Concussion 360

What is Concussion 360

Concussion 360 is a functionality that I designed as part of Performance Medicine to track concussions, monitor baseline statuses, and provide an overview of all concussions in a squad or roster.

Concussions are becoming more and more of a problem in sports and are getting a lot of attention in the media. As a result, a number of our customers were looking for a single tool to track and monitor concussions in their teams to replace the fragmented experience they previously where they had to use multiple apps and providers.

This involved an iPad app to allow concussion tests to be carried out as well as a web side to allow them to view test results, track progression, and ensure baseline tests for comparison are kept up to date

When managing a full roster of up to 100 athletes in NFL and many more in college sports it can be difficult to keep track of all of the assessments athletes need to complete as well as their expiry dates. Allowing practitioners to quickly visualise which assessments are coming up on their expiry dates and which athletes have open concussions gives them peace of mind that they’re not missing data or letting athlete care drop like has happened previously.

Step 1: Define the opportunity with research

I start off every project by discussing opportunity and what we know with product manager. As this project was part of the wider performance medicine project I then reviewed existing research in Notion database to see what we had already heard from customers.

Next I created a list of what I don’t know and found internal experts to discuss this with, met with them and set up a slack channel and reoccurring meetings with them and the product manager for ongoing questions and feedback.

I also used this project group to identify suitable customers for research and then carried out discovery interviews with them. In addition, I carried out desk research into similar products in the industry and products in different industries solving similar problems.

Since concussion is such a big topic for doctors in sports we had a lot of access to doctors and other practitioners throughout the design of this area. In particular we had recurring calls with the Pac-12, NFL, IRFU, and RFU on this area meaning we not only got to carry out research interviews with them but we also got to test early in the process with end users.

Step 2: Begin ideation

Once we had a broad direction for the product I began sketching quick wireframes of what features we could include, how they could be laid out, etc based off our research findings.

Next I move into Figma and begin mocking up screens or flows depending on the project, for concussion I focused initially on what we would show at each level, grouping the information by priority I like to get early feedback from the product manager on the direction, this involves bringing them through the journey of discovery and ideation so they can see how I got to the wireframes.

Step 3: Prioritising iterations

For a project as large and layered as this was, myself and the product manager needed to prioritise certain areas to be developed first. We did this using the data we had collected during the research phase as well as our ongoing conversations with customers to decide what would create the most value for our users.

With performance medicine being comprised of three layers, the roster, the athlete, and the injury/entity we decided to use these when deciding on the iterations. We decided that the injury level view would be first - this showed the test results and allowed practitioners to compare and see progress, something no other tool on the market allowed. We wanted to make sure that even if we could only deliver one feature that it would provide value for our users, this is why we prioritised the test comparison.

We brought the lead front and back end engineers from the squad in at this point to review the design direction and flag any potential challenge, they also joined the project team channel and meetings to give feedback on designs and provide estimates which we could use for planning.

Injury level

The main goal for our users at the injury level is seeing how a concussion is developing, are symptoms subsiding back to baseline or below, and how long it is taking for this to happen.

One of the main issues doctors mentioned when we spoke to them about was being able to compare SCAT results over time to see how the athlete’s symptoms were progressing. The SCAT providers they were using would export a PDF of each assessments results and they would have to download each one from their EMR and manually compare the results. Their issue was being able to easily see and compare the information they had collected.

In order to have the SCAT data to display within performance medicine we designed a flow to allow the practitioners to complete the assessment in our iPad app Kiosk. As we had the data coming through from our own app we were able to display it in whatever way worked best for the users giving us the ability to design how the results were displayed without too many technical limitations. We tried and tested multiple variations with different practitioners from different orgs and governing bodies to get to our final design with the assessments on the X axis and the details on the Y axis, accordions for hiding and showing symptoms, red text and background for symptoms above baseline, and orange text and background for symptoms which were previously above baseline and have since returned to baseline or below.

Athlete level

At the athlete level practitioners had three goals, the first was to see the athlete’s full concussion history so they could adjust their care accordingly as well as gaining insight into what a typical concussion looks like for this particular athlete, for example how long it lasts. Their second goal was to check that the athlete’s baselines were all up to date and conduct any expired or outstanding tests. Finally, their third goal was to see a full test history for the athlete in order to see if other tests were carried out and found to be negative.

With a lot of information to show at the athlete level it was important for me to order these with reference to the importance of these goals so these designs were tested vigorously with users prior to development.

Roster/squad level

At this level we needed to surface information which in the past has gone unnoticed. As our users told us, there’s no point in collecting the information if they can’t see it. Here they told us they wanted to see what they needed to action, assessments outstanding, expiring or recently expired and open concussions that they need to check in on.

Step 4: Development

We had worked closely with engineering throughout the design process of this project so working through the iterations was quite simple. When each block of work was due to commence I would walk through the screens for that iteration with the engineering team and answer any questions they had. Daily standups and regular catchups meant issues were dealt with quickly and I was onhand to talk through any changed that were needed.

Step 5: Release and post go live

We released each iteration as it was available after rigorous Q&A from myself, the product manager, and our QA lead. As we had tested each iteration so thoroughly the reaction from customers was very positive with this feature helping mend some more strained partnerships

Customers such as the IRFU began requesting meetings with myself and the product manager to discuss further developments and features they would like to see. In addition, some industry partners began conversations on how we could integrate with their products to provide an even more well rounded experience