I co-led stakeholder research and service design for Communicaid, a project addressing accessibility gaps for patients with communications impairments in Northwestern Medicine outpatient clinics. I interviewed clinicians, patients, doctors, nurses, and subject matter experts, then developed and tested interventions to increase adoption of communication aids and improve patient outcomes.

  • Increase visibility and accessibility of communication aids.

  • Increase awareness and usage of communication aids among staff and patients.

  • Improve patient satisfaction and outcomes during clinic visits.

January 2024 - March 2024

Service Design Studio sponsored by Northwestern Medicine

Lead Design Researcher, Service Designer

Stakeholder Research, Service Design, Service Blueprinting, Inclusive Design

Alex Lansing, Chris Cao, Monica Garcia, Samantha Hanson

Northwestern Medicine deployed accommodation kits (communication boards, magnifiers, personal amplifiers) across outpatient clinics but saw little adoption.
Question: How might we improve adoption and usage of communication aids to ensure positive patient outcomes?

  • User Need: Patients with communication impairments require visible, accessible accommodations to be understood and treated appropriately.

  • Business Need: Clinics need improved patient satisfaction and outcomes, ensuring equitable care and stronger trust in services.

Phase 1: Research

Secondary Research

  • Competitive Analysis - Assessed how public spaces, clinics, and medical service providers handle accommodations overall.

    • There is a heavy reliance on signage to inform patients and staff of what is available to each of them in most medical settings

  • Competitive Analysis - Assessed how public spaces, clinics, and medical service providers handle accommodations overall.

    • There is a heavy reliance on signage to inform patients and staff of what is available to each of them in most medical settings

Primary Research:

  • Analogous Research - We realized the best way to understand how communication accommodations function was to zoom out and study accommodations overall in medical spaces. This led us to recognize the heavy reliance on clear and visible signage to inform patients.


  • Exploratory Research - We conducted 6 virtual interviews with clinicians, staff, patients, and administrators to understand patient and staff experience within the clinic as well as current understanding around communication impairments.

  • Evaluative Research - We conducted field testing in an outpatient clinic to evaluate concepts and get feedback from clinic staff and administrators.


  • Exploratory Research - We conducted 4 virtual interviews to understand caregivers' experiences, motivations, struggles, and needs.

  • Evaluative Research - We conducted 4 virtual concept feedback and co-creation sessions to understand care-receivers' feature priorities.

Findings:

  • Lack of staff and patient awareness → kits underutilized.

  • Invisible impairments often overlooked → delays in accommodations.

  • Common impairments receive more consistent support.

  • Patients need safe spaces to express individual needs.

Key Insight:

“In sight, in mind.” Visibility fosters awareness, which encourages usage, improves dialogue, and leads to better care.

How might we design an intervention that raises visibility and awareness for both patients and staff?

Phase 2: Concept Exploration

Ideation:

Generated 6 concepts for concept feedback and feature testing. Brainstorm focused on different aspects of HMW statement to capture visibility and awareness in each concept.

Field Testing:

We created and tested the highest impact and lowest implementation time concept mockups in situ with staff. Testing revealed:

  • Front desk staff are the first line of interaction with the patient.

  • High-traffic, central locations increase visibility.

  • Interventions must merge seamlessly with staff workflows.

  • Learned that the mobile interpreter device was the most frequently used accommodation.

Direction: A set of interventions that work in tandem to make communication accommodations more visible, accessible, and recognizable.

Phase 3: Refinement & Prototyping

  • Existing practices (like the mobile interpreter device) showed where visibility → adoption.

  • Designed an intervention to pair the accommodation kit with the interpreter device alongside front desk signage, ensuring co-location, visibility, and accessibility.

Communicaid:

A set of interventions through signage and physical storage attachments that raise visibility and awareness of communication accommodations to drive adoption.

Interpreter Device Intervention: Updated storage basket on mobile interpreter device to visibly store and pair communication accommodation kits alongside the most-used communication aid in the clinic. Staff can now easily see and access the kits, increasing usage and reinforcing the culture of accommodations.

Front Desk Signage:

The accommodation flyer is a visual aid placed at the front desk designed to provide the following benefits for both patients and front desk staff -

  • Allow the patient to visually identify the accommodations available for them from the first touch-point.

  • Provide visual displays of the available materials so that patients get a better understanding of what to expect from them

  • Enable front desk staff to interact with the flyer and assist the patient, making it easier for patients to request accommodations.

  • Phase 1 Rollout: Signage informing patients about available communication accommodations at all NU Medicine outpatient clinics.


  • Phase 2 Rollout: Updated storage attachment for mobile translation unit with instructions deployed to all NU Medicine outpatient clinics to be attached and filled with accommodation kits upon delivery.

  • Easily implementable recommendations provided to NU Medicine leadership for quick deployment of solutions.


  • Increased adoption of accommodation kits due to higher visibility and awareness.

  • Improved patient satisfaction through consistent, adequate accommodations.

  • Better staff outcomes, as clinicians could more reliably deliver equitable, high-quality care.

  • Designing for multi-stakeholder systems requires interventions that augment, not disrupt, existing workflows.


  • Trauma-informed, ethnographic research is essential for designing inclusive services in sensitive healthcare contexts.

  • Learned how to work at the intersection of service design and inclusive design, addressing systemic barriers while considering a wide range of users.