Patients First

Patients First is a project where I was tasked with creating a digital solution to help improve healthcare for patients.

I created a mobile app focussing on making it easier for patients to connect to a medical specialist. The patient can look up different specialists and make an appointment on the app. 

The project only asked for 2 wireframes with 1 user testing, but I created the Hi-fis afterwards for practice. 

Project
Project given by BrainStation in 3 weeks
Additional 1 week for Hi-fi created

My Role
UX Researcher, Asset Collection, Wireframing, Stitching Prototype

Tools
Pen & Paper, Marvel, Sketch, Figma, InVision

Platform
Android

Problem Space and Research

This project aimed to place patients at the center of healthcare by providing a deep understanding of their needs and experiences, while improving patient outcomes.

My secondary research began by looking at Canada's healthcare system history, surveys, and reports. The rise of COVID-19 cases has led to longer wait times for surgical procedures, which resulted in almost 600,000 fewer surgeries being performed in the first 22 months of the pandemic¹.

Median Wait Times:

• Getting a referral for a specialist increased from 22.6 weeks (2020) to 25.6 weeks (2021)². 
• Getting a consultation with the specialist increased from 10.5 weeks (2020) to 11.1 weeks (2021)².
• Getting treatment after the consultation increased from 12.1 weeks (2020) to 14.5 weeks (2021)².

User Interviews

I interviewed three participants who previously had surgery in Canada. I asked about their thoughts on the Canadian healthcare system and their experiences leading up to getting the surgery. 

From the interviews, I selected important quotes and placed them accordingly to Pain Points, Motivations, and Behaviours. Afterward, I group them to identify 5 themes:

1. Long Wait Times
   People are frustrated at long wait times to see a specialist, schedule a surgery, or wait at the ER.
2. Diagnosis Problems
   People are disappointed and upset at misdiagnoses or lack of diagnosis when they see a healthcare professional.
3. Specialist Availability
   People want to have access to a specialist faster so they can be properly diagnosed.
4. Aftercare
   People appreciate the treatment they received for aftercare after their surgery.
5. Lack of Efficiency
   People wish efficiency in the system gets better to improve their hospital experience.

Persona

After identifying the 5 themes, I was able to create a persona, Mike Ma. This persona helps to express the needs and expectations of my user group through a realistic portrayal. 

User Stories, Epics, Task Flow

I created 45 user stories to see what Mike's needs and goals were to come up with a digital solution. Afterward, I created two epics to group 10 related user stories each.

1. Scheduling an appointment for a specialist
   
2. Submitting feedback to a recent hospital
   

I created two task flows based on the two epics. However, I chose to focus on the first task flow for my project, because this would be a bigger priority for Mike who needs to find a specialist and get surgery ASAP for his torn ligament. In addition, alleviating wait times by connecting patients with more specialists would be beneficial. 

Paper Prototype

I looked at websites such as Behance, Mobbin, etc for inspiration. Since my app is about making an appointment, I looked for features that represented searching for info, filters, booking, calendar style, and home screens that were hospital themed.
See my InVision board for my design inspirations.

I sketched out the screens based on my task flow and used Marvel to create a paper prototype. I tested it quickly with three users to see if the flow of the design was feasible. Everyone was able to navigate through the design, so I went to create the wireframes on Sketch.
See my paper prototype on Marvel.

Lo-fi Wireframe 1

I created the screens on Sketch and prototyped them on InVision.

I had a user test plan and tested 5 users through video chats on Zoom, Facebook Messenger, and Discord. The purpose of this test is to see how the user goes through making an appointment by selecting a top-rated specialist and then selecting a date for the appointment.

The user went through five tasks:
1. What would you do to start booking an appointment?
2. What would you do if you wanted to select an orthopedist?
3. You want to find a doctor with 5 stars, how would you do that?
4. How will you search for dates to book him?
5. If you needed to go back to a previous page, how would you do that?

User Testing Results

The results show that all users were able to complete the 5 tasks without problems. This indicates that there are no major problems with the task flow. However, there can still be visual design improvements as I talk with the users afterward.

I had some assumptions beforehand, such as assuming there would be more questions on the making a reservation process. However, there were comments about the Filters when filtering the specialists, such as having "Sort By" instead, the meaning of reviews vs ratings, and being able to see 3 stars and above reviews.

Lo-fi Wireframe 2 Changes

Based on user feedback, I made some design changes to the second wireframe. 

Hi-fi Prototype

For this class project, I didn't have to do any more user testing or create a Hi-fi version, but I created the Hi-fi as practice for myself. I switched from Sketch to Figma for the prototyping capabilities.

This is based on the inspiration from my InVision board. I used blue as the main color to instill calmness that is suitable for a hospital-related app. And kept it white with a bright orange button and accents for a clean and simple design.

Reflections

It was very interesting interviewing users about their thoughts about the healthcare system in Canada and hearing their stories about what they went through. Condensing all the information and grouping them helps with ultimately coming up with a solution. And although each user's situations are different, a lot of frustrations are echoed the same and it helped to shape the persona I used. And from this, I was able to narrow down my core task flow for my app to help the persona.

Considerations for the future:
Moving forward with the app, I would want to perhaps have section booking appointments for vaccines or COVID-19 related issues. User testing would also be needed for the Hi-fi prototype to gauge reaction as well.

References
¹ https://www.cihi.ca/en/wait-times-for-priority-procedures-in-canada.
² https://www.fraserinstitute.org/studies/waiting-your-turn-wait-times-for-health-care-in-canada-2021