The broad scope of a speech therapist’s field presents unique challenges.
The requirements of a speech language pathologist (SLP) can be demanding: making accurate decisions, providing compassionate care, and filing detailed reports, all while maintaining high productivity. It’s easy to get stressed out.
Among these challenges is the reality that patients often have uncommon and complex conditions. There is a vast library of medical terms to describe these diagnoses.
How might a SLP best access pertinent medical vocabulary on demand?
SLPedia Vocabulary App
Project Overview
What's Below:
User Research
Interview Participants
Christina
Whitney
Cheryl
Three female speech language pathologists (SLP) were interviewed with the goal of trying to better understand how speech therapists approach learning new subjects and vocabulary in their field. The SLPs interviewed — Christina, Whitney, and Cheryl — represented a range of years of experience and various types of specialties.
Interview Questions
- How long have you been a speech therapist?
- What are your daily work responsibilities?
- Tell me about a frustrating experience due to not knowing the vocabulary or acronyms used.
- When was the last time you had to learn a lot of new terminology or vocabulary?
- What tools or resources have you used to learn new terminology/vocabulary?
- Tell me about your preferred study methods. Why do you prefer these?
- What’s the most challenging aspect of learning new terminology/vocabulary? Why?
- What would motivate you the most to learn new vocabulary in your field?
Summary of Interview Findings
The interview findings were synthesized to form three categories of what each SLP is Doing, Thinking, and Feeling regarding their day-to-day activities and responsibilities as a speech therapist. This breakdown helps reveal the types of problems each SLP faces that may need a unique solution.
CHRISTINA
Doing
- I do therapy with patients on their cognitive linguistic skills, strategies and swallowing.
- I write down notes so I’ll remember it better.
- I use Google, textbooks and other therapists to understand terminology I don’t know.
Thinking
- Using visuals to explain things to patients would be helpful.
- Being able to understand my patients’ needs would motivate me to learn new vocabulary.
Feeling
- It can feel overwhelming when having to look up new terms for a complex patient.
WHITNEY
Doing
- I do evaluation for speech, language, cognitive disorders, swallowing and treatment.
- I’m learning new vocab in preparation to transition into the preschool setting.
Thinking
- Getting a new patient with a rare disorder would motivate me to do research.
- I think podcasts are an especially effective study method for commuters.
Feeling
- I feel challenged when taking newly learned concepts and carrying them over into real-life situations.
CHERYL
Doing
- I evaluate patients for a variety of conditions.
- If I don’t know something, I collaborate with other co-workers or use apps, Google or other online resources.
- I use all sorts of study methods for learning.
Thinking
- I think online resources are the best method for learning, simply because there are so many available now, and it’s the easiest to access.
- I think having resources be user friendly is important.
Feeling
- I feel excited being able to learn new things in my field.
Persona
Janet
38 • Female • Odessa, TX • Married, two children • Master’s of Science in Speech Language Pathology
Speech Language Pathologist
12 years of experience
Quotes
“I encounter a wide variety of patients, often with complex diagnoses. I’m passionate about understanding their condition and developing a plan of care that addresses their needs.”
“I work in a high-productivity facility. It’s important to not only understand a new patient’s condition, but to do so in a timely manner.”
“It can be discouraging when my patients can’t understand their condition. Having easily accessible visuals to walk them through it would bring clarity to their status and treatment.”
Behaviors
- Has a busy family life with two young children.
- Works in a skilled nursing facility.
- Evaluates and treats geriatric patients.
- Writes reports and documentation.
- Uses her smartphone frequently for resources at work.
- Studies and takes continuing education courses.
- Follows SLP groups on social media.
Needs
- A quick way to look up relevant, needed information on the job.
- Visual tools to educate both herself and her patients.
- Ability to learn new material in short gaps of time and on-the-go.
Goals
- To maintain skill set for a variety of therapy settings.
- To remember and quickly understand all the terminology used in her field.
- To fully understand her patients’ conditions and needs.
- To make the right treatment decisions each and every time.
What’s the Problem?
-
- A large volume of medical/speech terminology.
- Many patients have uncommon and complex conditions.
- Time gaps between encountering a certain diagnosis.
- Time is of the essence — high productivity is a must.
- Patients may have a hard time understanding things.
- Continuing education is an important part of the job.
Problem Statement
- Janet needs a way to quickly access medical vocabulary from a vast library of terms because she works with a variety of patients often diagnosed with uncommon and complex conditions.
- We will know this to be true when we see that, when assigned a patient with an unfamiliar condition, Janet can easily learn any unknown terminology without hassle or delay.
Hypothesis Statement
We believe that by creating a user friendly and comprehensive speech therapy and medical vocabulary app for Janet, we will increase her speed, accuracy and productivity, decrease her stress and frustration, and achieve overall improvement of her job and career satisfaction.
User Stories
As Janet (a speech language pathologist)...
User Flows
Janet
38 • Female
Odessa, TX
Objective
Look up the definition of a vocabulary term in an efficient manner.
Task Analysis
- If using for the first time, go through onboarding and sign up.
- Sign in.
- Decide whether to use typing input or audible input.
- If typing, tap button to open a new vocabulary search; if audible, tap button to open voice recognition input.
- If typing, type in word; if audible, say word.
- If typing, tap Enter; if audible, wait for system to process voice input.
- Read the definition that appears on the screen.
User Flow 1
Looking up a vocabulary term
Flow descriptions
Entry
Path
Decision
Success
[Entry point]
Open app
↓
First-time user?
» NO «
Sign inYES
Create account
Janet is a frequent user of the app and already has an established account.
↓
Home screen
↓
Typing or audible input?
» TYPING «
New searchAUDIBLE
New voice search
Janet knows the spelling of the word and is a fast typer, so she chooses to enter the word via typing.
↓
Type word into search box
↓
Word definition screen
↓
[Success criteria]
Learn the vocabulary term definition
Janet now knows what the word means and can continue with her session effectively.
Janet
38 • Female
Odessa, TX
Objective
Add a custom note or image to a vocabulary term.
Task Analysis
- If using for the first time, go through onboarding and sign up.
- Sign in.
- Decide whether to use typing input or audible input.
- If typing, tap button to open a new vocabulary search; if audible, tap button to open voice recognition input.
- If typing, type in word; if audible, say word.
- If typing, tap Enter; if audible, wait for system to process voice input.
- Decide whether to enter a typed note or image upload.
- If typed note, tap corresponding button and type in the note using keyboard; if image upload, tap corresponding button and select image from camera roll.
User Flow 2
Adding a custom note or image
Flow descriptions
Entry
Path
Decision
Success
[Entry point]
Open app
↓
First-time user?
» NO «
Sign inYES
Create account
Janet is a frequent user of the app and already has an established account.
↓
Home screen
↓
Typing or audible input?
» TYPING «
New searchAUDIBLE
New voice search
Janet knows the spelling of the word and is a fast typer, so she chooses to enter the word via typing.
↓
Type word into search box
↓
Word definition screen
↓
Typed note or image?
» TYPED NOTE «
Type note buttonIMAGE
Upload button
Janet enters a quick, hand-typed note so that she can remember an important detail about a patient that pertains to this term.
↓
[Success criteria]
Hit Save to store the custom note in the app’s database
Janet now has the note saved and can easily access it in the future if needed.
Wireframes
Low-fidelity, hand-drawn wireframes were created to demonstrate usability for each of the user flows. As a minimized version of the UX framework, no mid- or high-fidelity wireframes were created for this project.
⟫
Sign-up/splash screen
⟫
Create account
⟫
Sign in
⟫
Onboarding 1
⟫
Onboarding 2
⟫
Onboarding 3
⟫
Home screen
⟫
Word search (typing)
⟫
Word search (speech)
⟫
Word definition
⟫
Add note
⟫
Note saved
⟫
Add image
⟫
Image saved
Usability Testing
Test Plan
Tasks
Task 1
You’re trying to remember the name of a certain speech term. You can remember the first few letters, but can’t remember the whole word. How would you go about finding this term?
Task 2
You have a patient with an unusual diagnosis. After finding the definition of a speech term related to their condition, you want to type in some thoughts about this term. How would you do this?
Task 3
On a report you see the name of a speech term that you’re not very familiar with. You’re in a hurry, and it’s a long word. You would prefer to say the term aloud into your phone to get the definition. How would you do this?
Task 4
After finding the definition, you realize there’s another word you want to quickly look up. What steps would you take to find the definition of the next word?
Task 5
You have a patient who is having a hard time understanding their condition. Showing them a visual would be helpful. How would you store a diagram image in your app for a particular speech term?
Usability Test Report
The overall results from the usability tests were positive. Participants were able to complete most of the tasks without significant issues. There were, however, several usability problems discovered. The following table shows each error, along with the severity rating and recommended action item.
| Task # | Observation | Severity | Action |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sign up is a deterrent. | 1 | Add a guest option that provides limited functionality. |
| 1 | Uncertainty about how to get started from the splash screen. | 0 | Likely due to participant not being familiar with prototype. Improve instructions given before the test. |
| 2 | Paper icon in navigation could be confused for adding a note. | 1 | Add labels to the navigation icons. |
| 3 | Speaking face icon could be confused for hearing pronunciations or other forms of speech. | 2 | Change icon to a microphone. |
| 5 | How to add an image is not clear. | 3 | Distinguish note and image better. Use labels instead of icons and adjust position on screen. |
| ALL | No “Back” button. | 4 | Add “Back” button to each screen. |
Wireframe Revisions
Sign-up screen
• Added option to use the app as a guest.
Home screen
• Changed “Speak” icon to a microphone.
• Added labels to navigation menu.
Word definition screen
• Moved options for adding note/image.
• Changed icons to labels.
• Added “Back” button.