FOCH HOSPITAL
Internship
Creation of a software for the social service department
Given that there was no team involved, I had the chance to work independently from start to finish on this project as UX/UI designer.
I was solely responsible for every step, from understanding users needs to designing the interface and delivering the final product.
As a first UX design experience, this opportunity helped me develop several skills, especially in time management, organization, and problem-solving, which I have since applied to other projects I've worked on.

*The contents of this project are strictly confidential and should not be shared
*Images are blurred for protection
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- In memory of my tutor "Thibault Dautremer" -
Problem
Social workers take notes of every task and every detail about patients. Every time they start treating a case, they create a Word file and write everything down with screenshots of emails sent and received. Meanwhile, they create folders on their personal computers to add all the personal files. With time, the patient's Word file becomes endless and complicated, and folders become disorganised. Social workers are disturbed by the chaos of work which is affecting their performance and causing a waste of time.
Progress of missions
UX
1 / Shadowing & Workflow
First of all, I had to know how users work, what their duties are, who they interact with and what work problems they deal with.
I did some interviews about the way they treat some cases. I tried to choose very different profiles according to the service they work with in the purpose of having a large area of study. After every interview, I created a workflow and tried to figure out similarities and differences.
2 / Benchmark
Since I was creating a unique product that was not done before for the social service, I searched for softwares especially used in the medical field, everything related to patients' administrative information, interactions with patients, how the patient is treated and how the information is saved.
Comparing other softwares helped me identify potential areas of improvement, use information to support my softwares’ feasibility and discover new ideas.
3 / User interviews
I had to dig deeper and collect more data to gain more understanding of the social workers’ opinions, needs, preferences and beliefs. The most essential subject I focused on was their pain points while doing their daily job. So I conducted semi-structured interviews, 30 min each, with all the social workers. In order to have solid data, I had to follow 3 aspects while conducting the interviews: empathy to better understand their feelings and experiences, unconditional acceptance to accept them as they are, and non-directiveness to not affect or influence them while answering.
4 / MVP . ICE
After analysing the collected information, I suggested determining the MVP of this project because we were creating a new product, and the users have many needs and requests. We could not create a product that can fix all of the problems at once.
I did an ICE evaluation to determine the MVP of our product and to identify the features we will be starting to work on.

5 / Zettelkasten method
To create a proper solution, I had to think about many aspects. But mostly, I had to find a solution to organise files, notes added and information properly.
The biggest question asked was “How to create a product close to Microsoft Word but more organised and categorized? “
I started with researching different methods of taking notes, like Cornell method, mind mapping, flow notes method, the sentence method, and many others. The only method that felt suitable for this product was the Zettelkasten method by Niklas Luhmann.
I did a Benchmark about the softwares using the Zettelkasten method. As it seems, almost every software based on notes uses this method, like Evernote, Notability, Good Notes, Upnote and Keep it.
6 / Ideation workshops
Before starting with the wireframes, I decided to make some ideation workshops to create a bridge between the concepts created and the solution. I collected a lot of important data but it was time to give them more meaning and product ideas. The following workshops took place:
- Abstraction laddering
- Goals-signals-Metrics process
- Crazy 8
7 / Wireframes
The best option was to create one page that includes all of the features needed. It was similar to a desktop application like Evernote or Microsoft One Note. So there were not many pages but a big quantity of features in a limited space.
Layout
After the benchmark I did about the Zettelkasten method, I realized that 60 to 70% of the page is dedicated to writing notes. The other part is for settings and general formats to see all the notes added.
I made the following changes:
- Since I don’t need the settings component nor the general format, I decided to create the 70% component that includes writing notes and at the same time seeing them in a chronological order
- On top of it I added another component with the information of the patient
- At the top right, I added the component related to the sheet information in order to synchronize it with the patient’s information
- And then below there were the labels next to the notes and the saved information which replaced the settings and the general format part.
Hick's law
Regarding the usability of the product, having many elements in one page could be difficult for a person who has never used a similar software. The problem is that the more complex the software is, the more the time to make decisions will increase. The reason why I decided to apply Hick’s law.

8 / User testing
I conducted a 30-45 minutes qualitative test. It was focused on observing the users’ behavior, perception, understanding, reactions and feelings. The problem I faced was that the users could not test the software well because it is about writing notes and labelling or categorizing them. So I decided to create several examples, show them the way it works and ask about their opinion instead of asking them to realize a task.
To analyze the tests, the notes collected were categorized regarding features, components and processes. Which led to the changes I had to do in order to create a suitable product.

UI
9 / Design inception
From the research and analysis I have done through the last couple of months, the mood I wanted to apply was clear and light with a pinch of bright colors. I imagined the pages with minimum but valuable space. Since the software is complicated and serious, I decided to use organic shapes to create a more friendly mood.
10 / Colors and integration in the design
Green: titles of the components / buttons (Green color in UI design represents validation and connection)
Yellow-orange: everything related to labels and categories (Yellow has been proven by studies to enhance mental activity. It is related to the left side of the brain which is considered the rational thinking brain)
Magenta: alerts and the selected part inside the notes (Magenta is a powerful, threatening and eye catchy color)

Final Product - Example

Adding a new note
Adding a tag to the note
Adding another note with a file
Choice of file type
Saving the file in the card on the bottom right and in the notes