Healthmate
A healthcare service for mothers-to-be that seamlessly amalgamates online appointment scheduling, real-time consultations, and sustained health support.
Timeline
1 week, Dec 2023
Project
Solo MVP Design Project
Role
UX Research, UX/UI Design
Overview
Background
In Finland, public health services are mainly provided by health and social service centers in different communities. People usually need to call for an appointment as soon as possible on the morning that the service is open. In most cases, people usually have to wait longer to see a doctor if they do not need urgent treatment.
This is an MVP design project with the topic of Health & Wellbeing. With this background in mind, and the need for expectant mothers who need timely medical advice and ongoing support, I designed an app that hopes to revolutionize traditional prenatal care services by providing a simplified yet comprehensive solution for mothers-to-be.
Design Process
Final Design
My Solutions
My final solution was a mobile app that integrated Online Consultation, Online Appointment, Test Result Tracking and Support Articles. This app integrates most aspects of services that may be needed from pregnancy to postpartum, making these services accessible promptly and simplifying the care process in many aspects.
The mobile app has received positive feedback from users, 100% of whom would like to see the service implemented in the future and would prefer it over traditional medical procedures.
Solutions Breakdown
Feature 1: Online Consulting (SelfChat)
For simple, non-hospital-worthy minor issues.
Feature 2: Self-Booking
Easily choose the time and place that suits you best.
Health background checks for foreign residents to fill gaps in their health records.
Feature 3: Test Results Tracking
Conveniently check updated test results from the comfort home.
Browse past health data to track health status.
Feature 4: Online Supportive Articles
Initial Thinking
Target Customer
Mothers-to-be
Other Stakeholders
Hospital
Doctors in Hospital
Families of mothers-to-be
Research Methods
Individual semi-structured interviews
User Research
Time is one of the constraints of this project. To rapidly and deeply understand the target user group, I decided to conduct semi-structured interviews.
Initially, I posted messages in the community's Telegram group to recruit interviewees, but only received one response. Later, I expanded the scope from expectant mothers to women who had experienced childbirth, approaching users in person in the community public area and asking if they were willing to participate in interviews.
In the end, I interviewed 3 women who are mothers-to-be or currently raising children to make me better understand:
1 - Between pregnancy and the postpartum period, activities and schedules that mothers-to-be are required to go through by the hospital.
2 - The concerns of mother-to-be about staying physically and mentally healthy throughout the whole process.
Insights
"I often worry about my access to adequate healthcare information due to language barriers and cultural differences."
-- Interviewee 1
"Usually I need to call and then wait a while to get an appointment. Such waiting is also usual when I am waiting for test results."
-- Interviewee 2
Challenge
Problem Statement
How might we design an integrated service experience to ensure effective health support and personalized health programs for mothers-to-be during pregnancy through the postpartum period?
Ideate
Feature Ideation
Based on what I learned from user interviews about what users expect, and my intuition, I ended up designing the following features to correspond to users' needs and pain points.
Users need…
Less effort for booking and waiting
Learn about maternity and child care
Accessible health information for those with limited Finnish proficiency
Clear communication with doctors despite limited proficiency in Finnish
I provide…
1 - Online Booking
2- Updating and tracking test results
Personalised and top recommended articles
Online consulting at any time
Multiple language system setting
Personas
Based on the insights from the interviews, I created one persona - Kaori, to help me focus on the goals and concerns of target users during the design process.
User Journey Mapping
Consider that as a new patient, there are different touch points and sources of information at various stages of the journey from booking a doctor's appointment to ending the visit and getting the results. I considered visualizing these in the user journey and optimizing the experience.
After journey mapping, the background check form is a new function considered into the product features, targeted for moms-to-be who might bothered by the gap in healthcare history as a foreigner. As well as notifications of reservations and testing results will be added to provide a more convenient experience.
User Flow
The most complex and intensive sequence of interactions occurs during the Schedule phase, so to make this process clearer, I designed the user flow to get a more micro-level view of the experience.
Prototyping
Wireframes & User Testing
I visualized the user flow as a wireframe to represent my idea of the interaction flow. Then, I printed out multiple wireframes on paper and conducted simple usability testing with users who had previously participated in interviews.
Usability testing began with a brief intro of purpose, personas, and the testing process. During the testing, users interacted with Figma wireframes, and I observed and marked the paper wireframes. After the interview, I co-designed with them to make adjustments to the paper wireframes.
Iterations
Main Page:
Turn inbox messages to icon.
Add Medicine and Test Results for more visible reminders.
Booking Pages:
Add Appointment Instructions for further explanation.
Dealing with conflicts:
Two of the three test users pointed out putting date, time and doctors on the same page for less friction between the two steps, which conflicted with my initial idea to make the selection process clearer.
I ended up putting these constraints on the same page. Through this modification, users can view available doctors and times by selecting a date without going to the next page. This avoids a situation where the user might be confused or disappointed when presented with a new page but no available doctor on certain dates shown.
Visual Identity
Design System
UI Design
Hi-Fi Prototype
Impact
Since this is a conceptual design project, I couldn't exactly quantify the impact. However, the testing result with the high-fidelity prototype with users shows:
100%
users hope to build the app in the future.
100%
users prefer to use this product rather than the traditional medical treatment process.
Reflections
If I have more time
The current prototype can solve users' pain points, according to the test results. However, if I had more time, I would move on to feature refinement and consider different stakeholders in real-life scenarios.
1 - Current Feature Refinement
Finish the design of the Healthcare Background Check form and profile settings.
2 - More thorough user testing
Test the new-refined prototype with a wider range of users to get feedback and iterate.
3 - Research more stakeholders
Especially hospital staffs to gain insight into their workflow, touch points with patients, etc.
4 - A desktop version for doctors
If the application is applied both in hospital scenario and patients' daily life, a desktop version is essential for doctors to suit their real working scenarios.
Personal takeaways
I am very proud to be able to complete everything from user research to UI design and testing on my own.
The biggest takeaway from this project was getting feedback and suggestions through multiple medium. I actively utilized community group chats and public spaces to find users for research and testing. Also, at Discord I sought out advice from other designers on my design. I am acutely aware that community has been crucial to my growth as a designer, and I will continue to practice this in the future by exchanging thoughts, sharing experiences, and offering help to others.
Designing for disadvantaged groups and improving their lifestyles has always been my motivation and focus. Fortunately, during my collaboration with them, I saw that my products were recognized by my users. During the research phase, when I was wandering around my living community, I met many warm-hearted and kind ladies. I am very grateful to them for their willingness for interview, their cooperation in testing, also encouragement to me :)
Considering language barriers and cultural differences for foreigners, I decided to provide an English system setting initially. But in the interview with a foreign resident, we talked about the inconvenience caused by no past medical history. I realized that solving the difficulties of foreign groups not only simply considers their background, but also the specific and nuanced problems that these characteristics bring.