Connecting Physios with patients in 21st century

The brief

Working on the Rehab project was one of my favourite briefs to work on at Hero.

As a service, we wanted to empower both the Physio and their patients. We needed the Physio to be able to easily create rehab programmes that could be sent to their patients, edit existing programmes, and do so in a manner that’s clear and intuitive.

With an already impressive, existing library of exercises for the Physio to choose from, my work was cut out for me. Furthermore, we needed a quick solution, the time was not on our side.

And that is precisely the kind of challenge I live for.

Breaking it all down

Projects like this can be overwhelming, so I like to break them down in different sections, to clearly see where the biggest challenges are. With that done, it was much easier to comprehend the problem at hand and keep track of what’s taken care of.

Dashboard

Needs of both parties dictated my design decisions, including but not limited to:

  • Drag and drop format for our bespoke file extension .hero, where the physio can drag and drop their existing files, which work perfectly within our eco-system

  • My exercises section, for existing programmes

  • First time users guide, for Physios who are not yet fluent with our dashboard

  • Help section for troubleshooting and submitting bugs

Creating/Editing a workout would be the most complicated screen.

The whole experience is divided into three sections:

  1. Details, where the Physio can edit the name and description of the programme

  2. Activity list, where the Physio can add, rearrange, duplicate, or remove exercises

  3. Directions, where the Physio can add custom directions per patient to further tailor to needs of each patient

Adding activities would feature a simple search section, where not only the names but preview videos of exercises exist, and they can easily add multiple ones to their programme.

After that is all done, the Physio is able to Save & Exit, which we allow throughout the experience, and Export to our bespoke .hero file.

Physio would download the .hero file, and send it to their patient, which then they would open through our Rehab app.

Challenges & Takeaways

Creating dashboards is a very subjective field, and working with stakeholders to satisfy their vision is the key. It is then up to me, the Designer, to make sure that it works for us (the company), and the end user (patient), to create a cohesive ecosystem that can evolve over time and create as much of a frictionless experience as possible.

My biggest takeaway was also my biggest perceived challenge - creating a system that works for everyone, regardless of circumstances and technical proficiency. I like to think I achieved that.