Connecting four systems around one patient.
Patients were left to coordinate their own care between doctors, insurance providers and pharmacies. I designed a user-centric telemedicine app for iPhone and Apple Watch that connects all four in one place, from urgent visits to insurance coverage and prescription refills.
Four parties without a shared view.
The American healthcare system is made up of doctors, patients, insurance providers and pharmacies, and every one of them has needs the other three cannot see. How might we improve communication between distinct healthcare stakeholders, enhancing the overall healthcare experience?
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Patients
Want one place to raise an urgent or minor concern, order and refill a prescription, and make, reschedule or cancel an appointment.
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Doctors
Want the same digital route to a patient for urgent or minor concerns, and need to hear from a pharmacy when a medication is out of stock.
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Pharmacies
Hold the medication inventory a patient cannot see, and need anything touching it to be secure and HIPAA-compliant.
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Insurance providers
Hold the in-network pricing for prescriptions and appointments that patients want to see in real time.
My goal was to put appointments, prescriptions, pricing and the consultation in one place, so patients no longer had to coordinate their own care.
From secondary research to high fidelity prototypes.
I did secondary research and 24 user interviews before drafting the first wireframe, then took the home screen through five versions based on user testing.
- 01Discover
Secondary research and user interviews
- 02Define
Affinity mapping, personas and feature synthesis
- 03Develop
User flows, wireframes and the design system
- 04Deliver
User testing and high fidelity prototypes
01Discover
Conducting secondary research and 24 user interviews.
I started with secondary research to learn how widely telemedicine had been adopted, which healthcare use cases it covered and which products on the market handled telemedicine features best. After that I interviewed 15 healthcare consumers, 8 medical workers (2 licensed physician assistants, 3 medical doctors and 3 pharmacists) and 1 insurance provider, all from diverse backgrounds.
- 24User interviews
- 15Healthcare consumers
- 8Medical workers
- 1Insurance provider
Strengths
Internal, helpful
- A reason to try the appTelemedicine was still new to most patients during the research.
- Designed from the researchI shaped the product around 24 user interviews, and each feature traces back to a need someone raised in those sessions.
- Four services in one appAppointments, prescriptions, pricing and the consultation all live in one place, where existing products on the market offered each of them separately.
- Consultations inside the appProvider partnerships let consultations happen inside the app.
- Real-time in-network pricingInsurance integrations provide real-time in-network pricing for prescriptions and appointments.
- Secure handling of health dataSecure, HIPAA-compliant handling of health data gives patients and providers a reason to trust the app.
Weaknesses
Internal, harmful
- A new name in the categoryThe category is led by insurers, hospital systems and pharmacy chains. ScheduleSAFE enters as a new name without an existing user base.
- Costs before the first patientIntegrations, compliance and clinical staffing all need to be ready before launch, and the product depends on pharmacy and insurance partners being in place from day one.
- Required before launchEvery feature has to meet HIPAA requirements before it ships.
- Licensing and prescribing rulesLicensing, prescribing rules and state boundaries differ by location.
- A different API for each partnerEach insurance, provider and pharmacy partner exposes a different API on its own timeline.
- Security work before launchSecurity for health data has to be designed, built and audited before launch.
Opportunities
External, helpful
- Rising adoption of telemedicineSecondary research showed telemedicine adoption growing across the market.
- Care where providers are far awayIn healthcare deserts, distance to the nearest provider is the main barrier to care. Remote consultations remove that barrier.
- Users already manage health on mobileMany health consumers already track and manage their health with apps, so they come in already familiar with the behavior the app relies on.
- Room to add providersAdditional provider partnerships expand the care available in the app.
- New marketsThe app could be offered in other countries.
- Continuous health dataWearable devices that patients already own produce continuous health data, and an integration would let the app flag when care is needed.
Threats
External, harmful
- Rules that change after launchRegulations can change in markets where the app has already launched.
- Breaches of health dataA breach of health data would break the trust that patients and providers place in the app.
- Trust in remote careSome patients doubt that a remote consultation is real care, and some providers resist adopting another system. This is what pushed me to focus on building user trust through the visual design.
- Platform updatesThe underlying technology will need updates while the integrations are being built, so I recorded that work as a threat to the delivery timeline.
- Dependence on partner decisionsA partner can change an API, raise a price or sign with another product, and any feature built on that partner is affected.
- A crowded categoryThe same telehealth growth also draws competing products into the category.
02Define
Organizing insights with affinity mapping and personas.
I sorted the interview insights with affinity mapping, then built personas from the interviewees' demographics and answers. The research pointed to three primary user groups affected by telemedicine apps: patients, doctors and pharmacists. The insurance provider gave the other three groups their pricing information but was not a daily user of the product, so it shaped the features without getting a persona of its own.
02Define
Synthesizing six primary features.
Synthesizing the research gave me six primary features. Each one takes healthcare processes and systems that are usually confusing and disconnected, and pulls them together into something simpler.
Select a figure to change the view.
Telemedicine
Patients and doctors want a digital solution to discuss urgent or minor health concerns.
Prescription management
Consumers want a mobile solution to order and refill prescriptions.
Appointment management
Consumers want a mobile solution to make, reschedule and cancel medical appointments.
Insurance partnerships
Consumers want to view in-network pricing for prescriptions and appointments in real time.
Pharmacy partnerships
Consumers want to view medication inventory at selected pharmacies, with stock outages communicated to their physician.
Data storage and security
Doctors and pharmacists need the app to be secure and HIPAA-compliant.
I then scored ten candidate features on two axes, customer importance and business impact, and the five that scored high on both became the MVP.
- Highest on both axesUsers asked for real-time in-network pricing on prescriptions and appointments, and that pricing is only available through an insurance provider integration.
- Requested by patients and doctorsPatients and doctors both asked for a way to discuss urgent or minor concerns without a visit. It scored lower on business impact than the three integrations because it is built in-house.
- Required for every consultationEvery consultation requires a provider on the other end. The SWOT analysis recorded provider partnerships as both a strength and an opportunity.
- The consultation itselfIt scored high on customer importance and lower on business impact, because it is delivered as part of the telehealth functionality.
- Inventory and stock outagesUsers asked to view medication inventory at selected pharmacies and to have stock outages communicated to their physician. Both require a pharmacy integration.
- Wanted by patientsPatients wanted a profile that holds their health history. It scored low on business impact because it has no partner dependency, so it was planned after the integrations.
- Wanted at the time of scoringUsers wanted COVID exposure tracking at the time the features were scored, but it scored low on business impact because no other feature depends on it.
- Requested by the businessReviews give users a reason to come back to the provider directory, which is where their business impact score came from. They were not one of the six features from the research.
- Dependent on appointment managementThe research identified appointment management but not reminders, and since reminders build on scheduling, they scored low on both axes.
- An enhancement to schedulingThe calendar view is an add-on to appointment management. It scored low on both axes and was placed after the five MVP features.
The five features that scored high on both customer importance and business impact became the MVP.
Insurance provider integrations
Real-time in-network pricing for prescriptions and appointments.
Telehealth functionality
A digital route for patients and doctors to discuss urgent or minor health concerns without a visit.
Healthcare provider integrations
A healthcare provider available on the other end of every consultation.
Real-time communication with a provider
The consultation itself, delivered as part of telehealth functionality.
Pharmacy integrations
Medication inventory at selected pharmacies, with stock outages communicated to the physician.
Three of the five MVP features are integrations with outside parties, which the SWOT analysis had also recorded as a risk.
Insurance providers
Supplies real-time in-network pricing for prescriptions and appointments.
Healthcare providers
Connects a patient to a provider for every consultation.
Pharmacies
Supplies medication inventory at selected pharmacies and communicates stock outages to the physician.
03Develop
Mapping user flows before designing screens.
Secondary research showed a growing share of health consumers choosing mobile apps over desktop to connect with providers and manage their health data, so I scoped the work to a mobile application. After prioritizing the features and writing user stories, I defined the user workflows through flow mapping.
I sketched interfaces on paper and in Balsamiq, then used those rapid prototypes to guide the low fidelity and mid fidelity wireframes in Figma. I explored multiple variations and merged the most promising elements of each into one set.
03Develop
Guiding the visual design with color theory.
Nosocomephobia, the fear of hospital environments, comes partly from the colors people associate with sterile clinical spaces. So instead of the institutional blues and whites most healthcare products use, I built the palette from a mix of whimsicality, tranquility and urgency where needed. Design research also shows a positive correlation between user trust in medical settings and a non-institutional, playful design aesthetic, which is why I added illustration to the interface.
04Deliver
Testing three tasks with the wireframes.
The first wireframes put the six features on one home screen, ordered by user need, with navigation to the patient dashboard, appointment management and the user profile. I then gave participants three tasks to complete with those wireframes.
The sessions turned up two more user needs: a dedicated button for prescription maintenance and search across the whole app.
- 3Tasks tested
- 2Additional user needs
- 5Home screen versions
04Deliver
Iterating the home screen across five versions.
I added both needs to the second version of the home screen, then iterated on it through three more versions.
The first version set up the structure of the home screen, with six features prioritized by user need.
I added a prescription maintenance button and search across the app based on user testing.
I gave the calls to action and fields more visual weight to mark the key interaction points.
I added illustrations to point users toward the zones, buttons and fields each workflow needs.
I worked in the remaining feedback and polished the visual elements.
Designing five flows for iPhone and Apple Watch.
The first flow connects the patient to the doctor, the insurer and the pharmacy at sign up. The next three each connect the patient to one of them, and the fifth adds live captions to the consultation. I designed every flow for the iPhone with an Apple Watch companion, because participants already wore one and the SWOT analysis had named wearable integration as an opportunity.
Every party connected at sign up.
The interviews showed that the patient was the only link between the doctor, the insurer and the pharmacy, so I designed the app to make that link once, during first launch. On the iPhone, the patient creates an account and connects their insurance before the dashboard tour.
On the watch, I handed sign-in off to the iPhone so nobody has to type a password on a small screen. The profile then syncs with each of the three providers as they are checked off. Reminder and Health permissions come next, and then the ScheduleSAFE complications go on the watch face. That puts the next visit, the day's doses and the refill count on the wrist from day one.
An urgent visit, from symptoms to follow-up.
Doctors in the interviews asked for a digital route to their patients. On the iPhone, the app confirms the patient's location and matches them with the nearest in-network urgent care partner before they join the call.
On the watch, I swapped the intake form for symptom chips and a started-when control. The patient's place in the queue counts down from 3rd to 1st on the wrist, and a haptic lets them know when the doctor is ready. Afterward, the visit summary confirms the prescription went to the pharmacy and adds the two week follow-up to the calendar.
Coverage, known before the visit.
Insurers held the in-network information that patients wanted to see in real time. On the iPhone, the patient scans their insurance card, connects the insurer and picks an in-network care provider, and from then on every provider shows up with its coverage attached.
On the watch, the insurance card flips over to show the member, policy and pharmacy numbers. At check-in it shows a full-brightness QR code, so the patient never has to pull out a phone or wallet at the front desk. Each provider is marked in-network, and directions to the clinic open from the same screen.
A refill caught before it runs out.
Patients could not see pharmacy stock, so they only found out a medication was out of stock once they got to the counter. Testing also showed that prescriptions needed a dedicated button. On the iPhone, the patient picks a prescription and compares the insured and self-pay prices at each pharmacy before ordering the refill.
On the watch, a low-supply alert comes in with 1 day left, and supply bars show how many days are left on every medication. The nearest pharmacies are listed by distance with the lowest price tagged, and the refill costs $4.12 with insurance compared to $14.50 self-pay. A pickup alert comes in after 4 PM, and the patient scans code RX 7419 at the counter.
Captions sized for the wrist.
I planned for patients with hearing or vision needs from the first version of the consultation. On the iPhone, the patient can turn on live captions, enlarge the caption text and switch on high contrast during the call.
On the watch, captions appear word by word under the speaker's name. Turning the Digital Crown steps the caption size from Medium to Large with a live preview, and high contrast moves the captions onto a solid black panel with a yellow speaker label. To review earlier lines, the patient scrolls back through the transcript with the crown.
Six needs consolidated into one application.
The six needs from the research now live in one application: telemedicine, prescription management, appointment management, insurance partnerships, pharmacy partnerships and HIPAA-compliant storage. Patients no longer have to coordinate between four separate parties themselves.
Iterated through user testing.
Testing three tasks with participants turned up two needs that the six features had not covered: a dedicated button for prescription maintenance and search across the whole app. I added both in the next version and kept iterating until the home screen had gone through five versions.
Accessible by default.
I designed live captions, adjustable caption size and high contrast into the consultation from the first prototype.