Mi Tia Lupe
Virtual Connectivity to Promotoras
Team Members
Susanna Davtyan
Shadae Kawaguchi
Edebaldo Martinez
Roy Allen
Susanna Davtyan
Shadae Kawaguchi
Edebaldo Martinez
Roy Allen
My Role
Research
Interviews
Testing
Initial App Prototyping
System Map
Research
Interviews
Testing
Initial App Prototyping
System Map
Client
Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles (CHLA)
Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles (CHLA)
The Problem
Barriers to effective communication and resource sharing between CHLA promotoras and the LatinX community.
The Challenge
How might we design a platform that can assist promotoras to extend resources and care to LatinX families?
Research
An online research and user research was conducted to identify issues that promotoras and LatinX community experience when it comes to communication and access to resources such as food programs, housing, work, healthcare, education, and other resources. User research was conducted with promotoras to better understand what they need to make their every day tasks easier and have an organized system on a digital platform.
What we discovered during our research:
What we discovered during our research:
- It is hard to navigate the system of care
- There are no immediate resources available to families
- Language barriers are the main deterrent for comminty members to get quality care or to apply for government or other programs
- Physical resources such as pamphlets distributed by promotoras can easily be lost
- Outdated patient information can be a reason for community members not to get the assistance they applied for
- Applications for many programs are long and confusing
“I would like to be able to help
families to navigate the system of care, make it easier for them, and then once they understand, it will be easier and accessible all the time.”
Q: Is there currently an app that allows you to directly communicate
with families?
“No, it's my dream. I think that my dream would be to be able to do that.”
“We get a lot of families that are especially interested in the Children's Hospital, but they don't want to ask for services because they're afraid of their immigration status. There should not be an issue for your child to get the services that they need.”
- Lorena Eaton
CHLA Promotora
“No, it's my dream. I think that my dream would be to be able to do that.”
“We get a lot of families that are especially interested in the Children's Hospital, but they don't want to ask for services because they're afraid of their immigration status. There should not be an issue for your child to get the services that they need.”
- Lorena Eaton
CHLA Promotora
“They don't have to be in a computer, they don't have to be in a conference, or have to travel for hours to get to our resource center. They should be able to have it at the fingertips, especially families that have children with medical conditions.”
“We get at least five every day that we have to go to the room and talk to the families in the rooms. They're working with the social workers to help us to coordinate services for their families so pretty much it's an open door and anybody can come and just talk to us or again be referred by the doctor, or if it is something urgent we will go to the rooms and talk to the families in the room.”
- Lorena Eaton
CHLA Promotora
CHLA Promotora
Our Persona
Julia Martinez
Julia Martinez
“They trust me because they know I’ve been through it myself.”
Age: 37
Location: East Hollywood, CA
Job: CHLA Promotora / Parent Navigator
Education: Associate’s Degree
Age: 37
Location: East Hollywood, CA
Job: CHLA Promotora / Parent Navigator
Education: Associate’s Degree
Stakeholder System Map
Our stakeholder system map features the main stakeholders involved in this project.
User Journey Current State
Our Solution
Mi Tia Lupe is an app for promotoras to help establish remote communication with clients via the channels they indicate. This will allow clients to update their contact information any time. It has a productive task organization system for promotoras, digital referral to resources, application progress tracking, and a rating system.
Mi Tia Lupe will:
Mi Tia Lupe will:
- Improve promotoras’ connection with their clients
- Offer an organized task management system
- Notify promotoras about new resources and new patients
- Provide easy appointment system
- Enable easy distribution of resources
- Track application progress
Sketches
Each of the team members made sketches to show their vision of what Mi Tia Lupe would look like. The main categories and features of the app were already defined so we were just trying to figure out the initial layout of the app.
Mi Tia Lupe Lo-Fi Prototypes
Mi Tia Lupe Mid-Fi Prototypes
For our mid-fi prototypes we made a couple of changes based on the feedback we received and worked on adding client side screens as well.
Promotora’s Side
Client’s Side
Testing the Prototypes
We tested our prototypes with Maria Lopez who is a project manager at
Para Los Ninos and Ralph Guirado who is a resource coordinator at
Para Los Ninos. The overall feedback was positive, but there were couple of iprovements that needed to be done to further protect client privacy such as not having their photos on their profile. Maria wanted to see highlighted icons for the contact methods the clients prefered. In this case we thought that showing only the contact methods that the client indicated during the onboarding process would appear on their profile instead of having highlighted and muted icons. Another feature that needed change was the progress bar. The testing participants wanted it to show some kind of progress.
Maria Lopez
Para Los Ninos, Project Manager
“Rating system will help to open a dialogue with promotoras”
“ Needs and Notes on the client profile are a great idea.”
“ Have the progress bar highlighted.”
“Promotoras need to talk to the client first to see if they qualify for the application and then send it to them.”
“Patient picture and other info should be optional.”
“Rating system could help to improve the ways promotoras can assist clients.”
“Contacting patients via the app is a great idea.”
“Would like to know the questions for the promotora reviews.”
Ralph Guirado
Para Los Ninos, Resource Coordinator
“Another thing I like to hear is when a client isn’t serviced by somebody. To be told, ‘Hey, you know what? This was a lousy referral”
“Resources are found based on zip code and ability to pay.”
“Would like the portal to be integrated with existing email.”
“New Resources and Promotora newsletter would be helpful to blast updates.”
Use “Mental Health” over “mental/behavioral assistance.” Users don’t want to be stigmatized as crazy.”
“Needs & notes option for clients is very useful.”
“ Feedback feature is helpful to find out which resources not to refer.”
Para Los Ninos, Resource Coordinator
“Another thing I like to hear is when a client isn’t serviced by somebody. To be told, ‘Hey, you know what? This was a lousy referral”
“Resources are found based on zip code and ability to pay.”
“Would like the portal to be integrated with existing email.”
“New Resources and Promotora newsletter would be helpful to blast updates.”
Use “Mental Health” over “mental/behavioral assistance.” Users don’t want to be stigmatized as crazy.”
“Needs & notes option for clients is very useful.”
“ Feedback feature is helpful to find out which resources not to refer.”
User Journey Map Future State
Mi Tia Lupe App Final Prototypes
Taking into account all the feedback we received from our testing participants, peers, and professors we updated our prototypes and gave them a more contemporary look.
Promotora’s Side
Client’s Side
Reflections
Mi Tia Lupe offers important features to help promotoras stay organized, carry out their daily tasks, keep on track with applications, make appointments online, and contact their clients via various channels. Our interviews, research, and user testing provided us with the necessary information about the features that promotoras would need to optimize their workflow by easily forwarding resources to their clients, have new resources added to the app automatically, keep in contact with their clients, help them out with applications, and more. More screens might be added at a later time for appointment cancellations and tasks page which would list all the tasks for the day, week, and month to help promotoras have that information on hand at all times.