LUMO CASE STUDY
Overview
Lumo is a Case Study that I conducted for a Columbia University Engineering Course called Human Centered Design and Innovation.
While designing Lumo, I collaborated with a team of engineers and computer programmers in order to ideate a solution to language barriers in US hospitals. My team was given the broad challenge to "Design for Mothers." We chose to focus on designing a solution for mothers who do not speak English while receiving pre-natal or postpartum care in US hospitals.
Duration: September to December 2022
Role: Acted as UX Designer, Researcher and Team Facilitator
Mentor: Harry West ( IEME 4200 E Human Centered Design and Innovation at Columbia Engineering)
The Problem
Our team found that language barriers between non-English speaking mothers (receiving prenatal or postpartum care) and their healthcare providers prevent these mothers from feeling autonomous, secure and heard during regular hospitals visits.
The Design Opportunity
We realized that there is an opportunity to amplify the voices of non-English speaking mothers and assist healthcare providers in caring for mothers during regular prenatal and postpartum check-ups.
The Design
Lumo is a translating service, designed to enhance a non-English speaking mother's hospital experience. The design includes a translating tablet that harnesses existing universal translating software (voice recognition, hands free), a live transcription and a bookmarking feature.
In the hospital room, during the prenatal or postpartum check-ups, the mothers select their language on the iPad. As the mothers and doctors speak in their native languages, the tablet picks up on what they are saying, translates it, (harnessing existing universal translator technology) and allows them to read a live translation on the screen of what the other has said so they may respond in real time and converse naturally.
The live translation allows a mother to easily scroll up through the transcription and review the conversation during the appointment.
During her checkup, the mother is able to bookmark phrases, questions or pieces of information she would like to review at any point during the appointment or save and return to later.
With the consent of the mothers and doctors, the mothers will be able to take home a printed or digital copy of her bookmarks after the appointment is over.
Research
Customers and Stakeholders
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Non-English speaking minority mothers receiving care in US hospitals
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Healthcare professionals: OBGYNs, Nurses, Medical interpreters
Secondary Research (Data)
What are the consequences of the current language barrier?
https://www.mid-stateliteracycouncil.org/language-barriers-in-the-delivery-room/
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1 out of 3 US hospitals fail to provide a translator for non-English speaking patients (despite the fact that providing such a service is federally required by law)
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27.2% of women of color (some of whom do not speak English) with low SES (Social Economic Status) reported any mistreatment versus 18.7% of white women with low SES
Primary Research (Stakeholder Interviews)
We started our primary research process by interviewing non-English speaking mothers receiving care in US hospitals. Since our team included members who spoke Spanish, Chinese, Hebrew and Farsi, in addition to English, we were able to receive feedback from a range of non-English speaking stakeholders with varying ethnic and cultural backgrounds. We also interviewed healthcare providers in order to gain insight into their experiences with the problem.
Our users (mothers and healthcare providers) complained most notably about the following three pain points (interview quotes from mothers in red, from healthcare providers in blue):
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Efficiency
“I would have simple questions, but the doctors would have to call upon the interpreter and they would wait..I would just not ask them because I didn’t want to go through the process of calling an interpreter. I had spent enough time at the hospital”
“Interpretation currently significantly increases the time of an appointment”
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Privacy and intimacy
“I am pregnant and I am a private person…I do not want any additional strangers (like translators) in the room”
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Lack of compassion, empathy, or connection
"As an immigrant mother, sometimes I felt like I wasn’t taken seriously and my questions were brushed away after being translated”
“Over the phone translator, body language and other cues are lost for both of us [mother and doctor] especially when I have to relay hard or upsetting information”
Insights Gained
Current efforts to bridge the language gap take too much time, strip mothers of autonomy and force them to be reliant on others, and remove important emotional cues such as body language from the conversation.
Mothers and healthcare providers need a solution that is more time efficient. Mothers want to feel autonomous and in control and both parties want to feel they are having a conversation.
So we asked ourselves...
How might we help hospitals amplify the voices of non-English speaking mothers and assist healthcare providers in caring for mothers during regular prenatal and postpartum check-ups?
Based upon our stakeholder feedback, we developed a low-fidelity prototype and placed it in front of our stakeholders. We were able to receive feedback and gain further insight into the problem.
We ideated again and again.
During this process we discovered that many non-English speaking mothers could not remember all the information relayed to them during the appointment, especially in emotionally overwhelming moments.
Using customer feedback to drive our design decisions, we implemented a bookmarking feature so mothers would not feel pressured to remember everything during the appointment.
Using customer feedback, we continued to ideate again and again....
And designed Lumo, a service that preserves the essence of conversation (body language, mutual exchange, eye contact) in an efficient way, helping healthcare providers and understaffed hospitals and giving non-English speaking mothers more autonomy during their prenatal and
postpartum healthcare conversations.
Case Study Journey Map
A journey map demonstrating what we hope a mother using Lumo would experience emotionally 💗
our workflow in Figma ideating continuously to prototype different tablet features
Reflection
While designing Lumo I learned how to collaborate with a multi-disciplinary team and inspire others into action. I practiced the human-centered design process which, at its core, is about ideating again and again in order to allow customer feedback and user testing to drive innovation. My team and I expected mothers to want in-person translators, but our user feedback continuously confirmed that what mothers actually wanted was autonomy, efficiency, transparency and clarity. Through this project, I learned to hone my interviewing and listening skills and embraced the iterative nature of the design process.