If you are looking for Consulting or Graphic, Visual or UX/UI design please feel free to reach out and let’s chat!
Case study
2019
Summary
Concept project to design a mobile application selecting from a list of topics under the umbrella topic of social responsibility. Worked as a part of a team to address healthcare access.
My Role
2-week collaborative design sprint with Avery and Christina. Primarily I focused on research, design strategy and art direction.
1 week solo design sprint focused on research, wireframe iterations, Hi Fi mockups and prototyping
Tools and methods
Synthesizing research using affinity mapping
Identifying User and needs through interviews
Competitive/Comparative data of features
Competitive analysis of that research
User Flow and Journey
MVP/MVdP feature prioritization
Logical Flow
Wireframes
Prototyping
Branding
High fidelity Mockups
Figma
Slack
Project Overview
Our Challenge
Non emergency users who rely on the ER as a first resort when presented with health issues and how they need more ways to access primary care services before overcrowding the ER, diverting attention and medical resources from people with real emergencies.
56% of emergency room visits are totally avoidable.
Its estimated that $18 billion could be saved annually if those patients whose medical problems are considered “avoidable” or “non-urgent” were to take advantage of primary or preventive health care.
The top 3 reasons for ER visits : 1) sprains and strains 2) Upper respiratory infections 3) Superficial cuts
Solution Overview
Provide users with health issues direct access to primary care any time they need it by incorporating video appointment feature, where they can have a call with a provider 24/7 and receive treatment. We also aim to help them ease their mind by defining symptoms and giving an after care guide based on those symptoms and by offering locations of alternatives to ER’s like urgent cares, free and sliding scale health clinics, primary doctors, CVS pharmacies and Minuteclinics in their area through a mobile application.
Process
Research
Early on in the process we collected secondary research helping to define our problem. We then wanted to better understand our user. We recruited 6 people, conducted interviews and synthesized the results creating affinity maps.
We concluded the study by uncovering 5 main user points:
After conducting competitive research on existing features in related mobile application. We discovered that mast on-boarding was very difficult and lengthy experience. There were far too many steps that needed to be completed before the user was presented any information. Also, most existing applications had deep hierarchies that were hard to navigate and almost and impossible to get the home screen without going back through many steps. We experienced varying issues with functionality properly working and overall not many wholesome experiences.
We decided to focus on three main things:
Although there’s application that already exist that do these things individually we could not find one that did all three. We felt like building this out could really set us apart from what already existed.
Wireframes and prototypes
Moving forward we developed the IA and created the initial wireframes that would be used to conduct user testing. After observing users go through the prototypes and collecting SUS scores. We made iterations on the design we then created a style guide and developed high fidelity mock ups and retested receiving scores above 90.
Caption
Pivoting direction
After the two week sprint I realized that this app was better suited for users that do nothing when presented with health issues because of not knowing where to go, time and money. Some things I also wanted to revisit was conducting more research on the grey areas of 24/7 access and understanding how providers come into play. I wanted to explore implementing disclaimers and really understanding legalities of everything.
I spent a week conducting more research and realized that ultimately by incorporating the existing CVS minute clinic video visits with providers into this app and letting their backend handle the core of the instant access, all of the grey areas mentioned before could be easily solved. It would give users that do nothing when presented with health issues direct access to primary care any time they need it for just a $59 fee.
Ultimately, by creating a sister app to CVS Health that expands upon the help it gives and shares not just CVS related locations but all types of resources like free clinics urgent cares etc. We hope to help users that would usually take no action opportunities for treatment, because ultimately everyone should be able to get help when they need it.
Reflection
Based off of research and user testing we strongly believe that Health Action Now would give users the knowledge and resources to make a difference. Positive usability testing demonstrated that users were able to seek medical help when they needed it, evaluate their symptoms, and find alternative medical resources near them, ultimately getting access to health care.
I realized fairly quickly after going through the process of trying to create a solution to help alleviate overcrowding in ED’s that it was a very difficult task. We created an application that I think had great information and structure but was probably being aimed at the wrong users.
After doing more research and refining who exactly this application would work for and identifying a new problem and a new user target I pivoted.
I learned that for the most part people with and without insurance often times struggle to receive the help they need be it because of dr’s schedules spread thin and having to wait months for an appt or not being able to make appointments during available times because of scheduling conflicts or simply because they cant afford it.
I think it’s amazing that CVS offers affordable services for people. With over 9,000 locations in the US I strongly believe that teaming up with CVS in an effort to not just drive business but genuinely provide help for people in need by also directing them to alternative resources could leave a very positive impact.
Some things I would like to explore in the future is re interviewing people and asking new questions on how they would actually like to choose clinics and other alternatives to the ER and how there loyalties work towards these places to better understand how to present that information and provide access to saving.