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CARBONLABS CL Making digital work for you Bradley Wilton - User Interaction Designer
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CARBONLABS 16th March - 28th August 2015 | Internship Report CL Making digital work for you
1 Company Background & Successes | About us at Carbon Labs 2 Client Profile | Who we please 3-6
Personal Work Achievements | How have I developed
7 Team Work Achievements | What we can acheive 8 Product Information | What do we actaully sell? 9-10
Managerial Report on Internship | Am I a better designer?
11 Personal Reflection | What has this internship taught me
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www.carbonlabs.co.uk
CARBONLABS Internship Report | CL Making digital work for you
Company Background We are Carbon Labs Technologies, we collaborate with clinicians and informatics specialists to develop quality healthcare software working primarily in the Mental Health sector of healthcare. We have a range of different platforms which offer clinicians and healthcare operatives varied functionalities. Our most recent pilot software in currently being rolled out in over 300 pilot sites across the UK with a lead private mental healthcare provider, Eden Futures. We were set up in 2014 as the result of a buy out of Digital Spark Ltd (My internship company of choice last year) by Michael Bell (Strategic Business Manager) and Gavin Kipling (Design Director) who aimed to build software for the NHS which considered the user at the forefront, not an after thought primarily focusing on the usability and graphic aspects of the platforms perfecting the usability. Through a great team at Carbon Labs we are able to provide With the extensive knowledge within the healthcare sector spanning throughout all members of the team we have a key insight to what nurses and clinicians want and need to improve the care path of patients every day. With an turnover of ÂŁ1.5mil within the first business year following successes of the previous company, the core team is heading for vast expansion over the next carbon labs logo on white: year with more sites taking on software every month.
CARBONLABS CL Making digital work for you
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CARBONLABS Internship Report | 1 CL Making digital work for you
The Team & Client Profile With a range of designers, developers, QA testers & a dedicated customer support team to provide an all-round superb service for our customers we collaborate with the NHS and private healthcare provides daily to ensure our solutions created are right for them and work in the way they want them to work with the main market for our software being Mental Health. Our main clients are Clinicians, Nurses and other Practitioners mainly in the secondary care setting with new consumers being highlighted from the patient end of the spectrum, we are going to be targeting the patient market before the end of this financial year to open up a brand new market to us as a company. We work closely with the NHS’ network of clinicians and practitioners to develop our software and products to work for them, how they want it to work to ensure that it is both easy to use and primarily saves them time!
Collaboration with Clinicians In order to fully understand how the people we design for use their current system we went to a Multi-Disciplinary Team Meeting (MDTM) held down in Nuneaton, Birmingham to observe the clinicians making their way through their patient list and marking life changing decisions on the status of the patients. The current, paper based system that is rolled out across the UK highlighted major flaws in the usability making their jobs twice as hard as it needed to be as all patient information is held in one folder, in one location, in one office which is not ideal if you’re called in to see the patient and have none of the information available at hand. Clare Price (Head of Operations)
Andrew Lennox (Cheif Executive Officer)
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Personal Work Achievements Typically as a design intern most young students wanting to grasp experience in a professional environment would expect to be
‘employed’ as a hot beverage assistant or even worse, after accepting the internship, to find out they’re not in any way suited to the job. From working with the same group of professionals, both young and old(er) I have returned to the team welcomed with respect from all involved. Since the first day I have been working on a multitude of different, exciting and challenging projects. I’ve already developed my skills in the short space of time I have been here, with no two tasks I’ve been asked to perform requiring the same skills.
I have been using a range of different skills that have been pulled through from last year and expanded upon. Using Photoshop, Illustrator and AfterEffects I have been creating a wide range of different proposals for new software mocking up the user interaction stages of the design as-well as the layouts. My Mentor, Vika van Tuyl has been teaching me to code in CSS from web and mobile applications, which is something that i have never tried before, until now. The process is pretty straight forward with the basics setting the rules of how things need to be written in the software. We have been out and about the country meeting the users of our software to see what they want from us, and how we can deliver it. This hand-on experience has been crucial in holding a decorum representing the company and also getting a first had experience for how they want things to work, look and feel!
DICE
Central patient handling system in place across a multitude of sites within the UK with aims to go global within the next coming years. This was the first project I worked on, when I arrived at CL. They had a basic structure for the system, which in my view was flawed and needed a serious restructure in order to bring the functionality through to it’s full potential. I looked at all of the requirements and broke them down to see which were the key hit points and worked from there to create a new, easy to use layout. carbon labs logo on white:
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Promotional Material & Marketing No matter how well established a company is it still requires the promotion, marketing and development to increase the success of the brand. This is absolutely no different with Carbon Labs and allowed me to experience some of the requirements from producing promotional materials read to send out to clients, both managerial and nurse level. The material I have produced shows the screens, proposals and packages we offer as a provider.
Vector outlines have been created allowing all to graphics and proposals to sit in a neutral, simple situ allowing the clients to overcome the confusion of different devices. The graphics have then been placed showing situations that can be viewed through the use of the system.
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Web Asset Design The company website is built from scratch, in house, this allows us to apply every last detail to our own specification and get it right first time. When designing for the website we are always wanting to keep the design, layout and content up to date to ensure clients are always wow’ed by it, this includes all of the proposals and iconography etc. For the web page we have a company specific set of icons, and semantics which fit with our branding at Carbon Labs... I have also developed a range of different assets that were required to tell the story of the systems that we produce.
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CARBONLABS Internship Report | 5 CL Making digital work for you
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Team Work Acheivements Working with such a close knit design team means that there is always the support available whenever you need a bit of inspiration or direction. We collaborate with clinicians daily to ensure that what we are producing is essentially what they want and it works for them. I have taken part in a range of different meeting with our clinicians which everytime spurs on a lot of work to be carried out on our design proposal to be ready for the next time we meet.
A large portion of the work we have is in the south of the UK, just outside of London, so traveling down is not uncommon, this means that the team have to be comfortable both in a professional and social aspect which is great because every is easy going. When we do visits to meet the clinicians usually numerous members of the team attend which builds a work ethos for everyone to get involved, even when we are in the office people are constantly milling around having a look at what goes on. With the development pipeline being quite set and official it means that if we don’t get work done on time then there are delays, we all feel comfortable enough to have a complain at each other if someone isn’t pulling their weight because we are so passionate about producing high quality, easy to use software.
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Product Information At Carbon Labs, we research, design, develop and maintain software packages for the healthcare sector both privately and within the NHS. This software is developed in close collaboration with clinicians and makes their jobs easier everyday, our main market is within mobile software allowing the software to be used in online or offline mode to collect date wherever they may be. A lot of our time is pushed into truly understanding the whole patient data recording process to ensure that what we design is relevant. In order to develop software we use an internal web host mocking up the styling and profile of the system in CSS. It is then transfered into XML and developed through the wed dev team. When the software is complete it is transfered onsite to their internal network and hosted from their servers minimizing the cloud space we need to provide. The software developed is sold at a high end price with a target turnover for the company of ÂŁ1.5million for year ending 2015, at current we have secured 78% of this target through our pilot sites.
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Michael Bell Strategy Director Carbon Labs
Managerial Report of Internship
“Bradley has exceeded expectations, bringing passion, belief and raw skill to every project he has been involved with, he has grasped quickly that it isn’t just about making the software simple and desirable to use, he understands the deeper aspects of this such as the software must return an immediate benefit to the clinician, it must let them complete tasks rapidly and accurately, and crucially, the software must embody key elements of clinical safety best practice to ensure it becomes a true aid to the clinician and is assistive in the clinician delivering safe care to patients. The healthcare software market is also a very challenging one, the reality being that there has been much flawed software that has led to patient harm, poor adoption and little return on investment for healthcare organisations. Bradley has thrown himself into understanding this history, showing great interest and determination to address it through great design. Bradley, working within the design team at Carbon Labs, has excelled to deliver precisely what clinicians require from technology, i.e. innovation, simplicity of use and integrated insights that enable safer care for all. A very bright, positive and exceptionally talented young designer, Bradley has quickly became an integral part of the Carbon Labs team. He has worked with all disciplines in the organisation covering strategy, design, development and quality assurance. Bradley is bold and presents his ideas to colleagues and clients with great clarity. He has shone working within the design team especially, building excellent synergetic relationships that have enabled more rapid delivery on projects and happier clients. It’s rare to find a young designer with such a breadth of skill, positive attitude, diligence in their work and raw ability. Bradley has been outstanding for Carbon Labs and his work will have a lasting legacy here that, following his internship, will continue through all we do.” carbon labs logo on white:
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Vika van Tuyl Lead UX Designer Carbon Labs
Managerial Report of Internship
“Bradley’s internship has seen him work in full cycle product delivery for Carbon Labs. He has engaged clinical staff directly to unearth requirements for new products, has challenged senior clinicians and has worked diligently to prioritise and transform requirements into a resonant, high value end-user experience for our clients. Often working under extreme time pressure and having to manage multiple deliveries simultaneously, Bradley has coped very well. His design work has spanned mostly mobile delivery but also encompassing design for more traditional web-browsers. As such Bradley has had to focus on ensuring great user experience across a multitude of form factors. He has grasped entirely the criticality of certain key healthcare information to ensure no matter the form factor, the user experience is appropriate and delivers clinicians precisely what they need to deliver safe care. As mentioned, Bradley has worked through full product lifecycle delivery, playing and active role in storyboarding, asset creation, prototype development and implementation of his design into Carbon Labs’s software. In every area, without exception, Bradley has shone.”
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Personal Reflection My time with the company has been nothing short of a whirlwind from my first day I was immediately put into live projects that we could market as soon as possible. With the help and guidance I have received from the team I feel as a young designer wanting to gather as much experience as possible it has been perfect. The way that everyone just gets stuck in really has provided the best motivation and knowing that my designs go straight into a live system that actual people use is phenomenal! The skills that have been put to use in my time on my internship I feel have flourished considerably not only the way that I think about design but also the way that I deal with my work load. I have worked with industry to ensure that I act in a responsible, professional manner 100% of the time in terms of the clinicians we collaborate with, the mental health patients we deal with and the team within the office - even if we do have a laugh sometimes. As a company that work with medical conditions you have to be constantly aware that the work you are producing does not upset or look intimidating, for example clinicians and medical staff will be using the software in an environment where patients may be emotional. The work that I have carried out has been very well received by all parties involved in the projects and it has given me a sense of pride! Having an internship where the hours are not tied down to 9 - 5, Monday - Friday meant that I could work when I wanted, especially handy if you have uninspired mornings. The only restriction was that I needed to get in 40 hours a week in the office which I definitely surpassed. The placement has been paid very well so it has also meant that I could earn a bit of money whilst getting great experience. I will be staying with the company until 28th August 2015, allowing me a VERY short but sweet ‘summer’, if you could call early September summer before returning to University. See you in September! Bradley Wilton
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