Designing the Storyboard for the SmartShifa Application to Support Learning Arabic Communication in Healthcare Settings

The growing number of Arabic-speaking patients seeking treatment in Malaysia has increased the demand for effective communication support in healthcare settings. However, public relations officers often have limited proficiency in Arabic, creating communication gaps during patient registration, consultation, and follow-up. This has created a need for a structured Arabic-language learning tool tailored specifically to the healthcare communication context. This study addresses this gap by designing the storyboard for SmartShifa, a mobile application intended to support public relations officers in learning practical Arabic communication skills. The study aims to extract essential storyboard elements from previous research and design a structured storyboard as part of the Design and Development Research (DDR) approach. A qualitative research design was employed, using content analysis to identify storyboard elements from selected literature, guided by the PRISMA model for systematic paper selection. Findings show that effective storyboards require key elements such as homepage design, navigation structure, user interface layout, instructional modules, and interactive exercises. These elements were systematically incorporated into three storyboard stages—thumbnail, rough storyboard, and clean-up storyboard—to produce a structured, content-appropriate design blueprint for SmartShifa, laying the foundation for future development of the application.

Application, Arabic Communication, Design, Storyboard, Healthcare

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