Time

2024 – ongoing

Client

National Heart & Lung Centre Dublin

Team

Mater Transformation: Lisa Joyce, Siobhan Manning, Mallory Frye

My role

Ethnographic research, Co-creation, UX/UI design, Videography & Storytelling

Challenge

Patient education resources are fragmented, clinical, and don’t address the emotional and complex needs of lung transplant patients and families.

Goal

How might we build an end-to-end patient education and support system for lung transplant patients and their carers?

Outcome

Delivery of a multi-format information suite including printed patient booklet, a digital information hub with a patient-led video series shaped by lived experience.

‘I don’t remember one single comprehensive item that talks me through what would happen.’

—  Brian (42), Double lung recipient

Phase 1/4

Research & Discovery

Ethnographic research

• Review of existing information materials to identify gaps and complexity
• Shadowing of the multidisciplinary transplant team and patients in clinic and on the ward

In-depth interviews

• Interviews with lung transplant patients, their carers and clinical staff to uncover informational and emotional needs

Synthesis

• Identifying recurring challenges across the transplant journey:
  • access to information,
  • communication with healthcare staff,
  • tailored support for families and carers,
  • peer connections.

Phase 2/4

Co-design

Transplant journey map

• Collaborative mapping of patients' lung transplant experience
• Journey map became the foundation for structuring the information suite across formats (print, digital, video).

Staff Workshops

• Facilitated co-design sessions with transplant team:
  • Physicians
  • Pre and post transplant nurses
  • Surgeons
  • Pharmacists
  • Physiotherapists
  • Dietitians
  • Psychologists
  • Social Workers
  • Palliative Care
    
    
• Workshops helped identify critical timing for information delivery and aligned patient needs with staff workflows

Design Principles

Phase 3/4

Concepts & Prototyping

Card sorting with patients

• Engaging patients in reviewing and sorting content chunks across (at that time) seven transplant stages
• Most valuable insights have been their preferred timing for information chunks at each stage

Paper prototyping

• Exploration of the role of a website as a central information resource
• Low-fidelity wireframes focus on early narratives and usability patterns
  

Vision storyboard

This animated UX storyboard helped communicate the vision for a future website to the medical team. It served as a visual narrative to highlight key touchpoints for patients and care partners across their journey.

In retrospect, it proved to be a key tool in keeping the wider team engaged and excited about the outcome.

Phase 4/4

Delivery & Implementation

1. Website development

• Designed the end-to-end UX and UI in close collaboration with a content designer
• All content carefully curated and medically approved by clinical teams, aligned with NALA and HSE guidelines
• Partnered with a third-party agency to ensure technical delivery matched our design vision

My role: UX design | Figma prototyping | Design system creation | Handover to development

2. Video production

• Produced a central video series made up of 3 strands:
  • Patient stories: to foster peer connection
  • Medical explainers: to support treatment understanding and adherence
  • Care partner voices: to highlight emotional and non-medical challenges

My role: Storyboarding | On-site filming with staff and patients | Video editing in Premiere Pro

3. Booklet development

• Designed a printed patient education booklet to complement the website
• Supporting information can be accessed in clinical settings and at home

My role: Paper prototyping | Layout in InDesign

Final education system

The intervention merges medically approved written content with accessible digital formats, a printed booklet for bedside and home use, and a compelling video series that brings empathy and peer connection to the forefront—ensuring clarity, trust, and emotional support across a lifelong care pathway.

Service impact

• Supports 60+ transplant patients and families each year with consistent, lifelong access to trusted information.
  
  

• Ireland’s first digital education platform for national lung transplant care.
  
  

• Sets a new standard for clear, empathetic patient education in lifelong care pathways.
  
  

• A scalable model for other complex specialties (eg. heart transplant) or chronic desease care (eg. diabetes)