Virgilio: hospital wayfinding system

Three questions for the project team

What was the particular challenge of the project from a UX point of view?
When designing Virgilio, a primary UX challenge was balancing the maximisation of effectiveness and minimisation of learning curve for users with limited digital literacy. Addressing this involved multiple testing rounds, focusing on elderly users who are often unfamiliar with digital interfaces. To create a realistic environment, tests were held in actual hospital spaces, accurately simulating real-world scenarios. Despite being challenging, this rigorous testing was invaluable. It validated Virgilio's value proposition, confirming its effectiveness and ease of use with real users in practical settings. The insights gained were crucial in refining the system to meet diverse user needs, ultimately enhancing the overall user experience.

What was your personal highlight in the development process? Was there an aha!-moment, was there a low point?
In the entire process, the remarkable phase was framing the correlation and connection between every touchpoint as well as their corresponding interaction model. The hospital environment contains both indoor and outdoor parts, which makes it tricky to streamline the whole journey. Considering the need to minimize cognitive load for elderly users, we came up with a series of potential solutions to assist the continuity of their journey, such as highlighting landmarks and printing tickets. We spent a long time considering the impact of each solution on stakeholders. Based on feedback from user testing, we finally validated the combination of 'entire route visualization' and 'phased direction confirmation' realized by VMaps and VPoints.

Where do you see yourself and the project in the next five years?
In the next 5 years, we envision Virgilio extending beyond university walls incrementally and working as an impactful solution for hospitals, significantly improving the patient experience and operational efficiency. Collaborating with diverse stakeholders, including government agencies, hospitals, and manufacturers, to bring this vision to life would be challenging but also meaningful. Virgilio has the potential to make a substantial impact in public environments where emotional and stress overload are prevalent. By offering clear and personalized navigation, it allows those who are not able to navigate independently to regain their autonomy, ultimately contributing to a more compassionate and inclusive healthcare environment.