Make the stakes
feel real.
Sepsis training is often a list of criteria to memorise. The client wanted something that changed behaviour — a module where clinicians practised the actual decision: notice the early signs, escalate in time, or watch a manageable situation become a crisis.
That meant a scenario with consequences. Choices had to branch into meaningfully different outcomes, with time pressure that mirrored the ward, and debriefs that explained why a path went the way it did.
It also had to stay rigorously accessible — a timed, branching interaction that still works fully by keyboard and screen reader.
One patient,
many endings.
Selected screens.
On-brand mockups — illustrative of the build style, not client screenshots.
How it came together.
Rather than teach the sepsis criteria and then test them, the module drops the learner straight into a shift. A single patient's condition evolves in response to their decisions, so the criteria are learned in the place they'll actually be used — under mild time pressure, with incomplete information.
Each ending is followed by a debrief that connects the outcome back to the clinical reasoning, turning even a "wrong" path into a teaching moment.
Storyline drove the branching logic, with variables tracking the quality of decisions across the scenario rather than a single end-of-module score. A restrained countdown created urgency without panic, and the interface kept the obs chart visible so learners reasoned from data, not memory.
Visually, a calm clinical palette with the Luna accent system kept the focus on the patient. Motion was minimal and purposeful — a pulse on changing vitals, a gentle transition between scenes.
Timed, branching interactions are exactly the kind that often quietly exclude learners using assistive technology. Keeping the scenario fully keyboard-operable and screen-reader friendly — without softening the time pressure that made it effective — took deliberate design and testing.
Balancing realism with fairness was the other challenge: paths had to feel consequential without punishing reasonable judgement calls, so the debriefs do real work explaining nuance.