Living kidney donations: addressing disparities using human-centered design

Discovery Research and UX Design

Role: Lead UX Researcher, Content Strategist

Research Methods: Competitive Analysis, Analytics, Heatmapping, Interviews, Cross-functional team workshops, Usability Testing

Project Team: Raghav Wusirika M.D., Sheryl Williams, Kama Carranza, Sethlany Harris, Erika Best, Dedrick Sprick, Eva Wong, Megan Fairbank, Carla Justice, Kathleen Gardiner, Jessica Chin

Tools: Hotjar, Qualtrics, Google Analytics, Figma, Miro, Webex

The problem:

Through coursework for a human-centered design class, Dr. Wusirika discovered disparities between patients most likely to get a living kidney donation versus not. In the U.S., living kidney donations are not cost neutral. Out-of-pocket costs for travel, time off work, and caretaking assistance are estimated to be between $1,000-$20,000 for donors. In addition, donating a kidney comes with inherent risks to the donor. The OHSU clinical transplant website was not making it clear for someone interested in or curious about donating a kidney to understand the process, the risks, the costs, and the resources available up front so they could decide if donating is an option for them. 


Research Questions

The Process: Human-Centered Design

What is: interviews and personas


 

What if: ideating and affinity mapping


What wows: converging ideas and prototyping

What works: interviews and usability testing

Process adapted from Solving Problems with Design Thinking, 2013 Jeanne Liedtka, Andrew King and Kevin Bennett

Key Qualitative Insights


The Solution



Results and Impact 


In the 200 days after launch, compared to the same period the year prior:


In the news

Though it is unlikely that the website was solely responsible for the success of the clinical transplant program in 2023, the above analytics are consistent with OHSU's increase in living kidney donations for that year.




Future Opportunities




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