Healthio
App, Branding
10 min read
Providing better and faster healthcare services for Canadians
Healthio is an iOS APP that aims to instantly connect patients with doctors that they can trust for medical care anywhere and anytime. Patients can consult with specialists that are tailored to their needs and receive prescriptions with zero wait times.
Project Overview
The Kick-Off
Project Type:
Academic Sept-Dec 2021
Responsibilities:
Discovery, Ideation, User research & interview, end-to-end prototype & testing
Timeline:
2 Weeks
Tools:
From Feb 2021-May 2021, I completed a full-time UX Design Bootcamp with BrainStation to obtain a Diploma in UX Design. During the Bootcamp, I was to act as a UX designer hired by Patients First, a government-led initiative aimed at improving healthcare for patients as a user experience researcher and designer. My task was to conduct primary research that builds an understanding of patient experiences more generally while attempting to understand how people manage their health through existing healthcare services and sources of information.
Design Thinking Approach
When approaching this design challenge, I leveraged design thinking methodology to ensure my focus throughout the process was on the people I was designing and creating for. I wanted my project to be economically viable and technologically feasible, but most importantly, it needs to be desirable and address real human needs.
Empathize
Ideate
Test
Define
Prototype
Refine
Human-centered design process
Discovery of Problem Space
The Challenge
Finding a family doctor can be tough depending on where you live in Canada. It’s difficult for Canadians to arrange an appointment and long wait times in the waiting room are common issues Canadians face when visiting their physicians. This frustrating experience deters many from making such a trip to the clinic and instead turns to unreliable self-diagnosis.
Digging deeper
Of Canadians were not able to receive the same-day or next-day appointment when they needed immediate care for minor health problem
62%
Of Canadians turn to Google first to self-diagnose instead of booking an appointment with their physicians.
55%
Of Canadians skip seeing a doctor due to long wait times at their physician’s office
68%
Women are more likely to turn to online sources for their health issues online as they prefer to remain anonymous about certain health issues. Many Canadian women felt more comfortable consulting with a female doctor but were unable to find one.
Primary Research
Understanding my users
After knowing that people who have a regular doctor are more likely to have better health outcomes, I set out to conduct user interviews to understand the motivations, pain points, and challenges patients experience when visiting a health professional. I was able to generate key insights and characteristics from my interview responses that helped me determine the focus theme for later product development
Search Tool
All interviewees mentioned that it would be easier if they could had an online unified list of available doctors that they can talk to instantly or schedule for appointment.
Long Wait Times
Patients find themselves needing to reserve a large chunk of their time for a trip to the physician’s office where appointments are often untimely and difficult to book.
Personalized Search
The interviewees value the ability to look for doctors based on their personal preference, in terms of language, gender, and availability to better serve their needs
Unreliable Online Diagnosis
Looking up health concerns on the internet yields vague and unreliable diagnosis that often fails to address patient concerns and further increase patient anxiety.
So the question for our design challenge is ...
HMW address the health concerns of Canadian patients in order to simplify the process of consulting a personal doctor that they trust.
Persona & Experience Map
Uncovering opportunity
Based on the insights I gained from my interviews, I developed a persona and experience map to ensure my design process was driven by my target user’s goals and behaviors.
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My primary persona, Sophie Johnson, helped highlight core user priorities for my app: patients want a tool that helps them quickly consult with a doctor for health problems that they have so to avoid long wait time at the doctor’s office.
Primary Persona: Sophie Johnson
User Stories & Task Flow
Brainstorming functionality
To begin brainstorming the functionality and features of my solution, I created several user stories to help me define the who, the what, and the why of the product feature from the perspective of our users.
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I decided to focus on tackling the feature of allowing users to talk to a doctor online. During my interview, interviewees expressed the benefit of having a platform where they can reach out to doctors easily so they can take away the need to prevent potential self-diagnosis from unreliable online resources.
Talk to a doctor online
Task
Here are the four user stories that I believe best represent my product's value proposition in the task flow.
As a user, I want to action, so that I benefit.
As a patient, I want to find doctors easily so that I can prevent self-diagnosis from unreliable results on Google
As a patient, I want to talk to a doctor without the need for an appointment so that I can skip the wait at the clinic
As a patient, I want to filter doctors based on characteristics so that I can find a doctor that fits my needs
As a patient, I want to see doctors rating so that I can find a doctor that I can trust
Task Flow: Talk to a doctor online
Sketches & Wireframe
Exploring solutions
Once I was clear on my task flow, I used paper and pen to sketch out possible solutions. Below are my top sketches that were translated to wireframes.
An IOS app that allows patients to easily get help from doctors that fit their needs.
App Concept
Sketches that were translated to wireframes
Usability Testing
Gathering feedback from users
During the wireframing process, I conducted two rounds of usability tests of five testers each to obtain practical, real-time feedback that was incorporated to improve the design and deliver a smooth user experience. The testers were asked to complete a set of few tasks while navigating through the prototype, which helped me observe how real users interacted with the app and see if the app’s functions and features helped the user achieve their goals.
Final Prototype
App Features
Showcase key features
Get help from certified doctors 24/7
Instantly connect patients with Canadian health professionals for online medical care anywhere and anytime. Healthio allows patients to select doctors based on their needs, whether for booking a future appointment or getting paired for an instant response. Patients can also filter doctors based on specialty, gender, and rating.
Find doctors that you can trust
Users find doctors that fit their needs and preference through viewing ratings and reviews from other patients and feel confident about their choice and the diagnosis that they can receive.
Get reliable diagnosis or prescription
After connecting with a health professional on Healthio, users can describe or send a picture of their symptoms to receive a real-time diagnosis. Heath professionals will also provide prescriptions as necessary during the consultation.
Design Impact
With Healthio, patients are able to get help from a doctor that they can trust based on their needs while significantly reducing the time wasted in the waiting room and the tendency to self-diagnose from unreliable sources.
Project Key Learnings
What I learned
This was my first solo project in the BrainStation program and I learned a lot during my time working alone, especially in time and project management. I didn’t have the “accountability” aspect that you usually get when working in a team, making it easier to get the work done “later”. I found that setting my own internal due dates and daily or hourly goals of what I wanted to accomplish helped keep me on track.
Working solo
In contrast to my capstone project, I had a lot less time to work on Healthio. Because of this, I had to cut down on some parts of user research and prototyping, prioritizing, instead, aspects that would bring the most value. This simulates real-world constraints where, for example, clients may not have the time and budget to execute every user testing method.