Week 1: UX Research
Week 2: Information architecture
Week 3: UX/UI Design
Week 4: Branding
Week 5-6: Prototyping
Week 7: User Testing
Week 8: Priority Revisions
The patterns that emerged from user interviews:
- When experiencing first unfamiliar symptoms most users prefer to Google but not to read too much into them, as that could be anxiety-provoking
- WebMD was mentioned by a few people as being the go-to source of information, while other users said they do not trust WedMD due to it having pharma affiliations
- Users are looking for a reliable source of truth, ideally backed by a trusted medical organization like the CDC or an academic institution like Harvard or Emory. Mayo Clinic is another organization that users consider as trustworthy for medical research.
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Pain points around researching symptoms and subsequently finding a specialist were plentiful.
- There are too many providers to choose from and not enough clarity around what conditions each type of specialist treats
- There is a lot of confusion because the medical system (in the US) is so varied. You never know if you are pursuing the right care or seeing the proper specialist until you see a few of them. There is not enough time and money for that
- No immediate appointments even for urgent issues - doctors are frequently booked up weeks to months in advance
- It is hard to feel like the information on many medical sites is correct and reliable. Oftentimes information on medical information websites is not fact checked or medically reviewed
- There is not enough information on the scope of coverage for your particular insurance plan.
Navigating new medical symptoms can be a doozy. A user may go through a variety of thoughts & feelings around their medical condition and may be unsure of what to do next or where to seek help. Similarly, they may read about their condition or ask their friend who went through a similar thing, thus seeing and hearing information from a variety of sources. All of these factors ultimately determine a user's path to finding the right care, as well as their main goals when looking for that specialist.
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Symptom Check is a key feature of this app, which helps directly connect a patient to the necessary care that they need. Hence, appointment booking & doctor information is also an integral part of this product. Lastly, my research showed that users also need to do their own due diligence & read up on conditions as part of their journey to getting the right care. Therefore, a Conditions Directory was a must-have feature for this end-to-end app.
The sitemap structure is pretty straightforward. With the Symptom Check being the prominent feature, I decided to position all other features around it.
Symptom check is a tricky feature in that you can get very granular with the screening questions to better guide the user, but you run the risk of asking too much information which should be left to doctors in order to make proper diagnoses instead. Hence, I decided to keep it more high-level, not diving too deep into specifics around the onset or duration of the symptoms, but rather focusing on the location of symptoms.
My user flow focuses on the same concept, with a compelling user story of trying to get triaged & connected to a proper specialist for the newly developed symptoms.
My favorite part of the process is grabbing a pen to do sketches. Below are some examples of the Registration, as well as the early starts of the Symptom Check quiz, which is one of the main features of the app.
I had envisioned a simple logo that would evoke trust in its user and yet have a certain sharpness and edge. I was inspired by simple fonts of financial company logos (think Citigroup), or other medical resource websites (WebMD).
Guided usability tests via Zoom. A total of 5 users tested the 4 flows of MedAdvice.
Missions/Flows:
1. Registration
2. Symptom Check Quiz
3. Doctor Search & Appointment Booking
4. Conditions Directory Lookup
No major revisions were identified. A few users pointed out in Mission # 3 that the form can be made clearer in terms of better distinction between already pre-filled fields vs fields that need to be updated by the user. Overall, the form did well in terms of usability, and users did not jump around the screen or clicked on wrong fields.
I will also revisit the navigation menu, as I feel like the navigation items can be better organized (i.e. Symptom Check can be the first icon in the navigation as it is the main feature of the app and the first feature users land on after registration.
This project was exhilarating, as healthcare is a topic I am deeply passionate about. Creating a unique & useful MVP for a very real health need felt deeply rewarding.
If you like what you see and want to work together, get in touch!
irina.adler@gmail.com
