'AapkaSaathi' Graduation Project
Client
Personal Project
Roles
Researcher Interaction Designer
Industry
Healthcare
Date
August 2023
AapkaSaathi is a service that simplifies booking appointments and incentivizes users to book their appointments prior to their hospital visits which saves them 3-6 hours that they would have to spend queuing up at 'Out Patient Department' (OPD) counters. 🏆 Winner at Good Interventions'24, Design Competitions and Exhibition hosted by The Parsons School of Design, New York.
The research phase lasted for ten days, where different hours of the day were spent on site, engaging with the people and observing. Topics central to the interviews conducted were:
1. Background of the user: Where they come from, Education level, what brings them here, their source of livelihood, what made them choose this hospital etc.
2. Medical Care: The department concerned, Time and money spent so far, expenses, Government aids and benefits etc.
3. Experience of the user: What a day in their life looked like, Challenges faced, difficulties, navigating through the crowd, how they stayed while seeking treatment etc.
4. Personal Opinion: Sacrifices they had to make to be here, Satisfaction with the service received so far, clarity of the process etc.
Research Findings
Pain Points identified in the existing UI:
A basic UI that did not consider the background of the vast majority of the users
2. The number of steps to register was extensive to go through, especially on a smartphone which has a smaller screen and a keyboard
3. Filling the registration form out using a laptop was not feasible for the user group because having access to one poses a challenge.
3. The probability of users correcting mistakes when running into errors is low, especially among tech impaired users.
4. The hassle of filling out the registration form is seen as more challenging than simply standing in the queue to seek treatment.
The current appointment booking system is not able to simplify the process for the user as a result not being a choice of preference.
Final Solution (Under Progress)
01. A purely voice-based Interactive Voice Response System in the form of a callbot that supports native languages and can be accessed from a keypad phone with a cellular network and a chatbot which requires active internet on WhatsApp.
02. Confirmation SMS has the code that can be verified while booking travel tickets to get concessions under Medical Quota.
03. All the interactions with the system are saved to an Excel sheet by a webhook server. This can be later integrated with the existing booking systems of the hospital to be in sync.
To book, the user texts or calls the service tells the mode of the appointment using keywords, and then chooses the department. Their phone number is used to fetch their ABHA Card details which is confirmed with the user. They can also book for a new patient. After which they are given the available slot and upon confirming they receive the confirmation SMS. The process takes under 2 minutes on average.
Jury Feedback
"Aman has worked well to research, recognise patterns and execute a useful intervention for the intended target audiences. Overall, a commendable job was done with the vernacular voice A.I approach to provide a hassle free solution to the intended demographic. Keep learning and growing, you hold immense potential to excel in your onward journey!"
-Tushar Kaladharan (Mentor)
"Be careful not to get lost in data. Have to commend you for taking on this challenge and help people to navigate through the process. Impressive research.The actual design challenge would be to align all stakeholders in this concept, simplify flow of information."
-Gerrit, Royal Academy of Art, the Hague (External Juror)
"Well thought through presentation in a domain that is pertinent but devoid of aura for a designer. The flow exemplified clarity in the mind. What the project needed was more humaneness, and believability from the perspective of the fact that if such a system were so simple, why has it not been done?"
-Lena R. Gupta, Associate Dean, The Design Village(Internal Juror)
To know more about the case study, checkout this document!
The working prototype is trained in Hindi (being one of the native languages commonly spoken among the user group) that can book an appointment with only verbal inputs from the users in under two minutes.