Children’s Minnesota is a pediatric clinic that provides care for children across the Twin Cities area. While the Children’s Minnesota website provides essential information to parents and caretakers, navigating through the site can be challenging. Their website has the option for various translations but is limited to specific pages which limits the accessibility to those who aren’t proficient with English. The website provides unique ways for users to receive care but there are issues in the system which can be solved with unique and innovative solutions.
The issues that make receiving health care difficult (mismanagement of documents, not explaining treatments, poor consideration for patients, long wait times), are increased with the language barrier. The language barrier encompasses health literacy which isn’t dependent on the proficiency of a language.
The issues that make receiving health care difficult (mismanagement of documents, not explaining treatments, poor consideration for patients, long wait times), are increaesd with the language barrier. The language barrier encompasses health literacy which isn’t dependent on the proficiency of a language.
The website must accommodate users' specific understanding of English and proficiency in health literacy through interactive experiences. This will educate and inform patients, parents, pediatricians and nurses to better understand their child’s health needs.
How can we bridge the health literacy gap and make health care more accessible to people while improving the experience for patients and pediatricians?
Defining changes needed regarding health care’s accessibility involved researching primary sources and accounts from parents critiquing their experience with pediatric care. It was found that navigating through the system requires experience as well as necessary prerequisites (language, documentation, insurance, money, and system navigation competence, access to reliable transportation and availability) to receive effective care.
Research included other stakeholders such as nurses and pediatricians to gain a different perspective on possible solutions.
Additional research included other stakeholders such as nurses and pediatricians to gain a different perspective on possible solutions.
I also looked at services that the website provided that could be utilized in other applications. Looking at the current structure, I explored ways to find relevant solutions.
While Children’s Minnesota’s visual language has a consistent, simple and straight point design system, it isn’t as welcoming as other pediatric care clinics. To address this, it was important to create an identity that could be inviting and fun while being straight to the point and understood by a variety of users.
The final user journey was determined by the opportunity to cater to other groups and make the process of scheduling an appointment easier. Inherently, the target audience are returning parents who have used the system but have trouble navigating it.
The project challenged me to consider other end users besides the chosen target audience. In this way, the solution can cater to the wider range of users besides those who struggle with health literacy but serve as a way to make the experience of going to the doctor’s office more enjoyable and less stressful.