The NHS Transplant Alert App (TAA), is a IOS / Android Mobile App designed to provide patients and also the TAA team, practitioners etc the ability to track the current progress, monitor updates pre and post transplant, provide helpful links / support and log all relevant information throughout every stage and process by means of alerts and notifications.

The Brief.

Trustech introduce and provide innovative ideas for hospitals etc, to improve healthcare and social practices by doing things better, which is how the Transplant Alert App all began. Trustech approached us to create an alternative option for the NHS, rather than the current and potentially out of date process, which is still being used today. They required a more intuitive, personal and engaging product (app) for all transplant related patients of all ages, where they would feel more in touch, comfortable and be in control of their own appointments and details right from the start and throughout their journey and experience. 

The Process.

Brand Identity / Logo Development. -

My first job in hand before I even started to look into the main product app development, was to create the brand identity / logo for the app being the brand UI/UX designer. I started researching online for reference to see what was out there, and what had been created before I proceded. I wanted to tell a story with this idea right from the start and not just design a logo. 

My thought process started solely with the app icon design and colour palette, the story concept begins with the onboarding screens process, which in turn both went through many stages of sketches / scamps and development changes, the principle idea remained the same. The logo (organs) formed a T for transplant and for the onboarding it would show the logo id separated, visually representing a transplant where one part of the logo (organ) joins the other part to complete it. 

Research & User Flows. -

After researching and gathering insights for this task, producing the user flows proved a little challenging as to which direction do we take it in. With the target audience being across all age groups it needed to be visually easy on the eye, simple and clean, but more importantly with such a wide age bracket the main concern had to be it's ease of use! The app needed to be very user friendly and accessible, especially with the nature and the purpose of the app. 

Wireframes & User Testing. -

I initially started the process of drafting down quick wireframes, based on the user flow information and immediately focused on the core aspects of the app requirements, which was going to be the alert / notification screens. My first hurdle was to make the home alert screen be clean, simple and as straight forward as possible for the user, the consideration was for it to have its own panels / sections as individual tickets, clearly separated from each other with minimal info, yes / no call to action buttons to respond etc, which allows the user to scroll through at ease without being confused or overwhelmed.

The second phase and more crucial was 'how are we going to show all the information that is held within each alert / notification, there is a considerable amount of data required for each alert', this would be the most important area of info the user would see, this needed to be easy to read and understand, so a simple and straight forward approach was needed. At this stage we tested, brainstormed and discussed the wireframes, the best solution and conclusion we came to was it being in a drop down format on the alert panel, so one alert / notification data would hold the space of that entire screen, to allow the user to process the information and react accordingly. That drop down action would then close up to where all the individual alerts are stored.

Prototyping & Hi-fi Designs. -

After completing the first set of wireframes for all the potential screens and scenarios, I then jumped into the prototyping and the hi-fi visual designs, to see how this would work with real time data and the functionality. At this point we found out on testing that certain elements ie. the CTA buttons and their colours, weren't going to be the norm due to the nature of the app eg. the 'NO' (CTA) was going to be the most important choice. This is why it became the dominant stand out colour in red, which indicates more urgency as it is a negative CTA based upon the app, i.e. - why cant you attend? This in turn would require more actions to be taken, while selecting the 'YES' (CTA), the most expected choice that patients/ (users) would choose, is why we made it the least dominant colour in blue, as this would be the only action required really. It became evident on user testing to go with a NO-YES format, as we read and look from left to right, it seemed the logical approach based upon its importance. 

The Outcome.

The application and product design has been received well and the client is very happy with the final outcome, including it's clean and simplistic look and feel, but more importantly it's ease of use! They are optimistic going forward, that it will be a success and to roll it out across the country. I have learned a lot from this task, that it can be a difficult touch point when considering a full range of ages as a target audience, it seemed the best option in this case was to keep things clean, simple and logical! Less was definitely a lot more.