Background

Through ongoing work with immunization information systems in multiple LMICs, the OpenLMIS team has seeing a consistency in requests coming from EPI programs and their partners regarding the functionality and reporting needed to manage vaccine logistics and program data.

These requests include a common need across countries for flexible vaccine data collection tools, a consolidated view of vaccine logistics data, cold chain inventory management, and vaccine stock management.

As such, VillageReach (with support from the Gates Foundation) is leading development of a set of vaccine-specific features to be incorporated into the core OpenLMIS software. This vaccine functionality will provide configurable, globally-applicable tools for EPI programs to address their logistics management needs.

VillageReach is leading a number of activities in support of this important work, one of which will be a User Design Workshop to take place July 19 - 21. This workshop will be an opportunity for VillageReach and the OpenLMIS software development team to collect feedback from country EPI staff on specific user needs and for participants to work together within the design framework to inform the optimal user experience for the OpenLMIS vaccine functionality system.

Workshop Details

High-level requirements gathering and prioritization for OpenLMIS vaccine functionality is taking place in partnership with global vaccine stakeholders from March – May 2017, and refinement of these features in preparation for software development will begin in mid-May. In addition to understanding high-level system functionality needs, the OpenLMIS team will also conduct activities focused on designing appropriate user interfaces (UI) for the end users of the software. Without incorporating user needs into the design of the OpenLMIS tool, the system will not be successful in improving existing EPI logistics processes.

In order to address user needs and ensure relevancy for a variety of country users, VillageReach will conduct this user design workshop in Dakar, Senegal to work with country-level users to co-create the user experience for vaccine functionality. VillageReach will facilitate the workshop in French and will lead participants through various design activities over the course of the three days.

Sought Participants

VillageReach would like to invite two EPI staff members from each collaborating country to participate in the workshop. In order to capture user needs at multiple levels within the country’s vaccine system, we ask that two different types of users should be represented. These two participants should be:

1. An EPI logistics officer, and
2. An “end user,” someone who is conducting initial data collection for vaccine management. (Such as a facility CCE manager, a pharmacist, facility store room manager, etc.)

This way we will be able to work across the levels of the system and co-design user experiences to fit the variety of needs.

User Experience Goals

Designing relevant and useful user experiences involves participatory, interactive activities that aim to identify and address needs and challenges. The outcome of this work will be recommendations on how each screen of the OpenLMIS software should look, what the best page layout should be, what kind of workflow a user must go through to complete their different duties, and how information should be presented to be most useful to each type of user.

The workshop will be conducted using theories of user-centered design (UCD), and in addition to taking part in the activities related specifically to vaccine functionality, participants will receive a foundational introduction to general design process. This will be important to the activities of the workshop but will also prove educational for any participants interested in incorporating more design theory into their system work.

Outcome

The outcome of this 3-day workshop will be a set of design recommendations, mock-ups, and user personas (idealized system users) that will directly inform development of the user interface for the OpenLMIS vaccine functionality.

Agenda

A high-level agenda along with additional information on workshop objectives and user centered design theory will be made public by June 14. 

Link to working Agenda (currently internal only) :

/wiki/spaces/OP/pages/113287034