Ginkgo Pharmacy
Grow old with the ones you love.
Project Scope
UI Design
UX Design
Graphic Design
About
Grow old with the ones you love: it’s the key philosophy behind Ginkgo Pharmacy. With the goal of increasing engagement in clinical trials, Ginkgo aims to bring holistic value to the Asian-American population in Chicago by making medical information and care more accessible.
Following a speaker series from professionals in the clinical trial space and conducting some interviews of our own, we were able define three barriers that make clinical trial engagement in underserved communities difficult.
First, we found that there is a general lack of knowledge surrounding clinical trials. People may not be aware about trial stories begin with, or they have a convoluted idea about them.
We also discovered that clinical trials are generally unapproachable. As we conducted our own research on clinical trial websites and heard testimonies from users, we found that information about clinical trials is often overly saturated and confusing. This makes for an overwhelming experience for people who may have little-to-no medical background.
Lastly, we found that there is a general air of distrust surrounding clinical trials. In talking with users, we found that there are historical and/or cultural implications that have broken trust with the medical community.
Following our first round of research, we turned our attention to the user experience in navigating both the pharmacy space and the clinical trials government website.
Starting with the current pharmacy experience, we developed a journey map based on our own walkthroughs and observations. When looking at current pharmacies, we noticed that the environment appeared visually cluttered and confusing at first glance. Areas set up for vaccinations had lacked a solid sense of privacy.
Then looking at clinicaltrials.gov, we found that there were many barriers (annotated on the screenshot), but the overarching issue is that the platform is not built for the general population. The site was built by and for medical professionals and therefore makes the information less accessible for the people a trial may be aiming to help.
Based on our research, we determined three design opportunities to better define our project scope and create specific design goals.
Bring clinical trials to people, not people to trials.
By making the pharmacy and clinical trial space more accessible, Ginkgo Pharmacy can provide quality care to patients and add greater value to the community as a whole.
Fix gaps in knowledge to establish and build trust.
Improving personal medical fluency builds knowledge and understanding that empowers patients.
Break down accessibility barriers.
By making conscious efforts to facilitate empathetic communication/interactions and employing a wide variety of accommodations, we can improve access to the clinical trial and medical spaces.
With our objectives in mind, we began to develop what an ideal journey map would look like. This took the form of floor plans conceptualized by our architecture counterparts, Janny Aung and Alex Zheng.
We spent a lot of time focusing on the idea of transparency in healthcare spaces. This required walking a fine line of both protecting patient data/health while ensuring transparency of practices.
We determined that a central atrium accomplished the idea of transparency from the second a visitor enters the building. Additionally, the building had to function as a community gathering space to meet our condition of providing holistic care. By combining programs like a café, garden, and flex space, there would be spaces to casually interact with the medical space and help people better familiarize themselves with it.
Our proposed concept for Gingko thoughtfully integrates technology to help guide visitors through the space and provides a more intuitive introduction to clinical trials.
Upon entry to Ginkgo, visitors are greeted with kiosks that elegantly blend into the space, while still providing an ample sense of privacy. Visitors are able to log-in to their account and take basic biometrics with a built-in scale, blood pressure monitor, and heart rate sensor at the kiosk station.
Given that our target demographic comes from a diverse background of languages, we designed the welcome screen of the kiosk to greet visitors in their preferred language.
Returning visitors are able to easily tap their digital card to log-in and quickly pull up their information.
Upon logging in, users are given three different tabs to access: My Health History, My Appointments, and Clinical Trial Details.
With our redesigned clinical trial website experience, users are recommended trials based on their medical history. This ensures that, if they are interested in clinical trials, only relevant clinical trials are presented.
From the clinical trial home page, users can tap into specific clinical trials to get a detailed and easily digestible summary of what the trial is and what it aims to accomplish. With each trial, users are given articles and resources that they can read, or schedule a consultation inside of Gingko Pharmacy to see if the trial would be a good fit.
Outside of the new clinical trial experience, visitors may simply need to pick up a prescription. Similar to the kiosk experience, the lockers are thoughtfully designed to add functional life to the space.
With the help of location data, users are able to designate a pickup time, and upon arrival, are assigned a pick-up locker. The lockers have a variety of cubby sizes are accommodate for different order sizes, and extend low enough to the ground to provide better accessibility for those in wheelchairs. The use of frosted glass for the backing of the lockers further communicates the idea of transparency, while providing enough privacy for both visitors and pharmacists alike.
PROPOSED CONCEPT
The final proposed space makes heavy use of wood and natural light provided by the central atrium. We were heavily inspired by Asian architecture, which employs both of these elements.
As users move up the building, they become more involved with clinical trial options. The first floor serves as an entry point to the space and introduction to pharmacy and clinical trial activities.
Programs like a cafe and garden draw people into the cafe for conversation, and expose them to the healthcare space without necessarily needing medical care. The exposure alone starts introducing them to the healthcare space to start a discussion.
Visitors have the option for the retail pharmacy on the first floor, which allows them to quickly grab products they may need. They can also quickly consult a pharmacist or staff member about these products.
The second and third floors introduce spaces that allow for conversations about health and clinical trials to begin. Spaces like a cafe and lecture space act as a casual middle ground.
The third floor is set aside for potential SMOs (site management organization) to run trials out of, while the fourth floor has rooms that patients can spend the night in.