Deciphering Human Experience
During a pandemic it falls on human instinct to ask yourself 'what can I do'? Hospitals are operating under significant personal protective equipment (PPE) deficits while the aerosolized coronavirus remains the primary means of transfer. As a result, there has been a surge in DIY and low budget production of protective equipment.
For one such piece of equipment, an intubation hood, I wrote and illustrated the assembly and user instructions.
Create an intubation hood that protects healthcare professionals from dangerous aerosols. The hood should be easy to manufacture, assemble, and use.
Gain a clear understanding of how healthcare professionals intend to use the intubation hood, how it works, and the steps involved to ensure desired level of protection.
Protect more healthcare professionals by creating instructions that communicate, with great efficiency, the assembly and use of the intubation hood.
Emergency healthcare professionals, professor of human-centered design, graphic designer, and me, human-centered designer.
Conduct interviews, synthesize information, create instructions, and, with the graphic designer, develop illustrations.
Review the design, conduct interviews, synthesize information, create instructions, and validate with healthcare professionals.
The need is urgent - work quickly to begin rapid dissemination of intubation hood and the instructions for assembly and use.
Interview Insights & Observations
Video demonstrations provided insight for the user instructions and the whereabouts of the components that make up the intubation hood.
More Is Better
Imperative that the instructions lead with, and regularly reiterate, the importance of PPE; the hood is not a replacement for proper PPE, but rather another line of defense against the virus.
With ICU beds in short supply, procedures related to the use and assembly of the hood need to be streamlined for fast patient/room turnover.
While the device was created by physicians in one hospital, the instructions for use should provide just the right amount of information so that the process can be applied to other hospital room layouts and configuration.