Google Pal — Jacqueline O'Connor

INTRODUCTION

Google Pal
  
   Google Pal is a mobile app/virtual reality experience targeted towards pediatric cancer patients, with the goal of reducing common feelings associated with treatment, such as anxiety and loneliness.

MY ROLE 

Digital Product Design, VR (Virtual Reality) Design, Research, Brand Identity 
  
NOTES

Google Pal is a personal project
  
TOOLS

   InVision (Prototype), Sketch (Wireframes and Visual Design), Procreate (Storyboards)

THE PROBLEM  

Children and adolescents with cancer suffer from the severe psychological and physical effects related to their disease. Each year, approximately 300,000 children worldwide are diagnosed with cancer. The traumatic experiences that these young children undergo have short and long-term effects on their mental and physical health.
  
THE SOLUTION 
    
An immersive app that enables virtual adventures for hospitalized children. With Google Pal, hospitalized children have the unique opportunity to explore magical destinations all around the world from the comfort of their hospital bed. Virtual reality  offers otherwise missed adventures to these children and helps to ease their anxiety.

DISCOVERY

Understanding the problem
  
I gathered and organized data about childhood cancer. The purpose was to get a better understanding of the struggles and challenges that pediatric cancer patients go through on a daily basis. Below are four of the key insights that helped drive this project.

Cancer affects children differently than adults —

When you hear the word “cancer,” what comes to mind? Chances are, you don’t think of young, innocent children. Most often we associate cancer with old age. We forget to recognize all the children affected by this ruthless disease.

Feelings of loneliness and isolation —

Feelings of loneliness in children and adolescents who have been diagnosed with cancer are often associated with a wide range of negative outcomes including school drop-out, depressive symptoms, social anxiety, suicide ideation, low self-esteem, eating disorders, and sleep problems.

Precious time lost —

Each year, 300,000 children worldwide are diagnosed with cancer. The average length of treatment for childhood cancer ranges from 3 months to 5 years. That’s over 1,278 missed days to learn, explore and play.

An undesirable experience —

Young cancer patients who need an imaging test typically enter a stark room filled with scary-looking medical machinery and are told to lie still while the test is performed. The loud noises and close enclosure of the imaging machine can be so frightening for children, they may require sedation to safely complete the examination.

IDEATION
Generating personas

Based on the research found in the discovery period of the project, two personas were developed.

Persona 1: Ben the five year old with Leukemia.

Persona 2: Ben's mother, who will help him use the app.

Designing for Ben and his mother helped in making informed design decisions as I had the end user always in mind.

Building empathy  

  Using information from the personas, an empathy map was then created for Ben and his mother. Both empathy maps reflect the individuals thoughts, feelings, behaviors, etc. All of which gave me a deeper insight into both users, thus allowing me to design purposefully.

Discovering opportunities

How might we help reduce feelings of anxiety in hospitalized children?

Hospitalized children often feel anxious, especially prior to treatment. One approach in distracting them from the everyday stressors associated with cancer is providing them with immersive VR experiences such as tropical destinations, which are most often associated with feelings of calmness and relaxation.

How might we incorporate games into the VR experience?

Incorporating interactive games into the VR experience will keep children engaged with the app. One of the destinations, the San Francisco Carousel at Pier 39 demonstrates how interactive arcade games can be incorporated into the VR experience. The games in this app are simple enough to be played by a 5/6 year old, yet entertaining enough for an older child to play.

How might we use VR to minimize feelings of isolation?

Children and adolescents with chronic physical conditions, loneliness has been associated with disease-specific correlates, such as more cardiac symptoms. We could encourage them to develop relationships with other pediatric patients across the globe.

How might we share these experiences with parents/guardians?

The best memories are those shared with the ones closest to us. Without a doubt, parents/guardians want the ability to share these experiences with their children. When a child begins their VR adventure, their parents can see a projection of their view on a hospital monitor.

VISUAL DESIGN

Creating the brand identity

Storyboarding
  
  Once the style guide was complete and a brand identity was established, I began storyboarding various interactions for the mobile interface as well as the VR space.

Initial wireframes
  
 After spending some generating ideas through storyboarding, I began creating some initial wireframes for the app. Below is a progression of key screen wireframes, followed by iteration adjustments based on feedback received from user testing.

User testing

With defined high fidelity wireframes created based on feedback though the testing of lower fidelity wireframes, a clickable prototype was then created to further test and gain more accurate feedback.

GOAL + METHODOLOGY

Goal 1: To successfully have the parent create a new account, and to register their child in the system.

Goal 2: To successfully have the child browse through the discover page and select a destination of their choosing and to begin a VR journey.

Goal 3: To successfully have the parent create a new account, and to register their child in the system.

Methodology: The usability test consisted of two users and a set of tasks written out to be followed by each user.

USER TESTING TASKS

Task 1, for the parent: Create an account and register child in the system.

Task 2, for the child: Browse through the discover list and favorite three destinations. Then locate the page with the favorites list of destinations. Pick one of the destinations and begin your adventure in virtual reality

Task 3, for the child: Exit the VR adventure and begin a chat with a child from the region of the world that you just traveled to. **Note: to begin a new chat, all you have to do is tap of the profile picture of one of the displayed children.

Task 4, for the parent: Register an additional child (ideally a sibling or family member) in the system.

Affinity mapping
  
 Taking feedback from the user testing sessions, I created an affinity map which contains key takeaways relating to the successes, patterns, concerns, suggestions and proposed changes/solutions. This exercise helped me to get a better idea of the products strengths and weaknesses. The feedback was taken into consideration when revising the screens and ultimately helped me mitigate potential problem areas that could take away from the users interaction with the app.

Polished UI screens

Results

1. Transformed a vision into a strategic design concept in efforts to reduce common symptoms of anxiety and isolation exhibited in pediatric cancer patients.

2. Used extensive research, ideation and iterative design process to hone high-impact design opportunities.

3. Crafted a kid-friendly VR experience that is safe to use in hospitals.

4. Implemented special features such as the option to mirror the child’s view of the experience onto various screens/devices such as a monitor in a hospital room.

PREVIOUS CASE STUDY

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NEXT CASE STUDY

This case study focuses on the research and design of a digital platform to help parents make mindful and informed decisions about the apps that they allow their children to use.

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Michael Graves Warehouse 360 VR Tour