Refining existing healthcare apps
to meet user demands
Role:
UX/UI Designer - From research through to delivery.
Tools:
Figma, Lyssna, Optimal Workshop, Microsoft Excel, Google Forms
Project Overview
As more people work from home and the work-life balance has changed dramatically throughout the past several years, so has the way people interact with healthcare professionals. People now look for convenience, and options that fit their schedule.
Virtual care can help improve the lives of many people whether that is those working 9-5 or working irregular hours, families with kids, elderlies, or people living in rural and remote areas.
Problem
There are several existing healthcare apps which already make online healthcare treatment accessible to people. However, some features of these existing apps are not satisfying user needs and currently there isn’t an app that provides a centralized administration system.
User Frustration
1. Finding the appropriate doctor is difficult
2. Online booking process is complex
3. Payment process is confusing
4. Process of consulting medical results is not efficient
Solution
Develop an all-in-one healthcare app which makes healthcare accessible for everyone and provides differentiating features versus competing healthcare apps.
User Needs
1. Access to doctor reviews and search filtering options
2. Improving the learnability of the app
3. Simplify the payment process
4. Receive & store medical results on the app
Final Design
Mockups
Below are the high-fidelity output screens showing the final product. These designs were developed following the design process described after the below mockup section.
1. Onboarding
The app welcomes the user with an onboarding that shows a brief introduction to the app.
2. Homepage
Once signed in, the homepage shows the latest health news, your next appointment, and access to six main buttons to access your medical information.
3. Filter search & Reviews
Users can filter their search and check the reviews when looking for doctors so that they can get the most accurate results to save time and cost. It allows users to refine their search by criteria such as gender, availability, opening hours, type of consultations, and other information as seen below.
4. Booking an appointment
FastDoc makes it easy for users to book appointments that align with their schedules.
5. Payment
After confirming the details of the appointment, users can make a payment in simple steps. A payment confirmation note will show on completion.
6. Medical results
Having users receive their medical exam results through the app, allows users to skip all the back-and-forth process of calling the clinic to get their results. No more worrying about missed calls or going to the clinic to get your results from the doctor.
FastDoc App Walkthrough
Part 1: Discovery
Competitive analysis &
user findings
The below processes were carried out in order to gather intelligence regarding the features users are lacking in existing, competing healthcare apps. By focusing on these features, FastDoc will be able to provide a differentiating service offering and provide a better solution to users.
User interviews
Affinity mapping
Card sorting
Key takeaways:
Existing healthcare platforms are complex, emphasizing the need for a simple interface to enhance the overall user experience.
Users wish to be able to filter search medical practitioners and consult patient reviews, which would help them book the appropriate doctor.
Users find the online booking process and payment flow not user friendly.
Users wish to be able to consult medical examination results and medical records directly from the healthcare app which shall be stored in the app for future reference.
The above key feedback points raised by users of existing healthcare apps will be the areas of focus in developing the FastDoc app.
Part 2: Creating the design
Storyboarding
The below storyboard sketch illustrates how the above findings from the research insights turned into visual stories to keep ideas visible.
BIG PICTURE
CLOSE UP
Low & Mid-Fidelity Wireframes
The competitive analysis & user findings summarized above provide an insight to the key features users would want to see in a new healthcare app. As such, in developing FastDoc I have focused on developing the below 4 features which will differentiate FastDoc to existing healthcare apps. Drafting low-fidelity sketches allowed for rapid iteration.
1. Filter search & reviews
2. Booking an appointment
3. Making a payment
4. Checking medical results
Low-fidelity wireframes were then converted to mid-fidelity wireframes on Figma and ensured my designs remained user-centric as they took shape. This iterative process allowed me to visualize areas for improvement, simplifying designs to enhance user experience.
Part 3: Usability Testing & Iterations
Testing the prototype
As a next step, I mocked up a clickable prototype using Figma where the goal of the usability test was to evaluate how the participants utilize the mobile app for the first time. The goal is to assess if the prototype is intuitive to use and if the included features satisfy user requirements.
I used an affinity map to organize information into observations, positive and negative comments, and errors. I then analyzed these insights using a rainbow spreadsheet and prioritized each error by using Jakob Nielsen’s error severity rating scale.
(View rainbow spreadsheet here.)
Design Iterations
Design iterations were made for the ones with the highest error ratings.
These were the top 5 issues with high error ratings:
Issue 1: ‘Sign up’ button difficult to find
Issue 2: ‘Patient’ / ‘Practices’ page confusing
Issue 3: Onboarding pages confusing and unclear
Issue 4: Too many ‘appointment’ buttons on homepage
Issue 5: ‘Medical results’ page difficult to find
Part 4: Polishing the design
High-fidelity prototype
The app took shape following an iterative process to enhance the features and visuals. After design iterations from previous findings, another usability testing was done with the high-fidelity prototype to polish the final design.
Part 5: Metrics & Learnings
Measuring Success Metrics
It is important to define KPIs to evaluate the success of FastDoc. Monitoring the following metrics will help us understand the performance of the app and learn what we can improve.
1. Number of new users
2. Number of online consultations booked
3. User satisfaction - Net Promoter Score (NPS) & Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
4. Retention rate
Learnings
Understanding the frustrations the users had with the current existing healthcare apps was extremely important in order to improve making a new app.
There will always be areas of improvement and it is important to note when doing usability testing to include all type of users and those with different levels of technical ability or types of disabilities.
1. People experience an app journey differently
2. Design is a continuously iterative process
3. The designer shall remain objective and strive to respond to the needs of the Persona while refraining from satisfying its own preferences.