CDC DentalCheck Mobile App
Project Overview
In 2003 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published Guidelines for Infection Control in Dental Health-Care Settings. Since the 2003 guidelines were published, a review of infection transmissions indicated that the existing guidelines were still sufficient for promoting infection prevention. However, research showed that compliance with the guidelines was still an ongoing challenge for dental health care personnel (DHCP).
As a result, the guidelines were repackaged into a plain language summary document (PDF) which included the Infection Prevention Checklist for Dental Settings to support DHCP in improving compliance. In addition, my team was tasked to develop a mobile app to facilitate the use of the checklist and increase adherence to infection prevention guidelines by making them more accessible for DHCP while in practice, in any setting.
Project Goals
The goal of this project was to create a mobile app version of the Infection Prevention Checklist for Dental Settings. The expected outcomes were to:
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Facilitate use of CDC's evidence-based infection prevention recommendations by DHCP
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Make recommendations more accessible by providing access offline to DHCP who may be practicing in various settings, including mobile clinics and rural areas
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Provide structure and guidance for evaluation of infection prevention practices by offering easy-to-use, portable checklists to assess compliance with the CDC's recommendations
My Role
This project largely included the translation of a print-only version of the Checklist into an interactive, visually pleasing and engaging masterpiece, curated by yours truly. I was the sole UX designer (and project manager) on a project team comprised of a developer and the product owners—the Division of Oral Health. I was responsible for determining the overall design direction of the project, while collaborating with the rest of the team on ideation.
My User-Centered Design Process
The strategy was to build empathy with users and uncover pain points to better support them in completing infection prevention tasks.
User Research
Engaging potential users early in the development process helped confirm who the primary users would be, how they worked, and provided greater detail about the tasks they needed to accomplish in the workplace.
Interviews
I attended the Organization for Safety, Asepsis and Prevention's (OSAP) annual symposium to get a better understanding of the problem space by engaging the prospective target audience in one-on-one interviews.
Challenge
During recruitment, we solicited participants who "were directly responsible for ensuring a dental health care setting's compliance with infection prevention guidelines." After the first few interviews, it became clear that the participants were indeed responsible, just not directly. I learned that infection prevention coordinators were more directly responsible for ensuring compliance; whereas, this was not the primary task of those who volunteered at the symposium. So, I had to regroup on the fly. After reshaping my probes and adjusting my prompts a little, I was able to collect valuable feedback from this group.
Findings
The interview participants confirmed the need for a more "portable" checklist, discussed primary evaluation tasks (at a high-level), and provided key information on many of the challenges and pain points for the problem space, which helped identify opportunities where the app could help fill in the gaps.
Remote Survey
Since I still needed to hear from the target audience on how they currently evaluated the compliance of infection prevention measures, I conducted a remote survey using Survey Monkey. I added screening questions to be sure I reached the audience I intended. I also used this opportunity to solicit volunteers for usability testing later in our project plan.
Survey Study Goals
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Gather demographic information about the target audience
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Understand user goals, motivations, and pain points in their primary task
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Determine what needs are going unmet in support of their primary task
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Outline a workflow model for how DHCP currently evaluate compliance of infection prevention measures
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Determine what technologies DHCP use while in practice
Design
Wireflows and wireframes
The user research findings helped shape the foundation of the app by informing the design of the wireflows. I used Axure RP to start visualizing the structure based on content from the product owners and the confirmed primary user tasks.
Prototype
I continued using Axure RP to create an interactive prototype of the app. I designed all user interface and graphic elements, including the app icon and splash screen which provide the first impression and set the tone for what users can expect from engaging in the app experience. I worked through several iterations with the developer to ensure technical feasibility, as well as demos with the product owners to ensure the look and feel met expectations and business needs.
Usability Test
Now that I had solid footing with the design, it was time to loop the users back in for usability testing.
Test Objectives
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Determine design inconsistencies and usability problem areas within the app's interface and content areas
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Exercise the app prototype under controlled test conditions with representative users
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Establish baseline user performance and user-satisfaction levels of the user interface for future usability evaluations
Research Questions
In addition, the following research questions were addressed:
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Do users understand the workflow of completing a new checklist?
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How well does the app support the paths and goals of users?
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Can users successfully make an assessment, enter notes, access recommendations?
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Do users understand how to edit a checklist they previously started?
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Do users know how to email a checklist?
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Do users know where to go to find additional resources or supplemental information about the app?
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Do the options provided meet user expectations? Is anything missing?
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Findings
Users were asked to complete the primary tasks of the app—from completing a new checklist, to accessing the supplemental resources for additional guidance—as they would during a standard evaluation. Completion rates for each task scored really well! There were a few minor hiccups along the way, but one key finding was that users expected to see a missing action (save button) after their edits had been entered instead of backing out of the screen, or at least visual feedback stating that their notes had been saved once they backed out of the editing screen.
The study findings were incorporated into the final prototype, approved by the product owners, and delivered to the developer with design specs for beta app development.
Published App
We published the app in the App store (iOS) and after user requests, we also developed an Android version which was published in the Google Play Store.
This is a condensed recap of this study. If you are interested in learning more about the full scope of my process, please let me know.
