infoLab Project: Bariatric Surgery Decision Aid
Fall 2018 | infoLab | Novia Wong | MSI Second Year
infoLab focuses on interdisciplinary collaboration between UX research and design, data analysis, and library science students, all while working with a client. As a second year MSI, I applied to be “UX designer I” on the team, who also serves as a mentor in UX research and design to another student who is slightly less experienced -- it was really rewarding being a mentor, especially seeing how much she learned throughout the project! Then, I was placed on a team of four, with another UX designer and two data science students.
From there onward, my team and I spent the next four months or so working with a local health informatics company to redesign their surgery outcomes calculator. My infoLab project was different in many ways compared to other projects that I’ve worked on. For starter, other projects that I worked on at school had strict schedules for milestones and assignments; but for infoLab, we had to plan and track our own progress. It was actually a really valuable learning experience for me since I got to practice running the project in an Agile environment alongside students from other disciplines. We set goals for ourselves and divided the project into five different sprints: problem scoping, research, prototype, validate, and revise.
Another difference between infoLab and other projects was troubleshooting and problem solving under guidance. About two to three weeks into the project, we realized our most difficult part of our project was to find users to interview and to conduct user research. Since the topic is bariatric surgery, it is a bit sensitive to most people. As a result, my team and I were stuck for a while. Finally, in one of the weekly meetings for InfoLab, our mentors provided us with great resources and advice, we were able to move forward with our project based on their recommendations. After that, instead of focusing on seeking direct contact with our primary users, we focused on secondary research and turned to existing materials such as online blogs. Once we learned a bit about our users, it was smooth sailing.
In the end, instead of redesigning an outcomes calculator, we used our user research as a guidance and designed a bariatric surgery decision aid instead. Then, my team and I went to our client and presented our research finding, design prototype, and our validation results to the project manager, the Chief Medical Officer, and the sales team. The feedback we received was extremely positive! Our client was so excited about the solution we designed, to the point where they made promises to implement the solution and have began pitching the design to their own clients! (Also, our client was extremely welcoming and they made us feel like we were part of their team throughout the project!)
So how was infoLab for me? I was so glad I joined infoLab and got my project assignment! The interdisciplinary aspect was new to me; the two data science students brought in new and different perspectives into a very typical UX project - they were able to generate temporary data using Python and create data visualization using Tableau to make the mockup more realistic. I think the best part was getting to work with students from different backgrounds. I particularly learned a lot from one of my teammates, who was a project manager before starting this program! In short, if someone asked me whether I would do this again, definitely!
infoLab focuses on interdisciplinary collaboration between UX research and design, data analysis, and library science students, all while working with a client. As a second year MSI, I applied to be “UX designer I” on the team, who also serves as a mentor in UX research and design to another student who is slightly less experienced -- it was really rewarding being a mentor, especially seeing how much she learned throughout the project! Then, I was placed on a team of four, with another UX designer and two data science students.
From there onward, my team and I spent the next four months or so working with a local health informatics company to redesign their surgery outcomes calculator. My infoLab project was different in many ways compared to other projects that I’ve worked on. For starter, other projects that I worked on at school had strict schedules for milestones and assignments; but for infoLab, we had to plan and track our own progress. It was actually a really valuable learning experience for me since I got to practice running the project in an Agile environment alongside students from other disciplines. We set goals for ourselves and divided the project into five different sprints: problem scoping, research, prototype, validate, and revise.
Another difference between infoLab and other projects was troubleshooting and problem solving under guidance. About two to three weeks into the project, we realized our most difficult part of our project was to find users to interview and to conduct user research. Since the topic is bariatric surgery, it is a bit sensitive to most people. As a result, my team and I were stuck for a while. Finally, in one of the weekly meetings for InfoLab, our mentors provided us with great resources and advice, we were able to move forward with our project based on their recommendations. After that, instead of focusing on seeking direct contact with our primary users, we focused on secondary research and turned to existing materials such as online blogs. Once we learned a bit about our users, it was smooth sailing.
In the end, instead of redesigning an outcomes calculator, we used our user research as a guidance and designed a bariatric surgery decision aid instead. Then, my team and I went to our client and presented our research finding, design prototype, and our validation results to the project manager, the Chief Medical Officer, and the sales team. The feedback we received was extremely positive! Our client was so excited about the solution we designed, to the point where they made promises to implement the solution and have began pitching the design to their own clients! (Also, our client was extremely welcoming and they made us feel like we were part of their team throughout the project!)
So how was infoLab for me? I was so glad I joined infoLab and got my project assignment! The interdisciplinary aspect was new to me; the two data science students brought in new and different perspectives into a very typical UX project - they were able to generate temporary data using Python and create data visualization using Tableau to make the mockup more realistic. I think the best part was getting to work with students from different backgrounds. I particularly learned a lot from one of my teammates, who was a project manager before starting this program! In short, if someone asked me whether I would do this again, definitely!
