AssistAlly

First Aid Assistance AI App

Project Overview

Problem Context

The Laerdal 2024 Student Service Design Challenge brief seeks to create systems which address time-critical emergencies, highlighting that time-critical emergencies can happen anywhere, and most people don’t feel confident enough to step in. Through the research, I learned that people genuinely want to help, but often hesitate because they’re unsure what to do or worried about making the situation worse. This became the main issue I focused on for the project.

Goal

The goal was to explore how I could help people feel more confident and prepared for emergency situations—not just in the moment, but beforehand. I aimed to develop a prototype that combined real-time guidance with simple health-tracking features to support ongoing awareness and readiness.

Solution

A Figma prototype concept called Assist Ally—an AI-assisted concept that offers step-by-step emergency guidance along with simple health-tracking features. The idea was to show how everyday monitoring and real-time support could work together to help people feel more prepared and confident.

Project Type

UX/UI, Research, Branding, Prototyping, User Testing

My Role

UX/U Designe

Tools

Figma, Adobe Illustrator,
Maze co

Duration

12 weeks
June 2024-August 2024

Project Type

UX/UI, Research, Branding, Prototyping, User Testing

My Role

UX/U Designe

Tools

Figma, Aseprite,

Adobe Illustrator,
Maze co

Duration

12 weeks
June 2024-August 2024

The Solution

Help when it matters most

Users can access AssistAlly during emergencies to get step-by-step guidance. The app starts with a basic symptom check, then walks the user through more specific actions—like providing stroke first aid or guiding CPR if someone is unresponsive. It also contacts first responders immediately, shares an ETA, and offers real-time instructions, with the option to speak directly to emergency services or report new symptoms.

Know your health, stay prepared

Users can create profiles that list their allergies, medications, and health conditions. This helps ensure a more accurate and informed response if they’re ever involved in a medical emergency, while also supporting ongoing health tracking.

Want to see how it came together?

The full design journey, including research, iterations, and testing, is best explored on desktop.

Research & Insights

Challenge Statement

I created the above challenge statement in response to the brief. It shows how big the issue really is, the difficulties faced by communities — especially in regional and remote areas — and the ongoing challenge of helping people build stronger first-aid knowledge.
By brainstorming this statement, I was able to consider multiple ideas on how to address the brief, with the five main concepts being:

AI Medical Assistance: This AI companion offers personalised alerts, contacts local health teams during emergencies, and provides symptom analysis and emergency guidance.

Community Platform: A platform is a community-driven information hub that enhances local communication, preparedness, and response in emergencies by leveraging local knowledge and resources.

Children's Show: An educational animated TV show called "The Rescue Rangers!" for children aged 4-12. The show follows Ms. Magpie and her team as they navigate emergencies and help their community.

First Aid Kit Service: Module based first aid kit complete with region-specific fact sheets on how to treat injuries caused by the wildlife you might encounter.

Pop Up First Aid Training: This concepts aims to empower the local community with accessible, affordable, and engaging first aid training through pop-up stands/stalls in public places.

Persona

Based on responses from survey sent to family and friends, this persona allowed me to to better understand the situations and pressures users experience when dealing with time-critical emergencies. It helped clarify what features would genuinely support them and what barriers needed to be addressed in the design.

User Journey Map

The user journey map helped me break down each stage of the user experience as they discovered and use the AssistAlly app , highlighting the actions the users took, where they became frustrated, and where key opportunities for improvement emerged

Competitor Analysis

Ideation

Concept Brainstorming

Research showed that, even in the presence of resources, people's capacity to manage life-threatening medical situations efficiently is frequently restricted. To tackle this, I thought about how an AI help app could offer precise and fast guidance in times of need.

The intention is to provide people with the skills and self-assurance needed to handle medical crises in an efficient manner, improving results and maybe saving lives.

User Flows

The main scenario that I decided to map out was for when a user becomes involved in a time-critical emergency, specifically a medical one.

Users can access the app when needing assistance in an emergency. The AI app will:

Assist the user to go through a inital symptom checker to determined the best response to the emergency

Upon the user clicking yes to a symptom, the app will take the user through a more specific list of symptoms e.g. Stroke symptoms if user has responded yes to experiencing numbness or weakness in the face, arm or leg or commence CPR if the person is unresponsive and not breathing normally.

User Flows

In the case when the user confirms that the person is experiencing the specific symptoms, e.g., stroke symptoms, the App will confirm this and provide first aid advice, as well as contact first responders immediately on their behalf with an ETA.

The user will receive first aid instructions on how to manage the specific condition while awaiting for first responders; the user will also have the option to speak directly to a 000 operator as well as report any new symptom.

This flow ensures users can have access to support while dealing with a stressful and time critical situation.

Visual Design

Typography

For AssistAlly, the typography needed to feel friendly and easy to read. I chose Alata for the body text because it strikes a balance between warmth and a clean, professional look. Dongle complements it with a similar tone, making it a strong choice for headings and titles throughout the app.

Colour Palette

Research shows that blue is often linked to feelings of trust, stability, and calmness. Darker shades also bring a more formal and professional feel, which makes them a great fit for a health and wellness app.

Mascot Design

Ally the Quokka was designed to bring a friendly, happy, and energetic face to AssistAlly. Playing on the word “ally” (meaning support or friend), Ally is a caring quokka nurse whose goal is to guide and support people during emergencies

Final Logo Design

With Ally the Quokka’s friendly face, supported by the Red Cross symbol—widely recognised as a sign of first aid—and a clean, simple wordmark, the final AssistAlly logo brings together both professionalism and friendliness.

User Testing

Maze.co Platform

The scenarios that were tested were:

An emergency scenario – involving the user going to through the emergency feature of AssistAlly.
Sign up to AssistAlly Health Dashboard – involving the user (Jen) signing up to the health dashboard.

Maze provided valuable data around completion rates and task duration, as well as incorporating a post testing user survey.

Maze.co Platform

AssistAlly is a combination between a health companion and a real-time medical assistant. Given the various use cases for this application, I identified and converged on the two most likely scenarios (as shown in the Solution Section). I then developed these scenarios to construct interactive prototypes using a combination of Figma and UX/UI analytical tool Maze.co