If there's nobody around who knows CPR when a cardiac arrest occurs, the person suffering from it will most likely die. We set out on a quest together with Karolinska Institutet to increase cardiac arrest surrvival outside hospitals, with the help of mobile phone technology.
There was a text-based system already in place and people using it were called SMS lifesavers. We begun our work with in-depth interviews to better understand the SMS lifesavers' needs. This understanding was our foundation for evolving the experience of the solution.
One of the starting points in the design process was to come up with a solution that could be executed as quickly as possible. After making rough paper sketches of the central flows in the app, the design work continued directly in a prototype.
We iterated sketched, prototyped and tested in many loops to get our priorities right. It was not an easy task. We needed to find a visual framework that was as simple as possible not to distract from the primary information.
In the end, the SMS lifesaver was developed into a service integrated with SOS alarm. Every time someone calls SOS alarm and reports a cardiac arrest, a notification is sent out to more than 13 000 SMS lifesavers.
Thankfully, cardiac arrests are not something that happens every day in your neighbourhood. But due to the SMS lifesaver service, if it happens, a lifesaver is on his or her way.
