Imagine living on the countryside and needing a doctor. Imagine even needing a rare specialist physician. And imagine the time getting to and waiting for a doctor’s appointment. Imagine having a medical issue on a weekend or simply outside of office hours – maybe a visit to the emergency room is not necessary. Or imagine being abroad and needing trustworthy medical consultation. There are many reasons in terms of availability, time and cost why telemedicine is a useful extension to primary health care.
But also think about people not feeling comfortable with face-to-face visits. People who want a little more privacy. Who don’t want to talk about their concerns in the waiting room or even in front of the doctor.
Initial research showed me, that there is a need to combine these different demands while making people feel comfortable and secure sharing their sensitive data.
The idea for T. health care was born, an app for remote, quick and competent medical consultation, offering communication tools that meet the individual needs and a simple and clear interface, inspiring confidence.
Case Study
01 Overview
My role
UX Researcher, UX Designer, UI Designer
Scope & Duration
Web app – mobile first, Solo project, 5 months
Tools
Adobe XD, Sketch, Google Forms, Usability Hub
Work on
Product Strategy • Competitive Analysis • Business Requirements • User Stories • User Research • Persona Development • User Journeys • Task Analysis • User Flows • Information Architecture • Low Fidelity Wireframing • Mid – High Fidelity Prototyping • Usability Testing • Accessibility • Styleguide
02 The situation
Background statistics
Problem statement
People need a way to get remote, and prompt medical consultation, because they spend a lot of time waiting for and getting to doctor’s appointments, where presence isn’t always required – often under difficult conditions such as acute illness or impaired mobility. They also need different communication tools to address their individual needs, because while many prefer a quick telephone conversation, some feel uncomfortable talking with someone about their health problems.
Challenge
„How might I design an application that helps users to get remote medical advice while feeling comfortable and save?“
Solution
A web app for remote, quick and competent medical consultation, offering communication tools that meet the individual needs and a simple and clear interface, inspiring confidence.
03 Market research
Competitive analysis
Starting out with an analysis of the current market by looking at competitor marketing profiles and creating SWOT profiles, I aimed to spot opportunities and potential threats for my app.
- Key objectives – how do they stand out?
- Overall strategy – what do they focus on, and how? SEO, PR?
- Market advantages – what sets them apart from others?
Business requirements
The creation of a business requirements document helped me to compile all findings and corresponding conclusions, including the business risks and opportunities, the business objectives, and how these can be measured, as well as the overall scope of the project.
Target audience
All persons aged 35-65 years who have medical problems themselves or care for dependants.
People below or above that age demographic are assumed to be in need of a different kind of interface and content for getting medical advice.
04 User research
Online survey
To gain first insights from potential users, I conducted a survey. The quantitative data collection helped me to get a better understanding of their goals and pain points and to refine my initial product ideas.
14
Participants
14%
Have used telemedicine before
24-42
Age
Some of the key findings:
- There is a demand for receiving medical advice using the tools video call 64%, phone call 50% and chat 36%.
- 57% would want a consultation from the next available doctor or accept some waiting time for a preferred doctor, depending on the issue.
- 64% would like initial contact depending on the issue, by either speaking to a medical assistant or filling out a form themselves.
User interviews
By conducting interviews with potential users (moderated and in person) I was able to gain further qualitative and valuable insights.
- Getting a sense of their feelings and opinions on the subject of telemedical consultation
- Understanding user behavior when needing medical assistance
- Understanding the circumstances and how they would want to get telemedical help
6
Participants
12
Interview questions
3.5
Hours recording material
User research analysis
To get a better overview of the transcribed interview data, the creation of an affinity map was very helpful. I was able to form 5 clusters with the main needs and pain points of the users.
- Personalization
- Reliable information / Security
- Flexible communication tools
- Comparability
- Guidance and support
User personas
In order to better tailor the product to certain types of users, I have created the strategically most important personas. They helped me to focus on the identified goals and to keep their pain points in mind. I will limit the case study to the first persona in the following.
- The working parent
- The man of action
I was then able to reconsider my problem statement and reconcile it with the personas.
„I believe that by creating a simple web application that allows to get prompt remote medical advice for Lisa, I will achieve having Lisa get quick and professional assessments of emerging health problems in her family and make efficient use of her scarce time.“
User journeys
To get a clear picture of where Lisa comes from and what she wants to achieve with the app, the creation of journey maps was a helpful tool. With them I was able to identify opportunities to enhance her user experience with my app.
User flows
I have mapped out Lisa’s main paths through the application using various scenarios. This allowed me to focus on the flows rather than the individual pages and helped me to identify the type of pages needed in my app.
05 IA
Sitemap
I outlined the app’s structure in a sitemap and ran a (hybrid) digital card sorting test to help me understand users‘ expectations and understanding of the topics. Tool: Optimal workshop OptimalSort.
6
Participants
3
Given categories
13
Topics
The test results made a few label changes and minor adjustments to the structure necessary.
06 Prototyping
Wireframes
I started drawing simple low fidelity wireframes using pen and paper to get my thoughts structured.
Prototyping
Once I was clear about the overall structure and basic features of the pages, I moved on to a digital visualisation and linked these mid-fidelity screens to a clickable prototype to be able to run a usability test.
I worked in grayscale and without elaborating on individual elements so that I could concentrate on the usability of the application. This also proved to be helpful during the subsequent usability tests, where the participants could concentrate on the task flows and leave design considerations aside.
07 Testing
Moderated in-person usability test
Potential users that met key characteristics were then given two scenarios and corresponding activities to perform on the clickable prototype. This allowed me to gather initial feedback on the usability of my design solution and find out if my goals were met.
Goal was to find out, whether the communication methods offered were suitable and manageable for the target persons and if they felt comfortable and secure with the way of getting medical consultation through the app.
- I chose moderated testing because as the prototype was still missing certain functionalities at this early stage, I was able to give guidance to handle it.
- I decided to do an in-person test to observe the body language of the participants and analyse how their facial expressions correlate with their actions and words.
6
Participants
1
iPhone
20
Minutes each
Rainbow spreadsheet
To help me recognize patterns and prioritize problems that have occurred according to their severity, I have created a rainbow spreadsheet. I also added corresponding possible solutions for improvement.
Iterations
Using the home screen as an example, the improvement becomes visible with every design iteration. Particularly structural and formulation problems were revealed by user tests.
08 Visual design
Style guide
To help safeguard the integrity of my design, I created a set of standards.
09 Prototype
I created the high fidelity prototype of the app using Adobe XD. It allows to explore the identified key user flows and will be used for future user testing and further development of the app.
10 Presentation
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