OVERVIEW
In the world of healthcare, patient engagement to stick to a treatment plan after the appointment is relatively harder to achieve, but the benefits of higher engagement are insurmountable.
CareConnect was created to resolve the friction between patients and patient portals. This app is meant to be an all-inclusive hub where patients can access all of their health data and focus less on the logistical aspects of healthcare so they can focus more on their healthcare journey.
ROLE
Product Designer
User Research, Interactions, Visual Design, Prototyping and Testing
Tools: Figma, Canva, NCBI (National Library of Medicine)
January - May 2024
UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEM
Although the integration of patient portals and electronic medical records (EMR) systems has brought benefits, they have also brought challenges to the users of EMRs. Coming from a background in healthcare I felt that there was a lot of potential for change. I believe that reducing the friction of interacting with EMRs could benefit the quality of life for a lot of patients that need quick access to health information.
[Complexity of Medical Information] Healthcare data is complex and multifaceted making it challenging to present in a user-friendly manner
[Integration Challenges]
Needs in integrating with existing systems and databases leading to technical and user issues.
[Focus on compliance over Usability]
By focusing on complying with privacy laws, many portals are made with data-security in mind over usability
USER RESEARCH
Based on interviews with two users from diverse demographics, I conducted an analysis of their lifestyle, goals and frustrations. A common theme emerged: both users express a need for fast, convenient access to all of their medical records, the ability to schedule appointments, and to be able to contact primary care in case of emergency.
SOLUTION & VISION
From these findings, I decided to identify some key goals.
I want patients to be able to:
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Access multiple health portals, in a safe and secure app
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Simplify the pathway to their medical records
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Reduce the friction of finding the right healthcare providers/setting appointments
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Easily identify health information with wearable device integration
Step 1: Use user research to ideat
WIREFRAMING
I used the pain points accumulated from the User Personas to construct and explore solutions to their frustrations. The very first iteration had notification features, a list of available doctors to book, and also a calendar on the homepage.
Step 2: draft solutions
FIRST HI-FIDELITY MOCKUP
This was my first high-fidelity iteration of CareConnect.
After doing multiple rounds of user testing, some key discrepancies were pointed out.
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Too many colors
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Inconsistent icons and buttons
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Features such as medication tracker that were not clear with intention and were confusing to use.
Step 3: Try and try again
FINAL PROTOTYPE
Taking user reviews into consideration, I implemented more concise themes throughout the app in my final iteration of CareConnect.
These are the changes I made:
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Accent colors were considered instead of three bold colors utilizing the 3-3-3 color rule.
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A new less cluttered appointment calendar was created for ease of use and functionality
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A tips and tricks page was added in order to guide the user throughout the app, more tips will pop up throughout use to possibly unveil new functionalities the user was not aware of.
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By adding more components, I was able to standardize most buttons and design elements.
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Prototype flows were also cleaned up so clicking through the app flows more intuitively.
THOUGHTS
This was my first unguided, unprompted, solo project that I've ideated, researched, and designed. I believe my overall goal of reducing the friction of use between patients of all ages, ethnicities, and demographics was achieved. Throughout this project and case study, the hardest part was making All of the decisions, but I realized that, thats what research is for, you test and test and test in order to help you narrow down those decisions and in the end, reach a user centric design. By going through the entire process by myself I've had to learn a quicker way to administer buttons, this lead me to understand how to be more refined in my use of components, auto-layout, simple prototyping, using frame animations, and theories of design. While working on CareConnect, I've ran into many obstacles, but in turn also many invaluable learning experiences ultimately contributing to my growth and reinforcing my passion for research and commitment in creating designs that prioritize the needs of the user.