SKY CLINIC MEDICAL APP
A medical clinic patient management app case study
Project Type: Course Assignment
Time Period: February - March 2018
My Role: Low-Fidelity Prototype Sketcher, User Researcher, Prototype Designer (Hi-Fidelity), Storyboard Editor
Worked in team of 5 (including myself)
Tools Used: Balsamiq Wireframes, Figma
OVERVIEW
Problem Description: The premise of the group assignment was to design for a medical clinic, a native mobile/watch app for patients of the clinic. Our user interface could be designed for iOS/watchOS or Android/Android Wear. Using a Lean UX approach, we needed to deliver a high-fidelity prototype of the first Minimum Viable Product (MVP) release to the medical clinic.
Assumptions: With a Lean UX approach, we created our problem statement, business and user assumptions, proto-persona, and a hypotheses table.
Prototyping Approach: Lo-Fi Sketches -> User Testing -> Mid-Fi Prototypes -> User Testing -> Hi-Fi Prototypes
Hi-Fi Storyboard: We created a storyboard of the hi-fidelity prototype to provide a walkthrough of the use of the app.
Learning Outcome: A main takeaway I took from working on this project was how important it is as a UX designer to have knowledge of iOS and Android UI guidelines.
ASSUMPTIONS
Problem Statement: The current state of medical clinic information systems have focused primarily on phone and in-person registration and appointment booking and management, over-the-phone confirmation of wait times, and turning to disparate sources of information for clinic hours and doctor information. What the existing solution fails to address is most patients want a faster, more convenient response and feedback time for registration, appointment booking and management, and a centralized source of clinic information.
Our product will address this gap by providing the business with a native mobile/watch application for a more coherent feedback process between patient and clinic, allowing patients
to manage their registration, appointment bookings, and seek clinic information on the go. Our initial focus will be developing an app that allows for patients to register, book and manage appointments, receive notifications regarding upcoming appointments and view key walk-in clinic information.
Business Assumptions
1. We believe our users have a need to: have convenient access to booking and managing their medical appointments, as well as view key clinic information
2. These needs can be solved with: a mobile/watch app that allows them to manage and access clinic and appointment information, and a watch app that makes this information even simpler to manage
3. Our initial users are (or will be): patients of medical clinics
4. The #1 value a user wants to get out of our product is: convenience
5. Our users can also get these additional benefits: ease of use, ease of access to
appointment information, ability to see wait-times and other clinic information from
home, notifications of appointment, ability to update some patient information
6. We will acquire the majority of our users through: the medical clinics that adopt our
system, the reception.
7. We will make money by: selling our product to private and public clinics
8. Our primary competition in the market will be: off the shelf software like MindBody;
in-house existing software; paper-based systems
9. We will beat them due to: convenience and on-the-go access of the system; the ability
for doctors, administrators, and patients to access the information; adapting and
improving on existing systems for mobile and watch compatibility
10. Our biggest product risk is: competitors developing the software more quickly; patients
having privacy concerns; clinic administrators unwilling to abandon current systems
11. We will solve this through: quick development of an MVP and refinement from there; assurances of patient privacy through rigorous secure sign-in process; streamlined and
easy-to-use outputs for clinic administrators
12. We will know we are successful when we see the following changes in the user
behaviour: constant creation of new accounts; high activity on user accounts (less last minute cancellations, less no-shows, fewer patient inquiries/complaints
13. What other assumptions do we have that, if proven false, will cause our business/project to fail: we assume most patients use mobile and watch interfaces, are tech-savvy, and would like to access their appointment information by these devices. We assume they would like to manage this information online rather than through the phone or by showing up to the clinic. We’re also assuming people would prefer a wearable watch to using a desktop app.
User Assumptions
1. Who is the user: patients of medical clinics; generally aged of 16-50, but with no upper age limit
2. Where does our product fit in their work or life: users will be able to check/manage their appointments and clinic information, and get notified of upcoming appointments wherever they are - on the go, in their busy lives.
3. What problems does our product solve: saves the user time by giving more instantaneous information on cancellations and upcoming appointments , makes booking appointments anywhere, anytime easier, gives clear feedback on appointments details
4. When and how is our product used: through mobile and watch devices; appointments are still approved by clinic staff but these are clearly communicated via the interface, accessed via watch and mobile devices.
5. What features are important: registering a new patient, booking and cancelling appointments, managing appointments, viewing walk-in clinic information such as wait times, hours, and doctors, being able to change contact information; receiving notifications for upcoming appointments
6. How should our product look and behave: Our product should look and feel friendly but authoritative, professional, and trustworthy. It should be straightforward, convenient, and easy to use. Feedback will be clear and give users a sense of accomplishment. Reminders should be timely (and not excessive/overwhelming). More than anything else, we want users to feel safe, secure, assured, and informed.
Proto-Persona
Miranda Jensen
37 Years old
Busy Account Manager at an advertising firm
- Miranda is a busy Account Manager at an advertising firm who often works long hours
- Miranda is highly educated, and has just moved to a new condo in an upscale neighbourhood
- Miranda is constantly on the go, running from meeting to meeting, and sometimes has to travel out of town for work
- Miranda uses apps to organize her life - from meal planning to meeting booking to meditation - she’s all about efficiency and keeping things running smoothly
- Miranda is an early adopter who loves gadgets and apps - but they have to be attractive, easy to use, and very functional!
- Miranda has an Apple Watch and is still getting used to it, but so far she finds it useful for things like tracking workouts and playing music while she’s on the go or at the gym
Needs
- A new doctor! She has just moved to a new part of town and would like to find a new, conveniently located GP for herself.
- A way to quickly and easily book and change medical appointments, preferably in a way that she can do so on the go.
- A way to view clinic wait times in real-time - if the doctor is running behind she can squeeze in another work meeting, run an errand, or quickly hit the gym
Desires
- A way to automate appointment notifications - she’s pretty good with her iCal and setting appointments, but distractions can always come up in the form of a client call or intense, last-minute brand strategy meeting.
- A way to “get to know” doctors and specialists before an appointment - wants to come prepared to an appointment knowing a doctor’s specialization and what questions to ask to get the most out of an appointment.
Obstacles
- Constantly pressed for time
- Lots of “balls in the air” in terms of time management - worries she might miss something
Hypotheses Table
LOW-FIDELITY SKETCHES
After working out our assumptions, my team began working on our low-fidelity sketches. We decided to design our user interface for iOS/watchOS. For our assignment, there was an outlined set of required functionalities for our mobile/watch app:
-
For the mobile app:
-
New patient registration
-
Appointment booking
-
Appointment management
-
Walk-in clinic information
-
Doctors’ information
-
Patient account settings
-
-
For the watch app:
-
Notifications
-
Appointments
-
Walk-in clinic information
-
With our low-fidelity sketches, my group's goal was to make sure we provided these functionalities in our design. I created preliminary lo-fi sketches of the mobile and watch interfaces to show my group while they also made their own respective sketches of the interfaces. We then decided as a group which features from everyone's sketches we wanted to integrate into our final lo-fi sketches. Below are our finalized sketches we chose for user testing, click the arrows to go through each screen and hover or click on an individual screen to view details.
User Testing Lo-Fi Sketches: By testing our low-fi sketches, we wanted to see if users found any obvious issues with our initial design that would impede their ability to use the mobile/watch app smoothly. After testing our low-fi sketches with users, we used their feedback to inform our design for our mid-fi prototypes.
MID-FIDELITY PROTOTYPES
As a group, we created our mid-fi prototypes using Balsamiq Wireframes, an online wireframing tool. Below are our finalized mobile and watch prototypes we chose for user testing, click the arrows to go through each screen and hover or click on an individual screen to view details.
User Testing Mid-Fi Prototypes: As a group, we tested our mid-fi prototype on users to inform our design for our hi-fi prototypes and during the tests, I typed out notes of user feedback. An example of feedback we incorporated was adding a "messages centre".
HI-FIDELITY STORYBOARD
As a group, we created our hi-fi prototypes using Figma, a cloud-based screen design tool. Below are the finalized prototypes arranged in a storyboard, click the arrows to go through each screen and hover or click on an individual screen to view details. I was tasked with designing the hi-fi version of four mobile screens and two watch screens. However, before submitting our assignment we collectively edited the hi-fi screens to make final changes and touch-ups. I also edited the storyboard portion of our mobile screens for grammar and consistency in terms of formatting.
LEARNING OUTCOME
-
Having knowledge on iOS and Android UI guidelines as a UX designer is imperative: In designing our interface, we were required to follow the UI guidelines for the iOS operating system. This I believe gave us a valuable experience in working with the real world constraints of an operating system. If I could do the assignment again, I would want to design for Android/Android Wear.