Northeastern University Health & Wellness Lab
Patient Centered Healthcare Portal
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 Politecnico di Milano, Northeastern's Center for Design aimed to centralize this knowledge into an intuitive, research-driven platform that empowers users to access resources and accelerates collaboration among clinicians, researchers, and designers, starting with Greater Boston area.
Timeline
10/01/2024 - 09/01/2025
Tools
Figma
React, Tailwind, AWS
Web Perfomance Tools
Team
1 Product Designer
4 Researchers
1 SWE
1 QA Tester
2 Marketing & Accessibility
Why we need a patient-centered care research portal?
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.
Research Insights
We started with interviews to capture users’ needs and pain points, focusing on how they search for information, understand jargon, and organize key categories. Then, we used ethnography to validate our userflows, uncover hidden challenges, and ensure the platform delivers the right information to meet those practical needs.
🗂️ Siloed data and system fragmentation
🔍 Inefficient resource discoverability
🤝 Limited collaboration and knowledge exchange
Design Interations
Through design workshops, we began building the information architecture by identifying key themes and user flows for our target users. We then created 10+ versions of lo-fi wireframes and 5 hi-fi wireframes, keeping clarity, usability, and accessibility as our top priorities.
Validation
To validate the design proposal, we conducted a 3-week usability test with the internal team, followed by 3 evaluations from the web accessibility team and 2 branding compliance review.
Result
Lemro Upsim
Impacts
Lemro Upsim
Retrospective
In this project, I worked across multiple areas, from conducting user research and facilitating design workshops to prototyping and user testing, while collaborating closely with teams and departments. I also managed to keep design workflows, documentation, and testing organized within cross-institutional repositories.