The chat function is one of the programmes designed for dementia and long-term care patients to have personal conversations with Dexie, especially when there's an onset of sundowning behavior.

As anticipated, some elderly patients with physical disabilities may not have the strength or ability to use both hands to hold the tablet while pressing the button to converse with Dexie.

At the same time, this is less cumbersome than the tablet for our healthcare providers to hold while facilitating the programmes on the go.

V.0 Tablet interface for chat mode

V.1 Mobile interface for chat mode

Future considerations

Making elderly patients press a button before speaking still may not be the most intuitive action since many are unfamiliar with such functions on a mobile device. We could perhaps consider conducting an A/B test with microphones and corded phone handsets instead, to see if such devices would make conversing with Dexie more natural.

Right now, we've got a very daunting setup process and lengthy task flows. This is not ideal at all because it affects Dexie's usability, adoption, and eventually retention rate. This is evident from the feedback given by our healthcare providers when they indicated a dropoff from Dexie whenever they encountered a roadblock.

Information like server names, list of engine motors, and IP addresses are irrelevant to the healthcare providers and would contribute to their confusion.

V.0 Screenshots from the 22-step setup process

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We took careful steps to filter down the information and tried to keep it at its bare minimum. Restructuring the information architecture (which will be elaborated on in the next point) also helped a fair bit in shortening the task flows for the setup and each programme. This allows healthcare workers to execute their tasks more efficiently and quickly.

Task flows

setup
BEFORE

A minimum of 17 steps to complete the software setup of Dexie.

setup
after

The number of steps are reduced by more than half.
It will now take 7 steps to complete the software setup of Dexie.

exercise
before

It takes 6 steps to get Dexie to run an exercise routine.

exercise
after

Steps are reduced by half. It will only require 3 steps to run the exercise programme, and another 3 to end it.

chat
before

It takes a minimum of 12 steps to execute chat programme with Dexie.

chat
after

Steps are reduced by half. It will only require 3 steps to run the exercise programme, and another 3 to end it.

In V.0 of Dextron software, we have information but with weak architecture. The main page itself has 12 cards consisting of actual programmes, different parts of specific programmes, technical software functions (that users will never need), and other random functions that are completely unrelated to this project.

V.0 Tablet Home Screen

With information all over the place like this, it was difficult for our healthcare providers to find and run the intended programmes systematically.

If healthcare workers find this process too tiring or complicated, there's a risk they might abandon it altogether.

Revisions to the information architecture of the home page

To keep the content simple and easy to navigate, I restructured the information architecture according to the 4 main programmes offered and left out unnecessary distractions.

V.1 Revised Home Screen

This follows Miller's law of usability, that keeping content organized in smaller chunks (ideally 7 or fewer) helps users to process, understand and memorize the content easily. Conjointly, this brings us to the next point of reducing the complexity of choices.

The aforementioned weak information architecture has led to many complicated and counterintuitive steps that healthcare providers needed to take to run a programme. A simple game of Bingo, for example, required 18 steps. Part of the complication involves users needing to decide and search for the game's audio language from the main menu and eyeballing the animation's progress indicator so that another animation can be selected before the current one ends.

V.0 game selection

V.0 exercise selection

V.0 song selection

Such decisions and complex processes take up more time and attention from healthcare providers than intended. To resolve this, I referenced the principles from Hick's law for V.1's iteration.

V.1 Game selection

V.1 exercise routine selection

V.1 song selection

Healthcare workers now only need to decide which programme they would like to run. The subsequent decisions and input will be prompted to them one step at a time. They also no longer need to manually select certain animations as it is now automated.

In addition, I've taken the liberty to make animations that are utilized often to be pinned at the top of the card deck with a different colour to give it visual priority. Relieving healthcare providers of some decisions will give them more confidence in running the programme on their own while having more time to tend to their elderly patients.

The touch targets on the tablet are visible but difficult to press because they are too small and close to each other. These are everything that Fitt's law has warned us not to do when it comes to the functionality of a button. Expectedly, this resulted in healthcare providers taking more time to tap on the buttons accurately.

Now that the default interface has changed to a mobile screen, all the more so I had to be sensitive about the sizing and spacing of the touch targets.

V.0 Tablet Play Bar

V.0.2 Mobile Play Bar

V.1 Revised Mobile Play Bar

Following the guiding principles of Fitt's law closely, I increased the size and spacing of the touch targets while ensuring that they were placed in a reachable position for users if they were to use the device with one hand. I've also decided to make the primary call to action (play/pause) button larger to give it greater visual prominence so users know to press that first.

V.0 Tablet play bar attributes

V.1 Mobile play bar attributes

According to Jacob's law, users prefer familiarity and like it when things work the same way as what they already know. Leveraging on this, I've decided to draw inspiration from existing popular music platforms such as Spotify and Youtube Music to create similar interface designs for V.1’s music playlists.
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Spotify play bar screen

Youtube Music play bar screen

V.1 Music play bar screen

Making the user experience intuitive will also heighten their confidence in running the programmes independently.

One of the usability heuristics by Jakob Nielsen is providing visible feedback on a system's status. People want to know if their actions will garner a reaction.

In V.0's interface design, the chat programme did not have any visual feedback when users pressed the button to speak. This cast some doubts amongst the elderly patients and healthcare providers when speaking to Dexie because they simply do not know if their speech was successfully captured.

To fix this problem, V.1 of the Dextron software will show the following visual changes when the microphone button is pressed.
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V.1 Default state with instructions to activate chat function

V.1 Chat function is active when the microphone icon turns from blue to green and the filled ellipse changes to a blueish purple stroke.

V.1 Speech to text A.I will provide feedback to the user on the voice that was captured