Project for Human-Computer Interaction Class
Roles: Project Manager, UX Researcher, Prototype Lead
For native English speakers, a doctor’s appointment is relatively easy. But for a patient who speaks very little English, the experience can be daunting.
In the United States, 21 million people don’t speak English fluently. These patients have few options in our healthcare system. On top of that, most health services do not accommodate the language they speak.
With no reliable way to communicate with English-speaking doctors, this is a stressful situation for both parties, especially for the patients. They end up not understanding treatments, diagnosis, and more, leaving both parties feeling isolated and helpless.
To understand the full user journey, we designed a survey to comprehend the root of the issue and its implications. We interviewed non-native English speakers, their friends and families, and doctors.
We compiled, organized, and analyzed all qualitative and quantitative data using affinization mapping, and came up with interesting insights.
There are not enough resources for non-English speakers in the United States.
Most facilities that offer care in multiple languages are concentrated in big and urban cities
When a patient is in pain or in distress, it's much more difficult for them to properly communicate what they're experiencing. They emphasized that describing symptoms and medical terms were extremely difficult
Younger family members, especially first-gen immigrants, serve as translators of the family. They are pressured to get words right and translate important medical documents.
Putting ourselves in the shoes of some of our interviewees using POV statements helps us identify the right problem to address, and make informed decisions when working to solve those problems.
After establishing the POV statements, we need to turn them into questions. “How might we” questions open the floor to new possibilities:
How might we help non-native speakers feel less overwhelmed when in medical facilities?
How might we make accurate translations more available within the medical field?
Now that we have some questions to solve, we brainstormed using the Crazy 8's exercise to create a huge list of concepts. Then, our team voted on the best ideations. Our top two ideas were an Artificial Intelligence companion device that can translate on-demand and read documents in another language, and a kid's theme translator device that will help children translate for their families.
After a couple of rounds of feedback from our professor and classmates, we refined our concepts into our final solutions.
We created Polyglot, a two-part system that serves as a handheld translator and an app.
Available in all medical facilities, the translator allows patients and healthcare professionals to communicate via on-demand translations. Patients can communicate in the language they feel comfortable talking. After the visit, the translated information is transcribed and sent to Polyglot's cloud, and then sent to the Polyglot app.
The Polyglot app complements the physical translator. After receiving the transcription from the doctor's office visit, patients can see the summary of the appointment. They can interact with highlighted medical terms, helping them understand vital information. Other features include appointment setup, on-demand chats with medical specialists, access to past visits and medical conditions, all in the language of their choice.
I feel very passionate about this project because as a first-generation immigrant, I always helped my parents translate important documents from a young age. I’m now in a position where I can create solutions to help close that inequality gap, and I feel really proud to be here.
Some challenges that I encountered throughout this project were learning how to be a better leader for my team, feeling confident about my work and skills, and storytelling.
Thankfully, I have a great support system that pushes me every day to be a better teammate, designer, and person.
To the Polyglot team: thank you so much for your hard work. You’re very talented people and I hope we can work on more projects together.