The Power
of Visual Understanding
Project
Dento
Time Duration
2 Weeks
My Role
Lead and sole UX/UI designer
Project Details
Dento aims to help narrow the language gap between the patient and the dentist when it comes to understanding dental procedures. This mobile application helps patients visualize and read about any dental procedure so that they are better able to understand the treatment that they are getting in a simple, fast, and easy manner– AND in over 100 different languages. I was given creative freedom to solve this problem in the best way possible. Through interviews and usability testing, the users drove the solution in a slightly different direction than initially anticipated leading to a more detailed and functioning design.
The Challenge: Uniting explanation and understanding
Have you ever experienced that, “I need a what…?” moment at the dentist– when you are trying to understand the dentist’s verbal explanations, but it seems to be going in one ear and out the other? Then you are leaned back in the chair, and as the hours tick by, you start to wonder, “What in the world are they doing in my mouth?”
Surprisingly, this was the feeling that many of my interviewed participants had.
So the challenge was, how can an app easily and clearly help solve the gap between the dentist’s explanations and the patient’s understandings of a dental procedure?
And of course the other questions to consider were:
How much do patients really want to know? Would they feel more comfortable if they completely understood the treatment they were receiving? Would they take the time to look up a visual explanation? Would this build more trust between the patient and the dentist?…
The Process
1
Defining the Need
Competitive Analysis
I was very curious to see if there was an application already out there that visually explained dental procedures in multiple languages– and indeed, there was! The DDS GP (Dental Demo Suite General Practice) application, which basically owns the market, currently takes the prize.
However, the DDS GP is not optimized for the everyday user in price or in simplicity. The one time cost for this app is $399.00 and it only translates into 11 different languages. On top of that, it is extremely detailed in explanations making it really only suitable for healthcare worker users (its intended audience). So, the general goal for Dento was to make it:
1. affordable
2. accessible for the everyday user
3. simple, fast, and easy to use
4. translates into over 100 different languages
Research Plan
Before diving into the specific goals for Dento, I created a research plan to define the hypothetical problem and solution, construct interview objectives, and formulate questions. Based on these questions, I was hoping that the interviewers would bring out valuable insights that would help shape the ideas, concepts and more importantly, the need for the app.
Interviews
I dove into the meat of the research by interviewing five participants over Zoom between the ages of 26–52 years old. Three of the five participants worked in healthcare. Some of these participants spoke a variety of languages, however, English was the primary language for all.
The interview questions asked were focused on how important it was for the participant to understand the dental procedure they needed, how their dentist explained that procedure, and how well they understood the procedure after the dentist’s explanation.
Although every experience was slightly different, the main ideas rang true for most….
2
Understanding the Users
Insights
The insights gleaned from the research were that the participants wanted visual explanations of their dental procedures and they wanted something that was quick and easy to learn (in preferably less than 2 minutes). What I had not thought of, but that was brought out in the interviews, was the desire to see the benefits and risks of each procedure and also the possible alternatives to those procedures.
The most surprising findings were in the calculated statistics:
75%
of participants said that their dentist only explained dental procedures verbally in their teen and adult years!
6
On a scale of 1-10, 6 was the average rating of those who understood the procedure, even after the dentist’s explanation.
Seeing these statistics pointed to a solid problem- patients were not completely understanding the dental procedures being explained to them, even though they desired to. So, with a clearer picture of what people needed and wanted, I set off to define a problem and craft a solution.
The Problem
The initial problem was focused on users that did not speak the dentist’s primary language very well. Hence why the goal was to offer over 100 different language translations. The goal more plainly was: how can we get Joey, a Spanish speaker, from step A to step B in the easiest way possible?
Yet, it was discovered that Joey was not the only one who would benefit from a simple visual explanation of a dental procedure.
The Redefined Problem
Patients who have a language gap and/or do not understand dental terminology very well need a way to visualize a dental procedure so that they are able to comprehend what type of treatment they will be getting and why.
…Because as one interviewee put it…
“I don’t speak dental terminology.”
The Solution
Hypothesis
If patients have access to Dento, it will help them to learn, understand, and feel more comfortable with any dental procedure that they might need in any language that they prefer in a simple, fast, and accurate manner.
3
Ideation
Sketches
After synthesizing the user research and gaining a clearer picture of the need, I began working on sketches! The first sketches were the initial layout of the wireframe. However, after some peer-reviewed feedback and usability testing, the second sketches were created. There were three changes made to the wireframes that combined redundant steps, reduced unnecessary options, and made it more intuitive for the user:
- The “Select a Language” frame was simplified with a drop-down menu
- Frames A and B were combined
- The button, “Select another language” was removed
Low-Fidelity Wireframes
After the sketches were reiterated, they were quickly created in Balsamiq to be used as a clickable prototype for presentations and usability testing.
After conducting two usability tests and three peer feedback reviews over Zoom, I found three areas of concern:
1. The initial, “select a language,” drop-down was a bit clunky
2. The procedure search bar was too small
3. The language icon was not intuitive– needed to be changed to a more universal icon- and it also needed to be added to every page
4
Final Design Solution
Design Library
Colors
Prototype
All images are from afddental.com
5
Next Steps and Learnings
In conclusion, it was very exciting to find a need for Dento in the real world. With Dento, any dental patient can have peace of mind knowing that they can clearly and easily understand any dental procedure that they may need. Better yet, it can be visualized in under 2 minutes! I believe that there will always be room for an easier and simpler way of learning– especially when focusing on the language gap.
The next steps for Dento are:
· Additional Usability Testing
· Data Research and Collection
· Launching Dento!
· Marketing to Dental offices– for as an interviewee put it…
“I want my dentist to have this too.”
Next Project:
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