Project 2 | Tosin Kasaba

Healthity

Duration: 2 months

Role: Product designer

Providing seamless health connections.

Finding a walk-in appointment on short notice can be difficult, with family clinics often fully booked. Quickly locating available walk-in clinics becomes stressful and time-consuming. An example of this is a parent who has received an unexpected call from school or daycare about a sick kid.

After a doctor’s consultation, obtaining prescribed medications presents another obstacle. Prescriptions typically require a physical drop-off at the pharmacy always necessitating multiple trips to the pharmacy.

This is a widespread issue in Alberta, impacting not only parents but also young adults and workers. Streamlining this process could bring much-needed efficiency and convenience to many. As a parent who has faced this challenge firsthand, I was motivated to find a solution.

OVERVIEW

I envisioned that a potential solution would require designing a scheduling application for clinics that would also include the ability to upload and submit prescriptions to pharmacies. This design would need to feature an administrator interface for clinics to input their availabilities and other essential information, along with a dedicated interface for pharmacies to receive and manage forwarded prescriptions.

Recognizing the complexity of this solution, I structured the application design into two distinct phases:

Phase 1: focusing on the user side, and Phase 2: focusing on the administrator side.

I chose to prioritize Phase 1 to ensure the application effectively addressed the needs of end-users, who would be the primary drivers of engagement and adoption. By starting with the user side, I can validate the core functionality and usability of the system before expanding to administrative features.

With this plan in place, I was ready to begin the design process.

SCOPE DEFINITION

THE PROCESS:

DEFINE

To ensure the design effectively addressed real user needs, it was critical to engage with others to gain a deeper understanding of their experiences, pain points and preferences. This step was particularly important to mitigate confirmation bias, as my personal experience with the issue could unintentionally influence the design.

I conducted interviews with five participants to gather qualitative insights. The sessions included two in-person interviews and three conducted via Zoom, with each interview lasting approximately 30 minutes. This approach allowed me to explore diverse perspectives and uncover key themes that would inform the next steps in the design process.

RESEARCH:

2 out of 5 participants mentioned they encountered challenges when attempting to schedule an immediate appointment with their clinic.
All 5 participants encountered challenges in the process of booking appointments with other clinics nearby when unable to secure one at their preferred clinic, as not all clinics accommodate walk-ins.
All 5 participants mentioned that the process of obtaining a prescription from the pharmacy is time -consuming.
A participant expressed a preference for a female doctor during consultations.

EMAPTHY MAPPING (GATHERING INSIGHTS):

Distinct patterns became evident as I synthesized the insights gathered from the interviews through the application of empathy mapping. I went on to create a consolidated empathy map, highlighting the shared needs and challenges of the users.

USER PERSONAS

The insights gathered guided the development of two personas:

The design decisions were tailored with Inaya as the primary focus/persona. By addressing Inaya's needs comprehensively, the solution could effectively cater to a diverse user base. Inaya's persona guided the design process, I ensured that her requirements were consistently prioritized and referenced through out.

DEFINING THE PROBLEM STATEMENT:

Following the collection of insights and findings, I created a problem statement:

"Individuals experience significant frustration with the lengthy and inefficient process of securing clinic appointments, particularly when their preferred clinics have no availability. Searching for and booking walk-in appointments that align with specific preferences further adds to the challenge. Additionally, the process of obtaining prescriptions at pharmacies is widely perceived as overly time-consuming, compounding the overall inefficiency of accessing timely healthcare services."

COMPETITOR ANALYSIS:

My next step involved exploring existing applications addressing the problem. This was essential to grasp the current market trends and aid in identifying potential gaps or opportunities.

I identified three direct competitors and conducted a thorough evaluation of these competitors based on the requirements outlined for the primary persona.

I pinpointed market gaps and, armed with this insights, I made strategic decisions to craft solutions that directly addressed users' challenges associated with these gaps. For example:

Doctor Gender Filter: Implementing an option to filter clinic searches based on the doctor's gender to cater to personal preferences.
Prescription Management: Introducing a seamless method for submitting prescriptions to a pharmacy, tracking their status, and providing notifications to inform users when their medication is ready for pickup.

My plan focused on integrating these features to specifically target the identified gaps, ensuring a user-centered and effective response to the challenges uncovered during the analysis.

PRODUCT GOAL & USE CASES:

Prior to embarking on the design phase, I defined a product goal for this phase (1).

"The product goal is to enhance user comfort, convenience, and accessibility in healthcare by addressing key challenges through personalized features and streamlined processes."

This step was crucial in establishing a solid foundation for the project, ensuring that the design solutions would be purposeful and directly address the needs of the target audience.

To achieve this goal, I developed two key use cases:

Use Case 1: Users can schedule appointments with a clinic or search for nearby walk-in clinics, utilizing a filter to select doctors based on gender preferences.
Use Case 2: A user uploads a prescription within the app, forwards it to a pharmacy, and is able to track its status to know when it is ready for pickup.

IDEATE

TARGETED SOLUTIONS:

SITEMAP:

In designing the solution, I began by visually mapping out the hierarchy of content, pages, and features.

DESIGN

EARLY SKETCHES:

With the site map as a guide, I initiated the visualization of my design concept through sketches. Below is an iterative sketch crafted for the landing page.

After completing iterative sketches for the various pages based on the site map, I transitioned to the development of digital wireframes and low fidelity prototype. The low fidelity prototype was later used for testing. Below are few screens of the low fidelity designs.

WIREFRAMES AND PROTOTYPES:

MOCK- UPS:

ITERATIONS: After validating the concept, I created mockups and went through several refinements to arrive at the final design, encapsulated in a high-fidelity prototype. Below are key iterations from this phase.

ITERATION 1: For the landing page, I adopted a minimal design to showcase the app's functionality concisely and clearly, minimizing clutter for easy comprehension. A FAQ section was added to address questions from low-fidelity testing, along with a form for information requests. To align with the app's health focus, I incorporated human imagery to build trust, relatability, and emotional connection.

ITERATION 2: The homepage layout was enhanced to consolidate functionalities and improve navigation, while logo iterations, color schemes, and typography were refined to ensure usability, accessibility, and brand cohesion.

ITERATION 3:. Addressing feedback for an application on the go, I optimized the solution for responsiveness across desktop, mobile and tablet devices.

Displayed below are mockups showcasing the landing page and homepage screens across various devices (desktop, tablet and mobile, respectively). These mockups highlight the responsiveness of the design, ensuring optimal user experience across different screen sizes.

TEST & REFINE

CONCEPT VALIDATION (1):

I validated the design concept using the low-fidelity prototype with participants who had been involved in the initial user interviews. This process enabled me gather feedback on the design solution and ensured that the design prioritized the user's experiences and addressed the user pain points.

5 out of 5 participants acknowledged the app's ability to address their scheduling challenges with clinics. They unanimously highlighted the app's uniqueness, specifically highlighting the prescription transmission feature
3 out of 5 participants expressed a desire for the app to be usable on the move.
2 out of 5 participants expressed a preference for a full map view instead of the shared view, which displays clinic cards and availability on the left.
1 participant said she was unprepared for the forms after signing up and suggested a prior message outlining the steps, their purpose, and duration.

HIGH - FIDELITY PROTOTYPE:

The video below demonstrates the high-fidelity prototype, highlighting its refined user interface. The prototype provides a near-real experience of the final product.

CHALLENGES:

Designing the application to be responsive across different devices and screen sizes, considering the constraints.
Designing an optimized booking flow that minimizes the number of steps to get things done within the application.

KEY TAKEAWAY:

As you can see, the final design has evolved significantly from the initial sketches. This evolution highlights the iterative nature of the design process—it is rarely linear, and each stage builds on the insights and feedback from the previous one.

Initial Sketches: These served as rough blueprints, focusing on the overall layout and user flow. They provided a starting point but were not detailed enough to address deeper usability concerns.

Low-Fidelity Designs: These added more structure and functionality, allowing me to test basic interactions and workflows. However, gaps were identified.

High-Fidelity Designs: As I transitioned to high-fidelity mockups, several changes were made to refine the design further.

All the changes made demonstrates how design is an iterative process driven by feedback, testing, and exploration.

WHAT'S NEXT:

CONCEPT VALIDATION (2): Due to time constraints, this step has not been conducted at the time of compiling this case study. However, it will involve gathering feedback from the same participants involved in the user interviews to verify that the proposed design solutions effectively address the identified issues and meet user expectations.

Upon receiving feedback, I will iterate on the design, integrating valuable suggestions and addressing any concerns raised during the validation process.

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Tosin

UI/UX Designer