Purpose

The OR-PSS application is designed to provide troubleshooting and support for nurses and scrub technicians working as part of an operating room team. It would ideally be accessed from an iPad or similar device available in each operating room for use by multiple teams throughout the day and kept sterile. However, depending on hospital preferences, the application could also be accessed on an iPad transported between rooms, or even an iPhone. OR-PSS is a web-based application and can be updated at any time by users. Updates are saved to a central database (much like a wiki) so that all instances of the application are up to date.

Context

Often nurses need immediate information or assistance while in the operating room and call on team members or equipment vendor reps for support. Our goal is to provide nurses in the operating room with support for setup, use of unfamiliar equipment and troubleshooting, so that they can access the most essential information right when they need it.

Key PSS Ideas

• On-demand, just-in-time support: The right information needs to be accessible when and where the nurses need it.

• Learning within an authentic context: We are designing a support system for use within the operating room.

• Just enough information, and task-specific: The nurses do not necessarily need to know what something is called or what function it serves, just what to do with it.

• Easily searchable: Minimizing how much energy and time nurses need to focus on the PSS enables them to focus on the task at hand.

Role

As a team,

• Analyzed background information and conducted additional research

• Created a requirements document, including personas and context scenarios

• Designed and annotated storyboards; revised these based on peer review

Individually,

• Created an interactive prototype in Powerpoint and revised based on peer review

• Converted the interactive prototype to HTML5 format using iSpring software so that it could be tested via iPad as a touch-interface application

• Conducted usability testing on the application

Throughout the design process, Dr. Laffey encouraged us to reflect on our participation, identity, contribution and team, so that we might recognize and learn from mistakes and improve our involvement and communication as well as our design process.

Our team was extremely hardworking and put in a lot of hours on this project, especially the scenarios/requirements document. We divided the work pretty evenly and helped each other out through the rough spots. We sought to address as many of the situations as possible and to thoroughly integrate the personas into our work, so as to have an excellent sense of the requirements.

Everything went smoothly and we were proud of the result. Our storyboards were very different from those of the other teams because we interepreted the assignment just a little differently: We designed a device for team use that could stay in an operating room or move as needed, whereas everyone else designed devices each individual on the team would check out, log into, and carry throughout the day. It was a little disconcerting to see at each step of the way how different our result was from that of the other teams, and we often had to reassure each other that we were on the right track. We were glad we stuck with it though, as ours turned out to be a unique and fairly simple-to-use system, hopefully a good alternative to the more complex individual ones.

Through this project and Dr. Laffey's course as a whole, I gained an understanding of EPSS and how to design products that support performance, both outside of and within the application. The project provided the opportunity for valuable practice in design work, particularly defining product requirements, creating storyboards, and building prototypes. I can easily foresee using these skills in future design projects. I have also gained an appreciation for Apple-style simplicity and sleek design, such as Sherita used in her version of our group's prototype, which had a more professional and at the same time more familiar feel than mine.