User Interviews

I interviewed pathologists across DHMC about their work. I focused both on their experiences and challenges in traditional pathology, to see what could be improved in a digital version and on their experiences with digital slides and using AI.

Here are some quotes from my interviews that explain users' frustrations

Personas & Journey Maps

Based on our interviews we created a user persona of a pathologist new to digital pathology and AI, but excited for a better diagnostic experience.



We then created a journey map to understand the pain points and opportunities for delight in the user’s journey

Sketching

After our first whiteboard brainstorm and seeing different directions we could go in, we realised that part of what could make travel experiences more authentic was taking people back to their childhood and special, deep memories, contained in scrapbooks.

These could help spotlight some of the deeper connection with places and their culture that tourism loses. We could try to encourage people to share their culture of their hometown and explore other ones through real experiences of people local to the place.

With this idea, we made some crazy 8 sketches to brainstorm features that could be useful and delightful in such an app.

High Fidelity Prototypes

Your Shelf Display

The first thing each pathologist sees every morning is a list of current cases for the day. We separate the trays into three categories. Each category has different sets of important information.Based on interviews, I designed for a sense of progress. A doctor gets a visual sense of their work throughout the day and is equipped with the information to plan out their workload.

Diagnosing Cases

A key insight from my interviews was that pathologists have to keep track of many cases with multiple parts and slides. An easy error is signing off a case without looking at all slides and having to backtrack.

Pathologists loved visually seeing how much more is available before making a decision on a case– something which is a pain point with physical trays and slides.

AI Assistant

I focused on making this flow feel accessible and informative to pathologists new to AI.
Categories are automatically recommended based on the cell type on the slide. The catalog focuses on the most important information, an image of the type of result, a description and developer. An information button is available to provide detailed metrics without cluttering the window for repeat users.

Ordering Stains and Levels

A common frustration, especially at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, is that ordering additional tests on a slide called “stains and levels” is tedious. It is usually 8 clicks and a combination of many keyboard shortcuts on a computer.

I aimed to simplify this via a 3 step ordering process: category → test name → order

Takeaways and Next Steps

While this project was challenging, I enjoyed the process of researching, designing and testing an app in 10 weeks.These designs are slated to be implemented in the Spring of 2024 and tested further in studies at DHMC to test the effectiveness of the smart microscope.Here are some of my takeaways from the project:I’d like to thank our partner, Dr. Sriharan, my design mentor, Daniel Lubliner, Professor. Lorie and the entire Smart Microscope team for making this wonderful project come to life.