Northeastern University Health & Wellness Lab

Patient Centric Platform

Bridging clinical research and design to improve patient outcomes.

The Patient-Centered Design Platform addressed a critical gap in the U.S. healthcare system: essential resources and best practices were often scattered across institutions, limiting knowledge sharing, collaboration, and training for healthcare professionals and researchers.

In partnership with Northeastern’s Center for Design and Politecnico di Milano, we built a centralized digital repository that empowers users to access resources and accelerates collaboration among clinicians, researchers, and designers.

Role

Product Owner

UX Engineer

Timeline

May 2024 - May 2025

Team

4 Designers & Researchers
1 SWE
1 QA Tester
2 Marketing & Accessibility

Tools

Figma

React, Tailwind, AWS

Web Perfomance Tools

Problem

Centralizing research to accelerate patient-centric care

Healthcare systems worldwide are striving to deliver care that is not only clinically effective but also genuinely responsive to patients’ needs. Yet, despite advances in technology, research indicates that 60% of patients feel their emotional needs are not adequately addressed in care delivery (Forbes Survey), revealing a critical gap in both the provider and patient experience.

Our research team established a dedicated effort to analyze these gaps within the current U.S. healthcare system, while fostering cross-country collaboration to build a centralized information hub. This website serves as the public-facing platform for that outreach initiative, with a current focus on the Greater Boston area.

User Problems

  • Siloed Discovery

  • Trust & Verification Friction

  • Limited collaboration opportunities

User Problems

  • Siloed Discovery

  • Trust & Verification Friction

  • Limited collaboration opportunities

User Problems

  • Siloed Discovery

  • Trust & Verification Friction

  • Limited collaboration opportunities

Systemic Challenges

  • Institutional fragmentation (systems & data collections)

  • Geographical and cultural disparities

  • Lack of standardized models & protocols

Systemic Challenges

  • Institutional fragmentation (systems & data collections)

  • Geographical and cultural disparities

  • Lack of standardized models & protocols

Systemic Challenges

  • Institutional fragmentation (systems & data collections)

  • Geographical and cultural disparities

  • Lack of standardized models & protocols

Objectives

  • Easy access to centralized patient-centered care resources.

  • Stay updated on the latest studies and service models

  • Foster Cross-Institutional co-creation

Objectives

  • Easy access to centralized patient-centered care resources.

  • Stay updated on the latest studies and service models

  • Foster Cross-Institutional co-creation

Objectives

  • Easy access to centralized patient-centered care resources.

  • Stay updated on the latest studies and service models

  • Foster Cross-Institutional co-creation

Research

Looking beyond the numbers

To understand how target users discover, evaluate, and categorize complex care models, we conducted semi-structured interviews and ethnographic observations with patients and healthcare professionals. By analyzing information search patterns, domain terminology, and taxonomy preferences, we validated user flows and uncovered three critical system friction points:

🗂️ Siloed data and system navigation

🔍 Inefficient resource discoverability

🤝 Limited Cross-Institutional Collaboration and knowledge exchange

Ideation

Exploring design directions

Through design workshops, we began building the information architecture by identifying key themes and user flows for our target users. Supporting by research models and concept map, we then created 10+ versions of lo-fi and 5 hi-fi wireframes, keeping clarity, usability, and accessibility as our top priorities.

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Design Iterations 1

Product Layout

PROS
✅  Users can browse a wide range of actor categories at a glance
BUT
❌ Scalability concerns
❌ Diving deeper into each section adds cognitive load and navigation risk
❌ Cannot clearly show correlations between related categories
Design Iterations 1

Product Layout

PROS
✅  Users can browse a wide range of actor categories at a glance
BUT
❌ Scalability concerns
❌ Diving deeper into each section adds cognitive load and navigation risk
❌ Cannot clearly show correlations between related categories
Design Iterations 2

Data Visualization & Terminology

PROS

✅ Simplifies complex data at a glance

✅ Gives an overview of the library and trends

BUT

❌ If not built with clear intentions, additional graphs can confuse users and fail to establish a connection between textual content and visuals.

Design Iterations 2

Data Visualization & Terminology

PROS

✅ Simplifies complex data at a glance

✅ Gives an overview of the library and trends

BUT

❌ If not built with clear intentions, additional graphs can confuse users and fail to establish a connection between textual content and visuals.

Design Iterations 3

Connecting Key Components

✅  A geo-network graph to connect and represent data points for a high-level view of the knowledge repository and research models, which are our primary focus at this phase.

✅ Accessibility compliance. I ensured WCAG 2.1 compliance with ARIA labels and tags, AA color contrast, color-blind-friendly design, optimized table pagination for readability, and a screen-reader-friendly alt page for each node.

Design Iterations 3

Connecting Key Components

✅  A geo-network graph to connect and represent data points for a high-level view of the knowledge repository and research models, which are our primary focus at this phase.

✅ Accessibility compliance. I ensured WCAG 2.1 compliance with ARIA labels and tags, AA color contrast, color-blind-friendly design, optimized table pagination for readability, and a screen-reader-friendly alt page for each node.

Testing

Refining the dashboard experience

To validate the design proposal, I ran a 3 week usability test with the internal team, followed by three reviews with the web accessibility team and two branding compliance evaluations.

Since desktop is the primary access point for users, usability testing is centered on the desktop version. Microsoft Clarity and Web Core Vitals were used to track heatmaps, visit frequency, and active time spent.

Deliverables

Outcome

✅ Successful Launch May 2025
✅ Help the department gain 3 collaboration invites and a funding opportunity
✅ Implemented a design system extended the university’s branding UI library, improving design-to-code efficiency by 40%

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Lessons

Retrospective

Working across multiple institutional teams taught me to balance high-level strategy with hands-on execution.

Beyond leading research, workshops, and usability testing, this project refined how I structure design documentation, testing plans, and cross-functional workflows at scale.

Research

Stakeholder alignment should be built together from day one.

By bringing cross-functional partners into early user research, I learned how to turn potential friction into shared ownership. Designing with stakeholders rather than just presenting to them made my final handoff effortless.

Research

Stakeholder alignment should be built together from day one.

By bringing cross-functional partners into early user research, I learned how to turn potential friction into shared ownership. Designing with stakeholders rather than just presenting to them made my final handoff effortless.

Iteration

Early prototypes taught me a hard lesson in hierarchy and information density.

If content is overwhelming, accessibility suffers. Factoring in branding guidelines and rapid prototyping cycles early on completely shifted how I approach efficient, user-centric workflows to support the design team in delivering the right needs.

Iteration

Early prototypes taught me a hard lesson in hierarchy and information density.

If content is overwhelming, accessibility suffers. Factoring in branding guidelines and rapid prototyping cycles early on completely shifted how I approach efficient, user-centric workflows to support the design team in delivering the right needs.

Data Visualization

Visual density must always serve user clarity.

By grounding map interactions in real user workflows, we transformed abstract metrics into an intuitive navigation tool.

In future iterations, expanding these geomap connections will further bridge the gap between high-level insights and actionable user tasks.

Data Visualization

Visual density must always serve user clarity.

By grounding map interactions in real user workflows, we transformed abstract metrics into an intuitive navigation tool.

In future iterations, expanding these geomap connections will further bridge the gap between high-level insights and actionable user tasks.

Heading Out?

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Heading Out?

Appreciate you stopping by! Don't be a stranger, let's stay in touch.