Tommaso Poggi,
Pablo Blumer
OCT 2025 - JUN 2026
ORION
Kispi's Emergency Department sees over 40,000 patients a year and is the hospital's busiest entry point, with over 70% of all patients passing through it.
We were first asked to solve a wayfinding problem: patients and staff both getting lost in the corridors.
But research revealed a bigger issue. Staff constantly escort patients through the hospital, which hides the wayfinding problem, but also masks something deeper: a lack of understanding, long waiting times, uncertainty about next steps and procedures, and a real feeling of losing control and being forgotten.
Orion is a dedicated device developed with Kispi, the Children's Hospital in Zurich, for their Emergency Department, built to make a hospital stay feel less disorienting, restoring a sense of control during deeply stressful and overwhelming moments.
INTRODUCTION
ORION - DETAIL
ORION - SETUP
We grouped what we learned from the interviews into clear patient needs, categorized them, and built a mode for each category.
Restoration Mode brings structure to the wait: schedules, procedures, what's coming next.
Exploration Mode helps patients get their bearings within the hospital itself.
Navigation Mode guides them, step by step, to where they need to be.
Together, the three turn Orion from a simple wayfinding tool into a steady presence throughout the visit.
STRATEGY
Overview
Patients
Staff
Recurring Questions
Mood
MODES: FEATURES AND DYNAMICS
MODES AND UI
For the UI and controls, our priority was accessibility.
The same simple actions repeat across all three modes, so learning one screen means learning them all. Controls use high affordance, keeping the learning curve low, and information stays understandable at a glance.
Making sure users always understood what mode was active mattered to us. To work towards that, we implemented an animated UI element (a pigeon, chosen for wayfinding ability and solving complex problems), which signals the current active mode and eases the UI's transition from one mode to the other, making the service and screen flow easier to follow.
Finally, even though it's usually the parents who operate the device, Orion still needed to sit properly in a setting like a children's hospital: approachable, calm, not clinical.
OUTCOME
MODE ANIMATION WITH TRANSITIONS
DESIGN SYSTEM WITH MICRO-INTERACTIONS
Pablo and I worked together over the majority of the project: from the research, the prototyping and testing, the product design and feel together with the control affordance and testing, the UI components and screens, and the visual identity research.
We built the components, final UI and prototypes in Figma; visuals and illustrations in Illustrator and Procreate; animations in After Effects; the device and component models in Blender; and the exhibition setup in ProtoPie.
EXECUTION
DESIGN DEVICE WITH SPECIFICS
DESIGN CONTROLS
KISPI - Emergency Department
A kid has hurt themselves playing football.
At the reception they're given Orion
for assistance through their 4 hours stay.
Click any moment in the timeline
to explore their experience
1h
Entrance
2h
3h
Discharge
