Aidium First Aid Training Responsive Application
Case Study
Project Overview
Aidium is a responsive website, mobile, and tablet app that helps users learn first-aid.
Project Timeline
December 2021 to February 2022
My role
UX designer leading the app and responsive website design from conception to delivery.
Conducting interviews, paper and digital wireframing, low and high-fidelity prototyping, conducting usability studies, accounting for accessibility, and iterating on designs.
Problem Statement
Nearly 9 in 10 teenagers have been confronted with some kind of medical emergency, 4 out of 5 of them say that they would feel safer if they had some basic first aid knowledge to apply to the situation and its circumstances. Thousands of people are dying each year in situations where first aid could have made the difference.
The Goal
Create a resource for people of any age to be able to learn first aids skills easily, allowing them to feel prepared in situations where first aids skills can save a life.
User Research: Overview
There’s a significant amount of data available on the topic of first aid and common deaths around the world, including statistics that go in depth on how first aid skills can help save lives in a large portion of those situations.
I used parts of this data to help form a portion of the interview questions during my user interviews.
Users were asked the following questions:
Do you feel confident in emergency situations?
Do you feel properly trained to handle someone choking?
Have you ever had to perform CPR on someone?
Do you know how to perform CPR?
Would you feel more confident if you knew basic first aid skills in an emergency situation?
Most participants reported they didn’t know any first aid skills, including CPR and the Heimlich maneuver. Almost every single participant reported they would feel far more confident if they knew first-aid skills in an emergency situation.
At the end of the user tests, I gave participants this fact to gauge their natural reaction and feedback “A recent statistic, released by St John’s Ambulance, has revealed that 140,000 people die each year from incidents where first aid could have possibly saved their lives.” Almost all participants reacted the same by stating that they didn’t know it was that important to know basic first-aid but after hearing that fact and the questions conducted in the interview, they’re more inclined to want to learn.
The feedback received made it very clear that the amount of people who know first-aid vs the number of lives it would save is very startling. And an easy-to-use tool to help teach first aid skills would certainly help people feel more prepared in emergencies.
Digital Wireframes & Low-Fidelity Prototype
Wireframes were put together utilizing previous research and user interviews. Using the completed set of digital wireframes, I created a low-fidelity prototype. The prototype details the basic user flow of how the lesson section functions, including a gamification aspect with rewards for quizzes and completed courses. Users testing the prototype were told to go through the app as if they were going to continue a lesson they previously started or search for a new lesson and go through the basic steps.
Usability Test Findings
These were the main findings uncovered by the lo-fidelity prototype usability study
Round 1 findings
Users want to see progress on their current lesson on the overview page
Users want to see the difficulty of the lesson before starting
Users would like to see their current progress in the course during a lesson so they can have more motivation to finish the course
High-fidelity Prototype
Based on insights from the first round of usability studies, I applied design changes like providing a clear indicator showing the progress of current lessons & rewards. I also added an indicator to display lesson difficulty before the user begins the lesson.
The high-fidelity prototype presented cleaner user flows and clear progress indicators. I also addressed the feedback from the user tests by cleaning up all aspects of the overall design.
The second round of usability testing was conducted using the high-fidelity prototype, users were asked to go through the main flow as if they were going to be completing a lesson in the course.
Usability Test Findings
These were the main findings uncovered by the high-fidelity usability study.
Round 2 findings
Users find the icons at the bottom difficult to understand
Visually impared users need the ability to hear the lesson text
During quizzes users would like a quick reference button to the lesson the question was tied to
Mockups
The second usability test showed that users had difficulty understanding the navigation icons, these were all simplified. I also implemented a button to allow visually impaired users to hear the lesson text. I then added a quick reference button that allowed users to jump back to a lesson tied to the question asked on the quiz.
Responsive Designs
The designs for screen size variation included mobile, tablet, and desktop. Each design was optimized to feel cohesive and maintain the same user experience no matter which device they were using, allowing users to continue lessons where they left off on any device.
Accessibility Considerations
Followed WCAG guidelines to help provide access to users who are visually impaired through adding alt text to images for screen readers and more.
Many design considerations were taken into account for not only usability but also accessibility. All touch points were made with a minimum of 40px in height and width. All text is 11pt or higher.
Kept information consistent throughout each screen and allowed the text to breathe with spacing between each row for quick readability and programmatically processing.
Takeaways
Impact
Users shared that Aidium made them realize that learning first aid could be a lot less intimidating than they had originally thought. Users also expressed that they felt more likely to complete lessons on their free time by using the mobile or tablet options.
One quote from peer feedback was that “I can definitely see myself using an app like Aidium to help make me feel much more prepared in case of an emergency.”
What I Learned
I learned that even though the problem I was trying to solve was a big one and no full replacement for hands-on training; diligently going through each step of the design process and aligning with specific user needs helped me come up with solutions that were both feasible and useful.
Next Steps
One major consideration that needs to be said is the first iteration of the design focuses on teaching anyone who wants to learn first-aid skills, not those who need specialized skills for their jobs. The next iteration of the app should help focus on categories for those users on certain career paths.
One potential solution that could be explored is the addition of expert instructor videos for certain career paths such as caretakers and lifeguards.
Conduct further research on what lessons are being completed easily and where users may potentially be losing motivation.
Continue to adjust the app based around younger age groups to help keep them entertained and motivated.
Continue to look into VR and AR technology implemented as training methods.
VR training has a retention rate of 75%, beating out lectures (5%), reading (10%), and audio-visual learning (20%) (FrontCore, 2020).