Introduction
On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organisation declared the Covid19 an international pandemic.
To avoid the spread of Covid19, Covid19 testing was setup, alongside Covid19 vaccinations. Telehealth was used in many places to help triage patients with suspected Covid19, as well as for registering for vaccinations.
The focus of this communication plan, is on the telehealth services, that Northern Health hospital used, during the pandemic.
This is an Australian health service, based in Victoria.
Objectives
The aim and scope of this project is to discuss telehealth services that could be used to enhance the use of telehealth, in relation to the pandemic. Why this is important, is because I would like to contribute to designing media that helps stop the spread of Covid19.
Although it may seem that Covid19 is not as common as it was during the initial virus spreading contagious time, the pandemic is still considered active.
For people seeking help, they can contact the National Corona Virus Hotline.
So how can web design and social media stop the spread for Northern Health?
It can increase awareness, provide education and interact with all ages and genders of the general population.
The current situation
The current situation, is that in Victoria, Northern Health provides a virtual health service.
Hrmm, well I have ideas, that could make telehealth more useful and reached out, to be used more often, but first, lets look what they have requested.
Include a progress bar when completing user details
Display ‘expected wait times’ on homepage
Improve language/readability of text to meet expected audience literacy levels
Hyperlinks need to be clear and distinct on the Northern Health homepage. Instructions are required on how to use the platform (e.g. FAQ, Help, User guide)
Improve the design of homepage to resemble the NHED aesthetics using similar themed colours and fonts
Create a recognisable logo and display throughout web app
Improve decision-making prompts to provide immediate help if unsure how to progress
Provide factsheets and links to resources of common health presentations
Improve marketing of the service and improve hyperlink visibility to the virtual ED platform
Visibility of emergency contact on all pages (e.g. ‘Call “000” if symptoms become life-threatening’)
Improve useability of pre-registration form
Incorporate audio–visual aids to make the experience more personable, ease anxiety and improve accessibility
This is how I'll approach the above numbered bullets:
Including a progress bar when completing user details, can be done on each step of each form with 'next' indicating to go to the next section (or 'previous' to go back).
Displaying ‘expected wait times’ on homepage, is not necessary because all pages will be made to be fast loading, using code and image optimisation. Such as using gifs, pngs and compressed jpegs which do not take up much space.
Improve language/readability of text to meet expected audience literacy levels. This can be done with adjustable fonts, according to user preferences, making the website accessible and user friendly.
Hyperlinks need to be clear and distinct on the Northern Health homepage. Instructions are required on how to use the platform (e.g. FAQ, Help, User guide). This can be colour coded using css, to have contrasting colours representing visited, active and hover states of hyperlinks.
Improve the design of homepage to resemble the NHED aesthetics using similar themed colours and fonts – I would like to create new graphics to be able to do this, but still keep the neat professional layout of the website.
Create a recognisable logo and display throughout web app - can be done. I think I'll pick a health related image in matching colours on pixabay.com and edit in photoshop. They are royalty free, free to use and have a good variety to choose from.
Improve decision-making prompts to provide immediate help if unsure how to progress – this may be useful, but too many popups may be not so user friendly. Using dhtml to change the screen wording and highlight may be more accessible and less irritating.
Provide factsheets and links to resources of common health presentations – this would make the telehealth service useful and resourceful.
Improve marketing of the service and improve hyperlink visibility to the virtual ED platform – tick.
Visibility of emergency contact on all pages (e.g. ‘Call “000” if symptoms become life-threatening’) - maybe in the top right hand corner, in contrasting colours.
Improve useability of pre-registration form – error messages automatically displayed and instructions in bright common colours, could help give meanings and instructions to form fields.
Incorporate audio–visual aids to make the experience more personable, ease anxiety and improve accessibility – movies and presentations are a great idea.
Target Audience
Well, I thought of appealing to all ages and genders earlier, so I guess mostly it will be geared for teenagers to adults but have a kids section too. I will use colours and images that I think will appear as neat and identifiable to everyone.
I will do surveys through Survey Monkey to survey the audience to see if my ideas are relevant or spot on.
Sample survey questions
a. What is your current behaviour and attitude towards digital health and the virtual ED?
For example: i. Do you have access to mobile and tele-technology? ii. What are your thoughts on health-seeking behaviour in emergencies? iii. What are your thoughts on using the virtual emergency department? b. What is your experience using digital health technologies? For example:
How confident are you in using these technologies?
Have you heard of the virtual ED? Experiences or barriers?
Have you used any other telehealth platform? Experiences or barriers?
c. Improvements, needs and feedback, for example:
i. Are there any additional comments you would like to make?
ii. Can you suggest how best to communicate with your community?
ii. How can we address the digital and health needs of your community?
I'll send these questions out to email lists of health user groups on the internet, in forums and from facebook.
I will also gather statistics from the Northern Health website to help formulate my strategies and techniques.
I will then segment my audiences and try develop common user profiles by analysing, such things as what browser they use, what operating system, what device, etc. I can then make the website and app according to the most common requests.
My intention in doing this to make the website liked and hopefully very popular, frequently used, with reliable and trustworthy information.
Another technique I can use is to consider the barriers that some people might have and trying to develop strategies to overcome them, to reach the user where athey are, as they are capable of using the website. For example, screen readers, descriptive pictures and icons, identifiable logo branding, and so on.
Example enhanced design, modified by me:
Thank you for reading.
Reference:
Health and Aged Care, Commonwealth of Australia.
Accessed from: About the COVID-19 pandemic | Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care on 21/5/23.
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