Fall 2023
Patients First
Project Overview
Role
UX/ UI Designer
Duration
4 weeks
Tool
View Prototype
The Problem
Patients often lack crucial health information, affecting their care quality. Without understanding their own conditions and history, they may face communication issues and delay in treatment.
Medical records are essential for accurate diagnoses and effective treatments, yet many patients struggle to access or understand them. Studies show that 74% of non-users of online medical records (OMRs) prefer direct communication with doctors, and 60% feel they don’t need them.
Key challenges include:
Confusing medical terms that are hard for patients to understand.
Poor usability of patient portals, making it frustrating to navigate and access information.
The Solution
A user-friendly app that makes reading medical records and test results easy and accessible. Improving access to personal health records and education can empower patients to manage their health more effectively.
Design Process
User Interviews
I conducted 3 interviews with individuals who have firsthand experience navigating various aspects of healthcare, including routine check-ups and chronic condition management, to find some key themes. Understanding users' pain points, motivations, and behaviours is key to designing solutions that truly meet their needs, improve their experience, and drive meaningful engagement.
Here are some main ideas found amongst our interviewees:
Design Challenge
I created a "How Might We" question to help frame the challenge in a user-centred way, guiding me to explore creative solutions that address user needs.
“How might we guide patients in understanding their medical records better in order to improve patient engagement in healthcare?”
User Persona
After compiling and structuring my research data, creating a persona became crucial for visualizing the target end-user. This persona guides the design process, ensuring an accurate representation of a patient eager to access and understand her health.
Task Flow
As our persona, Genevieve, grapples with her thyroid condition, she's driven by a personal commitment to understand her health better. That’s why, I’ve chosen to develop a task flow to help patients make sense of their lab results and what they mean for their health. It will guide users through accessing their personalized lab results, understanding medical terms, compare results, and receiving recommendations for their next health steps.
Sketches
Once I had the task flows built out, I started to sketch my initial designs to explore different ideas and layouts.
Mid-fi Wireframes
Once I had settled on my solution sketches, I started developing my digital wireframes in Figma. The design focuses on easy navigation, using clear visuals and language to simplify accessing medical records for users.
Usability Testing
To validate my proposed solutions, I conducted one round of usability tests with five users. The goal of the tests was to get feedback that could improve the design and the overall user experience. After analyzing the results, I organized all the suggested changes onto a design prioritization matrix and implemented changes accordingly, prioritizing low effort, high value changes.
Implemented Changes
To validate my proposed solutions, I asked 5 experienced users to perform the user tests and provide feedback. After analyzing the results, I organized all the suggested changes onto a design prioritization matrix and implemented changes accordingly, prioritizing low effort, high value changes.
Final Design
After conducting one round of usability testing and iterations, this is the final product.
An access to all your medical records. 📝
Patients can easily view and save their most recent lab results using this app. This simplifies the process for patients, eliminating frustration with difficult-to-navigate websites when trying to access their results.
Easy-to-read results. 📊
The app simplifies technical terms into easy-to-understand information, helping patients grasp results without confusion from complicated numbers and unfamiliar words. Patients can also track their progress visually to see how their health has changed over time.
Personalized tips and next steps on managing your health. 💡
Patients can get personalized tips on how to maintain or improve their health before their next lab test.
Reflection
This was my first design challenge that I tackled on my own, and it was such a rewarding experience. I learned how to ask the right questions to uncover users' pain points, which really helped me figure out the kind of solution to design. During usability testing, I struggled at first with deciding which changes to prioritize, especially with the limited time we had. It was a valuable lesson in focusing on small, impactful improvements that make the biggest difference. Overall, this experience gave me more confidence in navigating the design process and reinforced my love for creating user-centred solutions!