Medical Application
Connected Care
Helping Canadian patients navigate through their medical files, resources, schedule appointments, as well as humanizing universal health care through personalized virtual chats.
Role
UX Designer
UI Designer
Researcher
Usability Tester
Tools
Adobe XD
Mural
Team
Product Designers
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Time
3 Weeks
Project Summary
Canadian patients often grapple with overwhelming fear and uncertainty following their diagnosis, compounded by the frustratingly long wait times they endure.
The healthcare system's inadequate funding, under-equipped medical facilities, and shortage of healthcare professionals, contribute to an average waiting period of four months for scheduled surgeries or specialist treatments.
The Challenge
How can we provide an individual with emotional support of going through a health concern by employing medical & nursing students to assist the patient’s health needs?
Our Goal
Connected care is a support intervention tool, that matches patients awaiting treatment or a specialist consultation with a vetted network of medical care professionals, students and staff who support the patient’s journey. Until the date of their scheduled appointment, while having access to their medical files, resources and appointments.
Design Process
As the design process progresses, I take a user-centered approach to create intuitive and visually compelling user interfaces. I utilize wireframing and prototyping tools to iterate and refine design concepts, ensuring optimal usability, functionality, and aesthetics. Collaborating closely with visual designers, I ensure that the visual elements align with the client's brand guidelines while enhancing the overall user experience.
Phase 1
Discovery - Understand and Immerse
Our Primary Research consisted of various research methods such as surveys, interviews, observations and focus groups leading us to our main customer segments. The segments were narrowed down by conducted 1:1 interviews with medical professionals, nursing students & med students.
Research - Emphasize and Define
We conducted a survey by reaching out to users through multiple choice questions about their experiences with medical appointments. With the results from the survey, we where able to reach more users and gather initial or follow-ups insights. This Provided us useful basis for scripting interview questions that can dig deeper into survey findings.
Patient's User quotes
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“My language barrier prevents me from communicating my pain and feelings properly. Sometimes I feel like I’m misunderstood.”
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​"My doctor might not understand some of my problems as there is a cultural gap causing me to feeling misheard about my needs”
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“I wish my doctor would tell me how to take my medicines properly instead of saying – “rest of the information will be communicated at the reception/pharmacy”
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“I wish there could be an easier way to access my medical files”
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Problem Findings
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Ethical protocol leads to patients who feel they aren't getting enough empathy from doctors.
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Lack of care results in feelings of abandonment and stress for patients.
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Our users (patients) were facing psychological stress on a wide emotional spectrum.
Common Trends
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Notable complaint from patients who feel they are being ignored by healthcare professionals.
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Lack of centralized documentation systems can potentially lead to a challenging interaction between all parties.
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Patients feel that their doctor is lacking empathy towards them, but are following standard ethical protocol in the workplace.
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70% of Doctors accumulate ten hours of paperwork and administrative tasks per week. This results in spending an extra ninety minutes a day completing medical records, after a normal workday.
Key Insights
In general, the hypothesis made at the beginning of the research was proved: Doctors can be disciplined for getting emotionally involved if that leads to professional malpractice or unethical conduct.
Lastly, most patients feel post-diagnosis uncertainty and fear about their symptoms or situation. This could happen when they have left the facility. Therefore, follow up care is very important to give patients peace of mind.
Personas
To classify the target audience and understand their motivation, a persona was created. These characteristics and insights are a reflection of the primary and secondary research gathered.
Phase 2
Design Concept
Our platform hopes to introduce a friendly face to another wise overburdened health care market. The consumers on the receiving end of this service would feel a sense of delight and a level of importance. By implementing the solution, we are instilling value for the patients seeking specialized treatment and making business operations more manageable for the health care staff involved.
Value for Patients
Connects patients with easy-to-access resources to manage their symptoms and leverage support better until their diagnoses/treatment is underway.
It allows patients to gain back trust in the Canadian health care system and build trust with support staff available on the platform.
Value for Medical Staff
An opportunity to transition patient care in an online environment and curb frequent visitation to the hospital which helps to lower physical interaction.
It creates a range of virtual job opportunities for medical interns (specifically those specializing in something). It establishes a non-physical environment for professionals in the field to continue to support patients
Site Map
​User functionality was always the core focus of developing this app. With this in mind, mapping basic flow helped me proceed with deciding steps that future users would take.
User Flow
This user-flow takes users through the app when setting up an appointment with a specialist. The main goal was to make the user experience smooth, convenient, practical and to minimize usability issues.
Wireframes
When creating wireframes I was able to hone in on the functionality of our app. The priority being; making the app as simple and easy to understand as possible by arranging elements in a way that avoids conflict to make it accessible to new users.
Phase 3
High-fi Concepts
Based on our all of our findings shown above, we narrowed our focus into 4 areas for potential improvement of our original dashboard:
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Improve the data we provide
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Improve navigation
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Improve actionability
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Improve notification
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Improve workflow
Sign in & Log in
I used a less is more method but not over simplifying it, by making a simple design it helps the user to no over think about what the next steps are.
By now most of people know how to sing up and log in to an account so there is no need to overcomplicate the process.
Home Screen
By analyzing my insights in how users interacted with my first design I wanted to make sure I expanded and focused on some of the most popular objectives users had.
I learned how important is for users to keep their files safe in one place, why I added the documents section for users to add important medical files whiteout losing sight of them.
Connecting with specialists
One of the most important features on the app is having the ability to connect with medical specialists to help our users in their medical journey.
By incorporating a section where the user can learn about who their specialists are, helps to create a sense of trust after learning about their experience and necessary information.
Bookings
It's crucial to provide the user with an easy booking calendar. This helps them select their preferred dates and available times. I included components that are quick and easy to use to minimize errors and confusion. As well as adding a progress bar that shows the users the booking process.
Challenges and Next Steps
This design challenge proved to be an invaluable experience that greatly contributed to my growth as a designer. The challenge pushed me to think creatively, problem-solve effectively, and refine my design skills.
It provided a platform for me to step out of my comfort zone and explore new ideas, embracing innovative approaches to overcome constraints. The process of tackling the design challenge allowed me to develop a deeper understanding of user needs and preferences, as well as hone my ability to create user-centered solutions.