will be linked to more than 600 communities and work for their wellbeing.

Retaining at least 68% of users.

Managing long-term conditions of at least 1 in every 2 patients visiting HealthUnlocked.

Maintaining an online presence of HealthUnlocked across the globe.

The basic principles adopted for the user-centric design include; active engagement of clients and understating of customers and task requirements. It further involves the allocation of functions between clients and technology. Design interaction and multi-disciplinary designs are principles of UCD.

Healthcare firm integrated user-centric design for transforming the public's health into effective knowledge and then using it for human wellbeing. The social platform designed under this approach focuses on the collection of individual's experiences and processes related to health issues and then using that knowledge for providing guidance to users through effective sources including products, services and in form of content. The company has managed to attain more than 600 communities through its online platform also serving thousands of visitors across the world by providing them useful information and guidelines. The company has maintained reliability by providing effective information sharing with the community CITATION Jor14 \l 1033 (Lopez, 2014). One effective feature of HealthUnlocked is the categorization of content according to the patients’ interests.

HealthUnlocked provides effective identification of patients from data and visitors base. Patients having consent become part of clinical researches that help the health institutes and research agencies to conduct effective research through online platforms. Another feature developed with the user-centric design is providing information about different hospitals and their services CITATION Ann09 \l 1033 (Dabbs, et al., 2009). HealtUnlcoked offers surveys and questionnaires through an online platform and is also connected to third parties. The company has also developed software's keeping in view the needs of its clients including Electronic Hostile Need Assessments that are used for assessing different hospitals throughout Australia. It also provides healthcare plans to the patients.

Services include the presentation of different statistics including graph tools and descriptive tools helping in the analysis of the patient’s medical condition. The online platform is involved in providing effective and timely recommendations to the patients. Commonly used tools for health analysis are health graph and artificial intelligence. The platform is involved in providing effective and reliable health outcomes for the patients CITATION Cat11 \l 1033 (Reis, Freire, Fernández, & Monguet, 2011). HealthUnlocked is trying to minimize the chances of errors in assessment by using advanced technology. Graphical depiction of fitness or health can address the needs of diverse clients.

The website provides a complete profile of healthcare providers to the clients. The idea has been developed under the influence of user-centric design. As customers need to identify the right treatment plan they are concerned about the qualification and experience of a healthcare provider. This feature allows customers to choose the right healthcare provider. The website also provides information on healthcare services, treatment plans, and costs. this will help clients to pick the cost-effective treatment plan.

User-centric design is used for providing digital solutions to clients such as Tracking Health. The service is developed according to the needs of clients as they are inclined to assess their health and track improvements. The service allows individuals to evaluate their daily activity such as fitness, calories, and exercise CITATION Cat11 \l 1033 (Reis, Freire, Fernández, & Monguet, 2011). The features reflect the integration of UCD because it is focused on catering client needs for maintaining fitness and healthy lifestyle.

Many companies rely on a user-centric approach due to the low costs and high tech advancements in internet facilities. Traditional business strategies have been transformed from digital business strategies that allow business to operate across boundaries without time and distance constraints. User-Centric Design is associated with an increased business value for organizations providing high growth chances and opportunities. Incorporating UCD enhances the firm's ability to catering user needs more effectively compared to traditional business practices. The reliance of healthcare companies on user-centric design will increase in future and more businesses will be relying on digital technologies. The digital technologies are linked to the convergence of information systems leads to competitive edge and growth to the companies. My personal experience depicts that the investments in UCD are likely to increase in future providing opportunities to new businesses. Digital capabilities also influence the competitiveness of organizations and companies having digital capabilities are having better chances of survival. Improved communications between patient-provider are the visible benefit of user-centric design.

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY Bharadwaj, A., Sawy, O. A., & Pavlou, P. A. (2013). DIGITAL BUSINESS STRATEGY: TOWARD A NEXT GENERATION OF INSIGHTS. MIS Quarterly Vol. 37 No. 2, pp. 471-482.

Dabbs, A. D., Myers, B. A., Curry, K. R., Dunbar-Jacob, J., Hawkins, R. P., Begey, A., et al. (2009). User-Centered Design and Interactive Health Technologies for Patients. Comput Inform Nurs, 27 (3).

Lopez, J. (2014). Digital Business is Everyone's Business. Retrieved October 15, 2016, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/gartnergroup/2014/05/07/digital-business-is-everyones-business/#aca62cd2d660

Reis, C. I., Freire, C. S., Fernández, J., & Monguet, J. M. (2011). Patient-Centered Design: Challenges and Lessons Learned from Working with Health Professionals and Schizophrenic Patients in e-Therapy Contexts. International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems.