Canopy USer Experience

A healthcare UX research and design project ⚕️

Overview

Canopy is a digital tool that facilitates conversations about end-of-life care. With a focus on user empathy, it walks users through a guided series of questions to help them document their advance healthcare directive.

My client was a startup who aimed to bring the concept to market. I offered pro bono design and research work through a community engagement program called Design Clinic at University of Michigan. The project helped me grow as an empathetic designer by understanding the health care needs of research participants.

My Role

I served as design strategist — a dynamic role which allowed me to contribute UI elements (Sketch), communications expertise, and project management tasks.

I also supported the team’s understanding of the complex U.S. healthcare industry, relying on five years of professional work experience for a major hospital system.

The Canopy-Design Clinic team from L–R: Ken Caldwell, Brandon Keelan (client contact), Chuhan Hou, Huyen Phan, Mandy Shen, Chen Li, and Aalap Doshi (group mentor).

Chuhan “Kelly” Hou and Ken Caldwell planning the final month of Design Clinic with an outline of deliverables

ProcesS

Our team met weekly to stay accountable and execute a detailed project plan over four sprints. We also devoted time to conduct interviews, usability tests, card sorting exercises, and analysis.

We focused on understanding the preferred tone and balance of information for in-product content, like empathetic questions about users’ values and medical preferences. We also carefully studied the format and delivery of that content— splitting our time between a traditional questionnaire versus interactive media. Through continuous research to test, analyze, design, and ideate, we gathered data in:

  • 9 unique interviews

  • 5 card sorting exercises

  • 4 comparative user tests

  • 2 design iterations

UI and Experience Design

 

Project Poster

I designed this final presentation poster using Adobe InDesign to summarize our major findings.

The Canopy-Design Clinic team brainstorming the scope of the interactive & basic prototypes we created

What I learned

I knew working with Canopy as part of Design Clinic would benefit me as an information professional, but I was grateful to find a much deeper level of engagement that taught me how to be a better design team member.

I also expanded my understanding of consulting and community engagement—representing a public university in support of a private organization, complete with agreements, contracts, and deliverables. Most of all, I learned how to deliver actionable insights for UX research and design to accelerate product development.