Human problem · Emergency care
Public Access AED
Helping untrained bystanders act with confidence in the first minutes of cardiac arrest.
Role: Interaction design · usability lead, then head of design
The human problem
More than 350,000 people in the US have a sudden cardiac arrest outside a hospital each year. Survival depends on someone nearby acting in the first few minutes, and most bystanders are afraid to try. They worry about doing it wrong, hurting someone, or touching a device they have never seen.
The goal was a device so clear that anyone could use it. We also looked beyond the rescue itself, to how an AED is bought, set up, kept ready and replaced.
Chapter 01
A device that guides without words
I was involved from the program’s earliest concepts, designing the screen workflows. Later, as head of design, I returned to a program in flux, reset how the UX team worked, and reestablished shared norms and history.
We explored how the device could guide a frightened user step by step. The pads became part of the interface: lights show where each one goes. A single lit panel walks through the rescue in sequence, from calling EMS and removing clothing to placing pads, standing clear and delivering a shock. We tested with real people handling real packaging, and watched where they hesitated.
Chapter 02
Setup and readiness
ConceptAn AED that isn’t ready fails no matter how good its design is. We designed a connected setup experience across the device, its voice prompts and a companion app, including what happens when the connection fails: tips, retries, and a handoff to support. These concepts were validated with users but did not ship.
Chapter 03
Beyond the device
We prototyped augmented reality guidance that shows a bystander where to place pads, first on a foam torso at home, then as a working phone prototype. It stayed a concept prototype and did not ship.
Outcomes
- Validated guidance, setup and readiness concepts with real users.
- Built an interdisciplinary design team across four geographies.
- Created connected setup and augmented-reality concepts that remained unshipped exploration.
What I learned
This program taught me to move from individual contributor to design leader. It also taught me that timing matters as much as quality: decisions have to be scoped, grounded in data and made quickly enough to reach the market.