Process
With a large, interdisciplinary mixture of talented contributors, we have discovered and refined a unique production process that allows us to creatively combine skills in a heuristic manner. We have outlined our workflow below, which is as unique as it is iterative.
Educational Needs Assessment:
Working in close collaboration with nurses, physicians, patients, and families, we map the experience of the patient to analyze educational ‘gaps.’ We define this process as experience-mapping, which maps out the patient’s experience from diagnosis to treatment and follow-up, and what a patient at NYU Medical Center frequently encounters along the way. By focusing on the patient as the center of a personal story, we discover new informational and emotional needs that previously were unvoiced.
Production- Phase One:
Working with animators, visual effects specialists, computer programmers, and actors, we assemble a production team to develop a film script, a detailed storyboard, interactive and animated visualizations, all produced to respond to the educational needs identified above.
Production- Phase Two, Rapid Prototyping and Re-Design:
Working with a skilled team of programmers and interface designers, we develop the ‘look and feel’ of the environment through rapid prototyping and re-design.
Early Focus Groups and Evaluation:
Is this learning environment feasible? Will people use it? How can we make it better? Through guided focus groups and evaluation, we ask patients and families to participate in helping us analyze our learning system and the quality of information it provides. We ask for honest, instinctive feedback on the look and feel of the learning environment and how it can be improved.
Final Environment:
Is it a website? Is it a CD-Rom? Is it an embedded computer system in an actual clinical space? Despite the ‘platforms’ in which the environment can be housed, consideration is taken into account of the available resources, and the feasibility for disseminating the environment on a case-to-case basis.
