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SAARTHI

Project: India's first grassroots hemophilia care assistant

Description: Saarthi is a lightweight internal platform helping NGO workers track, coordinate, and respond to hemophilia care needs in low-tech areas.

Org: Hemophilia Federation India (HFI) — Delhi-based NGO with 1000+ field workers

Team: 1 PM • 1 Developer • 1 Designer (me!)

Timeline: September 2022 – March 2023

Role: UX/Product Designer (Infusion Tracking, Emergency Assist)

Headquarters

HFI, Delhi , india

Founded

1983

Industry

NGO

Skills

UX Research
Prototyping
Interface Design
Localisation
Usability Testing

Company size

1,000+

Overview

Saarthi began with a simple but urgent idea: How do we empower NGO workers to provide life-saving hemophilia care in India's most under-connected and under-resourced regions?

There was no fast, local-language, and low-tech-friendly digital tool available to track patient care, log infusions, or respond to emergencies.

This gap in patient management at the grassroots level became our starting point for Saarthi.

Solution

Saarthi: An offline-first mobile assistant for NGO workers to track infusions, manage patient profiles, and respond swiftly in emergencies.

We asked:

How might we help field workers track and coordinate hemophilia care, even with limited connectivity or training?

Outcomes

Saarthi has been rolled out across 3 states and is currently being used in 150+ camps. Results from MVP testing:

Initial Observations

Hemophilia care in rural India is chaotic and manual:

Patient info split across WhatsApp, paper diaries, or memory
Emergency help requires slow manual coordination
Existing digital tools are too complex, English-heavy, and hospital-centric

Our key insight came during shadowing: NGO workers are improvising with voice notes, sticky notes, and ad-hoc calls. They need something designed for them, not repurposed.

Becoming My Users

I joined our team during field research, visiting 5 hemophilia camps and shadowing 12 volunteers. I observed firsthand how records were juggled between WhatsApp, ledgers, and memory.

I even tried helping log an infusion manually and realized how high-stakes and slow the existing process was.

I didn’t know much about hemophilia..
So I learned !

Field Insights

Speaking to NGO staff, we uncovered 3 key pain points:

🔹 Not Designed for Them
Existing tools were overly complex, English-only, and built for hospitals—not grassroots work.

🔹 Disconnected Information
Infusion history, treatment centres, and patient status were scattered across WhatsApp, diaries, and memory.

🔹 No Real-Time Response
Emergencies required manual phone trees and paperwork, delaying action.

Market & Context Research

EXISTING TOOLS

Most digital health platforms are:

Built for hospitals, not field workers
English-only
Dependent on stable internet
TRAINING PROGRAMS
Training for NGO workers is irregular, mostly in-person, and doesn’t equip them with digital tools that work offline.
LOCAL WORKFLOWS
Emergency response involves phone trees, paper forms, and unclear communication. We saw one case where help arrived 20 minutes late due to coordination delays.

Existing Hemophilia Care Tool Analysis

We studied existing hospital systems and digital health apps. All had one thing in common: They weren’t designed for low-connectivity or low-literacy environments

Solution Exploration

We asked:

What if we created a mobile assistant that worked offline and in local languages — with clear, tappable cards and one-tap emergency actions?

We asked:

From that spark, wireframing began.

We prioritized:

Icon + label structure
Offline data storage + sync
Local-language UI (Hindi + Tamil for MVP)

Final Design

We kept the interface extremely simple:

Color-coded tiles based on severity
Easy tap-to-log infusions
GPS-enabled Emergency Assist
Clear categories for Aid, Insurance, Visits, and Reports

Set severity in patient profile
Log infusions in 60 seconds
Send emergency alert in one tap

Core Modules

After a design jam and journey mapping session, I distilled the tool into

6 field-friendly modules:

🔹 Patient Profiles – Demographics, diagnosis, severity tag, assigned center

🔹 Infusion Log – Quick tap to log dose, factor batch, time, admin method

🔹 Emergency Assist – One-tap alert with GPS + auto-notify coordinator

🔹 Aid & Insurance – Pre-filled PM-JAY forms, Aadhar uploads, real-time status

🔹 Volunteer Log – Route planner, visit checklists, visit time

🔹 Reports – Auto-generated PDFs of treatment status and vial inventory

Information Architecture: Based on the research findings, we restructured the Saarthi's navigation and content, prioritising features and information according to user needs.

Wire-framing & Prototyping: We designed low-fidelity wireframes to visualise the new layout and navigation, iteratively refining them based on user feedback. Afterward, we built a high-fidelity, interactive prototype to test the design.

Usability Testing: We conducted usability tests with a diverse group of users(150+) to validate the design and identify areas for improvement. Based on the feedback, we made necessary adjustments to the design.

Visual Design & Style Guide: We developed a cohesive visual language, including colour schemes, typography, and iconography, ensuring consistency throughout the tool. We also created a style guide to maintain design consistency in future updates.

Information Architecture: Based on the research findings, we restructured the Saarthi's navigation and content, prioritising features and information according to user needs.

Key UX Decisions (and Why)

Infusion Tracking – From 5 mins to < 60 secs

Before: Volunteers filled long paper forms, then called supervisors to update records
After: Tap “Log Infusion” → Select preloaded factor → Auto-filled timestamp & ID

Emergency Flow – One Tap, Real Impact

❌ Before: Phone trees, form filling, panic
✅ After: Tap “Alert” → GPS locates patient → Notifies ambulance + auto-generated report sent via SMS

Why this mattered ?

84% faster incident response
Critical in areas with no stable internet

Usability Testing & Iteration

We tested clickable prototypes in Hindi and Tamil with 150+ NGO workers (literacy range: class 6 to graduate-level).

Top insights that shaped the product:

Insight What We Changed

Button positions were confusing Re-aligned based on RTL

“Donate” felt ambiguous Replaced to “Donate” with Blue 500

Users hesitated with multi-step forms Combined fields into tappable cards

Purpose:

Clear categories for ease of use even on low-literacy teams
Icon + Label for faster understanding

Starting With The Patient Summary

We designed the profile to be:

Color-coded by severity (mild/moderate/severe)
Tappable summary tiles for infusion frequency, last visit, aid status
Minimal text + icon-based cues

Infusion Tracking Flow

Instead of navigating 3 pages, a volunteer can now:

Tap "Log Infusion"
Select preloaded factor brand
Auto-fill timestamp and batch ID

This reduced tracking time from ~5 mins to under 60 seconds.

Emergency Flow

When a patient bleeds internally:

Tap "Emergency Alert"
Auto-notify nearest ambulance team + staff
Pre-filled report sent via SMS + syncs online

Minimal Viable Product

Dashboard

“ Saarthi isn't just a system—it's a reliable partner in the journey of hemophilia care, bringing confidence and coordination to the people who need it most.. ”

Pawan

CEO,| Hemophilia Federation India

Reflections

Designing for constraint is liberating
What seemed like limitations (low-end phones, no Wifi) helped us strip things to the essential and users loved the simplicity.

Localisation isn’t just translation
Icons, field names, even button positions mattered. We tested designs in Hindi and Tamil, which brought huge usability insights.

Advocating for design in NGOs
Working with an operations-led team meant pushing for design-led decisions. Sharing usability test recordings helped win buy-in.