Project Overview

In the age of reviews, social media, and the ‘customer is always right’ people have a high expectation when it comes to the services they are paying for. Healthcare is no exception. if a doctor has a god complex or poor beside manner people are going to sound off about it. I set out to find out what are the pain points people have when it comes to their healthcare, and design a product to address them.

Role

UX Researcher

UX/UI Designer

Product

Responsive Site

Time

2 months

Problematic

Going to the doctor is expensive and time consuming. Patients that have concerns or questions after an appointment have to start the process over. There is no express lane for them. The result is making a new appointment, going to the doctors office, and paying another co-fee. Patients need a way to follow up with their health care provider after an appointment.

Winning

AllyCare, an app that allows patients to schedule a follow up call with their healthcare professional as well as receive live chat support.

Product/ IRL

The flow below shows a new user creating an account, scheduling a call back from a healthcare provider, as well as sending a message via chat to their healthcare provider.

City MD

  • • Ability to pay bill

    • Request medical services

  • No app

  • • Not able to message doctor

    • Not able to fill prescription

Looking Outward

I did a competitive analysis to see what healthcare providers were doing to address communication issues. I was particularly interested in one medical because they are branded as a new age healthcare provider that leverages technology to provide a better patient experience.

one medical

  • • Connect to care 24/7

    • On-demand care over video

  • • Renew prescriptions, book appointments, Message virtual care team

    • Remind you when you’re due for screenings, vaccines, or follow-up visits

  • • Not as many services provided as hospital

    • $199 a year membership

Mount Sinai

  • • Communicate with care team

    • View test results

  • • Find your way around select hospitals

    • Find a physician

    • Schedule or manage appointments

  • • No aftercare assistance program

    • No billing assistance

VIP (Very Important Perspective)

To get a better grasp on who the users were and what their specific problems were I conducted five 30 minute interviews via Zoom. The participants were in their late 20's. The feedback from the user interviews informed the personas. Below are some sample questions we asked the participant:

Are there ways to improve the medical billing process? How?

How do you follow up with your doctor after an appointment?

After leaving the doctor’s office, what’s on your to-do list?

Digging in the Data

Once the interviews were complete I compiled the data and made an affinity map. The affinity map allowed me to see what themes were occurring. The participants feedback was split up into six categories:

Treatment plan, contacting care team, things we like, things we do not like, feeling cared for, what’s working with billing, what’s not working with billing.

Findings

Contacting Care Team

What users like

Billing

The pain points expressed in the user interviews revolved around feeling helpless, not feeling cared for, and the billing process. Due to all the variables involved with medical billing and the time constrains of this project; I opted to address the first two pain points and leave billing for a separate project.

• People are not able to get a hold of their doctor and have to speak to nurse or office staff.

• People would like a way to contact their doctor digitally.

• Online portal where people can see test results, notes from doctor visits, and schedule appointments.

• Ability to call or text doctor to ask a quick question.

• People would like to know how much the medical service is going to cost prior to receiving treatment.

• Multiple people have had experiences of a surprise bill in the mail.

Pulse on the issue

I would like to explore ways to help people concerned about their health directly contact their doctor.

Personas

The personas goals, pain points, and needs are representative of the users interviewed. Keep the personas at top of mind ensured that the features of the product would address the users pain points.

Site Map

Using Optimal Workshop I performed a card sorting exercise with five participants. The sitemap was informed by the card sorting feedback as well as the pain points and user personas.

Branding

I selected a color palette of blues, greens, and purples because they are often associated with calmness, relaxation, and freshness. I wanted people to associate positive feelings with the website.

For the typography I wanted a font that was easy to read on desktop and mobile as well as something that was professional and clean. I looked for fonts that had a tall X and lots of variations with the weight.

Usability Testing

The usability testing was performed over Zoom with four participants. I had the participants share their screen and I provided them with two tasks to complete: Schedule a call back with their health care provider and send a question to their health care provider. I asked the participants to provide commentary as they were going through the tasks to get more insight into the UX and UI. The feedback from the usability testing was split up into 4 categories.

What Worked

What Could be Changed

Questions Raised

Suggestions

• Placement of chat icon and chat flow

• Account set up does not involve a lot of steps

• There could be some potential accessibility issues with the login screens.

• Add a calendar drop down in case someone wants to select a date in the distant future for call back.

• There could be some potential accessibility issues with the login screens.

• Add a calendar drop down in case someone wants to select a date in the distant future for call back.

• After making selections of symptoms, display the selected symptoms

• Add arrows to the appt times to show the user that you can scroll to the right for more appt times. It would match the pattern.

Before

Iteration

Before

The feedback from the usability testing was implemented below.

Added white background to prevent accessibility issues

Added available appointments

After

After

Added title to Chat icon

Added ‘Last Seen’ date

Hi-Fi Wireframes

Impact

$400

Saved on co-pays

80 Hours

Saved not having to commute to the doctors office or wait for call backs

0

Worries