Author: jy846

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Information system for the waiting room of the emergency department

Research conducted at Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology
Publication:

  • Yoon, J., & Sonneveld, M. (2010). Anxiety of patients in the waiting room of the emergency department (pp. 279–286). Presented at the 4th international conference on tangible, embedded, and embodied interaction (TEI), Cambridge, MA, USA: ACM.

Several studies have shown that although people in the waiting room of emergency department often feel numb, being afraid, or having no control, and hospital staffs often fail to notice these patients’ problems and to offer appropriate and timely patient care. This project aimed to understand the patients’ experiences in the waiting room and to develop a design intervention that enhances the waiting experience. I explored the context and interactions in the waiting room with a focus on the factors that cause anxiety of patients by observing them and their family members, and interviewing the head of the department. The main findings were distrust between patients and staffs of the hospital, the patients’ consistent focus on their status, and an uncertainty about the waiting time. To moderate these anxieties, an interactive information service that enables patients to gain sufficient information about the procedure and the waiting time was proposed. The solution creates an informative environment through an ambient visualization that embodies the patient profile and the order of waiting people in real-time on the basis of the result of patients’ triage tests and the operation policy of the department.

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“Sorry… What?”, Redesigning the Alcatel-Lucent compact conference module 

Research conducted in collaboration with Alcatel-Lucent (Paris, France)

Conference calling is gaining popularity, especially video-based devices. Still audio-only conference call devices are often preferred for their privacy properties and low price compared to video. It has been shown that in audio-only devices, the insufficient non-verbal communication and context unawareness result in communication problems, which affects negotiations and user experience. This project focused on improving the usability of the Alcatel-Lucent 4125 Compact Conferencing Module concerning its function, aesthetics, and communication quality. Usability test of the model revealed that while using the conference module, inadequate product feedback resulted in communication issues related to focusing, understanding and being aware of all the members participating in the call. The product demanded an undesirable amount of attention during the conversation, which led to a clumsy and unclear user experience for the people involved. In the redesign, the enriched communication feedback was created by visualizing voice inputs and making the interactions more physically dynamic.