Surviving and Thriving
@ Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public HealthTranslate scientific knowledge into a product, designing a human-centric experience for new firefighters.
MY ROLE —
︎ UI/UX Design: wireframes, mockups, prototypes
︎ Brainstorm & Plan for Research: focus group study, survey
Keywords: Occupational Health, Gamification, Behavioral Intervention
PROBLEM —
Designing a mobile app as a study intervention for new firefighters.
Past research suggests that healthy behaviors and lifestyles of new firefighters in the U.S. quickly wanes off after graduating from fire academies. Can technologies like a mobile app be used to help them build a sustainable healthy lifestyle post-academy? A team of researchers at Harvard is studying the effect of a mobile app with gamification mechanisms as a behavioral intervention for new firefighters, and my job was to help them create and test the app.
APPROACH —
User experience + Study protocol + Technical feasiblity
As a part of an academic study, the design appraoch is slightly different from app development for commercial use, as we measure for different metrics and goals. Accounting for that, I applied principles of human-centric design and worked closely with a PM and team of developers to iteratively design, ship, and test a stand-alone mobile app, balancing user needs, research design, and technical feasibility.
