RA Digital Immersion: The Intersection of Dynamic Design and Patient Education
Sharecare
Sharecare was challenged by one of its most forward-thinking partners to develop an innovative experience to empower Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) patients suffering through pain to take action to control their symptoms by discussing a new treatment with their doctor.
To show how RA symptoms can profoundly impact everyday life, Sharecare used compelling visuals and new storytelling techniques to showcase why RA causes swelling, pain, inflammation, stiffness, and even issues in the heart and lungs. By humanizing the biological details of what happens inside of the body as well as how the disease manifests outwardly, Sharecare aimed to bridge that gap for patients with an “ah ha” moment.
In response to insights gained through RA patient interviews, focus groups, social listening, and research, the company created a continuous animation using graphics and technology to educate RA patients and caregivers. Designed to put its partners on the cutting edge of patient engagement, the experience features parallax scrolling, visually stunning medical animation, and condition management information to weave a powerful narrative about one’s health.
Parallax scrolling is a high-end design tool that incorporates depth and motion into graphics, and innovative companies such as The New York Times and Apple have utilized it in their own consumer experiences. As the patient scrolls down the RA education center on Sharecare.com, incredible visuals of the body and disease state take over the screen and begin to animate, glow, and expand across the tableau—making RA education both visual and memorable. Along the way, a narrative unfolds about how RA manifests from within the body, and how patients can take action.
Here is a step-by-step description of what users see as they scroll through the RA experience, which can be accessed on the Sharecare website:
- It starts with a visual depiction of RA, showing local symptoms over a 3D body—bringing to life the realities of swollen, warm-to-the-touch joints, stiff and painful joints, and numbness and tingling in the hands and feet.
- As the patient scrolls, the experience builds and animates even deeper into the joints and bones, first exploring how healthy joint anatomy looks through stunningly realistic renderings of the synovial membrane, cartilage, and bones so users can compare RA’s impact to a control.
- From here, Sharecare explains the physiological science of RA using a fly-through animation scene depicting how overactive/dysfunctional immune systems lead to RA, as well as the links between the immune system and RA symptoms.
- Then, users can dive deep into the progression of RA inside the joint, showing joint deterioration stage by stage—and they can even see the bones start to fuse together.
- The experience moves outside the body where users see the hands, showing realities of typical RA deformity hotspots in 3D. The user can continue scrolling to deepen their understanding of nodules, boutonniere’s deformity, swan-neck, and hitchhikers’ thumb—making the connection that these symptoms can infringe on one’s daily life when unmanaged, yet options are available to overcome this.
- The experience continues to show that RA doesn’t just impact the joints—it is systemic, with complications impacting the whole body. Users zoom and fly to the heart, blood vessels, and lungs in the avatar, completing the physical journey into the patient experience.
- The site then transitions to showcase how these internal symptoms can impact quality of life—everything from difficulty with daily chores and tasks, disruption of work and school, difficulty with movement and exercise, and challenges engaging in social activities. However, instead of focusing on the negative effects of RA, the focus transitions to a positive message that there is hope and patients CAN fight back.
- Sharecare explains breaking the cycle and taking back control starts with discussing treatment with a rheumatologist. Sharecare walks patients through ways they can take the next step and virtually introduces them to leading experts who deliver actionable tips, giving them hope that the condition can be managed through medications, procedures, physical therapy, lifestyle adjustments, and support.
- To further inspire hope, the experience seamlessly transitions into person-to-person words of encouragement—using real RA patient messages to humanize the narrative on a deeper level. It ends with a message encouraging patients to take the learnings from this powerful, visual journey to talk to their rheumatologist about a new treatment that may afford a better quality of life.
The results of using such an immersive storytelling medium to bring disease education and management to life speak for themselves. Sharecare’s highly sought medical animation experiences outperform the healthcare content category by capturing viewer attention 40% longer than the category norm.
