Cnnect platform
Overview
A software solution to improve the overall functionality of behavioural therapy clinics, by shifting from manual documents to a digital interface. Cnnect improves clinic workflow and efficiency for both senior therapist and instructor therapist while simultaneous storing data for progress analysis and parental involvement. This interface can be generalized to any domain/industry where team leads must create, track and assign different documents to in-person service centers.
Role
User Research, Visual Design, Prototyping and Wireframing
December 2018 - Ongoing
HOW IT WORKS FOR…
INSTRUCTOR THERAPIST
Therapists working with children with behavioral issues (Autism, ADHD) require constant vigilant supervision in addition to intensive documentation of the child’s progress or lack thereof. Cnnect’s digitization of methods of reinforcement make it easy to document a child’s progress, and apply the behavioral model of reinforcement while remaining focused on the child at all times.
SENIOR THERAPIST
A senior therapist is responsible for cascading instructions downstream to instructor therapists. The senior therapist has exclusive access to the web interface that optimizes the delegation of tasks as it is linked to the connect application carried by instructor therapists. Thus, providing simple and easy ways to adjust behaviour programs as they see fit.
Understanding the problem
The first step was to gain a complete understanding of how a behavioral clinic currently operates. We accomplished this in two ways:
Interviews
In-depth discussions with both senior/ instructor therapists outlining their daily tasks.
Analysis
Intensive analysis of physical forms and documents sent throughout all departments including those that keep parents informed.
The Main Goals of...
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Receptive Identification: activities done with the child to teach a certain skill
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Keeping track of Manding (a child asking for something) and Prompts (a child needs to be encourage to ask for what they need)
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Implementing reinforcement methods using a token-based system
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Accurately identifying negative behavioural outbursts and acting accordingly
Instructor Therapist
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Assessing the child upon arrival, creating a baseline of behaviour
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Creating a program designed specifically for each child
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Delegating therapy programs to instructor therapist
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Keeping track of each child’s progress
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Making changes to ongoing therapy programs as they see fit.
Senior Therapist
Wireframing the Solution
Instructor Therapist
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After gaining a full understanding of behavioral therapy, a low-fidelity wireframe was created on paper as a loose visual representation of all methods and practices carried out daily by instructor therapists.
The Challenge
A challenging aspect of this phase was figuring out a balance between daily activities and spontaneous occurrences.
Instructor therapists are responsible for carrying out activities to teach different skills (Receptive Identification) While also keeping track of general behavioral changes such as the child’s ability to ask for what they need (Manding) and how often they need to be encouraged to ask for what they need (Prompt)
This was done by adding a Manding and Prompt count on the top of the screen to remain easily accessible while daily activities are taking place.
In addition to daily tasks and activities carried out with the child, there are also spontaneous outbursts of varying degrees, especially with autistic children. Thus, a BX button (negative behavior outburst) was included in the original design as a constant floating button, as these behaviors may occur at any moment throughout a therapy session.
Senior Therapists
The first step to moving from physical paper to a digital interface was to conduct an in-depth analysis of formal documents.
Access to ongoing therapy programs that allow senior therapists to make changes was crucial to include. Thus, we created a separate web interface only accessible to senior therapists.
The web interface contains all client records and is linked to the connect application carried by all instructor therapists. Therefore, a senior therapist can easily make changes to ongoing therapy programs through the web interface.
CHECKING OUR ANSWERS THROUGH RESEARCH
The first type of evaluation, qualitative evaluation, was accomplished using the think-a-loud protocol, used alongside our wireframed card prototype. Think-A-Loud evaluation was chosen to get feedback from therapists as to whether or not the interface is intuitive to support their normal workflow. As there are many factors to the therapist role, this was indeed necessary to evaluate how different participants may use the application. The intention here was to simply ask “Can you walk me through how you would use this application to do your job?”
Making the Right Changes
Our research identified several improvements and changes to be made during the prototyping phase.
Instructor Therapists
Toileting
One of the main reasons a child is brought to the clinic is for toilet training. Many instructor therapists expressed their dismay that it was not included in the wireframes tested. As toileting is indeed a spontaneous occurrence, we thought of including it as a floating button similar to the Bx (negative behaviour) button on the side of the screen. However, this would overly convolute each page on the app.Thus, we arrived at a solution of including toileting and Bx into a navigation bar.
Updating Navigation
Since therapist must attend to spontaneous occurrences such as toilet training and negative outburst (BX), it was important to include them in the top navigation bar. Thus, making them easily accessible at all times with a simple way to return back to daily tasks and activities.
Senior Therapists
As many senior therapists work directly with children, they will not only delegate tasks through the web app but will also be using the connect application directly. For senior therapists and experienced instructor therapists, the format seemed tedious with many unnecessary steps. Though it was designed to be simple to use for even the most novice of therapists, the experienced therapist felt their knowledge far exceeded the design of the application. Thus, a different layout was created in order for more experienced therapists to work more efficiently and without constraints.
Results and Takeaways
We are currently testing the prototype in a real-world setting. Endless Abilities, the behavioral therapy clinic, will adopt the program by switching entirely to a digital landscape before introducing it to other clinics. The instructor therapist will have the first opportunity to use the Cnnect application in a real-world setting, working with clients in the field.
Remaining Focused
I’ve gained a tremendous deal of knowledge working on this project. Though it became complicated fairly quickly as we introduced more aspects, I have learned to remain focused on maintaining the flow state of behavioural therapy by minimizing distraction and simplifying tasks.
User testing continues after development
I have learned that the process of iteration is essential for design. Many assumptions were made in development that all aspects of behavioral therapy had been covered. However, it was not until the research phase that we gained a full understanding of what was missing. The process is not yet complete, as it would be naïve to assume there will not be more changes to make moving forward.
Providing Options
As therapists have become accustomed to physical documents to accomplish tasks, they may not be aware of easier methods. Thus, it is imperative to intently analyze workflow and provide alternatives that fit easily into their current tasks.