PortCAS : Low-Cost Gamified Laparoscopic Surgery Training

Role: Product Designer

PortCAS was a UNMC-developed prototype for an inexpensive virtual laparoscopic training simulator. The vision was to have an affordable device for increasing student skill. I was the visual lead on the project, helping set the vision as well as figuring out the analytics platform attached to the simulator environment so students and instructors could review performance.

The Problem:

The UNMC team had uncovered four primary pain points for students and schools:

  • Current trainers are cost prohibitive (one machine is north of $100,000)

  • Because of the expense, there are a limited number of machines available to students in the training lab. In fact, many schools only have one, which makes practice hard as the the students have to share.

  • Lower-cost training aids exist, but they are completely analog and lack any sort of performance feedback

  • Lack of feedback and low accessibility means little incentive for students to practice regularly

UNMC’s team had the hardware side covered, with real-time motion tracking allowing an inexpensive mechanical setup to interface with a virtual exercise environment. Their goal on the software side was to A) create a gamified experience during the exercises, and B) have an analytics dashboard for students and teachers to see their progress.

I met with their medical training team and got to spend some hands-on time using the instruments and seeing how training was handled currently. I also got to talk with several students about their training experience thus far.

During an exercise, the student would be focusing on the tools but still needed to see how the were doing on speed and steadiness. I opted for a simple color-coded design that could be read when being viewed in your peripheral vision. Since motion and color are really the only thing you can process outside your main focus, I relied on a combination of bar length and bold color to indicate status. That way you could track your movements without breaking concentration.

I added several small affordances to the UI as well, taking cues from the video game world. For instance, when one of the bars reaches a critical level, a slight reddish vignette overlay appears. And since there’s no tactile feedback when a tool makes contact with the virtual ring, the tool turns green to indicate it can be grabbed.

On the analytics side, UNMC wanted a web-based dashboard that could serve both students and instructors. Key metrics were all tracked separately, then aggregated into a master score for class ranking purposes.

Instructors could also watch the recorded sessions and provide feedback on specific moments of playback.

Students would use the dashboard to take the practice sessions as well as see their results and feedback from the professors.

All of the mockups were delivered to the dev team with detailed interaction notes. I worked closely with engineering throughout the prototyping process to ensure everything stayed in line with UNMC’s vision. The final product was delivered right on schedule and successfully displayed at UNMC’s tech demo day. It was so gratifying to see the product in action!

I wish I would have had a chance to build out more of the exercises and expand the analytics dashboard, but Aviture’s engagement was only through demo day prototype.

Looking back, if I had another shot at this project I would have gone with an even simpler interface. I was a less experienced designer back then and I see several areas where I could have optimized the UI significantly. For instance, I’d have gone with larger indication areas for speed and steadiness and moved them to the sides of the screen so the exercise work area was more centered. I’d have also made use of sound design for more of the feedback elements, making it easier for the student to focus on the task and not be visually distracted.