Patient First
Helps connect patients with specialist doctors…..faster.
Role
UX Designer & Researcher
Time
4 Weeks part-time
Tools
Figma
Need an MRI?
In Prince Edward Island, you could be waiting for over 5 months!
The Broken State of the Canadian Health Care System
Patients are waiting longer and longer to receive referral appointments from General Practitioners to Specialists.
A 2022 survey found that 63% of Canadians indicated a lack of staff was the biggest problem facing the national healthcare system. Access to treatment and/or long waiting times were also a problem.
Delays to crucial healthcare and surgeries can turn curable diseases and ailments into chronic conditions, disabilities, or even death!
The Problem Statement
Waiting times for specialist treatments have increased since last year. Specialist physicians surveyed report a median waiting time of 27.4 weeks between referral from a general practitioner and receipt of treatment—longer than the wait of 25.6 weeks reported in 2021. This year’s wait time is the longest wait time recorded in this survey’s history and is 195% longer than in 1993, when it was just 9.3 weeks.
Why does the Research matter?
Major Healthcare Impacts as a Result of Increased Wait Times:
Cancelled or delayed procedures and appointments
Progression of disease
Loss of income due to medical leaves leading to possible job loss
Worsening health outcomes
Mental health impacts
Research Objectives
To understand patients’ motivations behind shorter wait times and find solutions that can reduce patients’ pain points to waiting for an appointment.
Hypothesis:
I believe that patients are frustrated over long wait times because they feel like their medical pain and illness is dehumanized and “does not matter”. Patients feel like a number on a list rather than a human needed to be cared for.
I will know I am right when 2 out of 3 of my patient interviewees describe their emotion towards long wait times as feeling dehumanized.
Hypothesis Assumptions
Patients feel negative emotions towards long wait times.
Feeling dehumanized is the primary reason patients are frustrated over long wait times.
Not knowing what to expect while waiting for an appointment is a reason for patients’ frustrations.
Lack of knowledge in pain management while waiting for an appointment is a reason for patients’ frustrations.
Interview Participant Criteria:
Patients aged between 40 to 55 who have at least booked 1 specialist appointment in Canada and have lived in Canada around for 5 years or more.
Age: 46 | Iranian
Dependents: 2
In Canada since: 18 years
Age: 41 | Nigerian
Dependents: 0
In Canada since: 7 years
Age: 52 | Vietnamese
Dependents: 4
In Canada since: 5 years
Affinity Mapping
Interview Themes & Insights
Lack of Control
Patients feel a lack of control regarding their and their family’s healthcare. Thus they engage in information seeking behavior to gain a sense of control and know what to expect.
They don’t care
The long wait times and lack of communication during the wait times are interpreted as a lack of care. However, the feelings of “Lack of care” is mainly observed from the participant who is younger and has no dependents.
Anxiety
Patients also feel immense anxiety while they wait for their specialist appointments.
Assumptions Review
Patients feel negative emotions towards long wait times.
Feeling dehumanized is the primary reason patients are frustrated over long wait times.
Not knowing what to expect while waiting for an appointment is a reason for patients’ frustrations.
Lack of knowledge in pain management while waiting for an appointment is a reason for patients’ frustrations.
Correct. 3 out of 3 participants described their experience waiting for specialist appointments in a negative manner.
Incorrect. 2 out of 3 participants were frustrated due to feeling “lack of control”. There are also many pain points and motivations which demonstrate the feelings of “lack of care”.
Correct. 2 out of 3 participants engaged in information seeking behavior while they waited for their appointments.
Correct. 1 participant attempted to convince doctors regarding the severity of her husband’s pain. 1 participant expressed that getting sick is like “getting in trouble” because you don’t have support on what to do.
Findings: While patients did describe long wait times in a negative manner. The reasons were not because they felt “dehumanized”, or “a number on a list”. Patients expressed the cause of the frustration due to feelings of “lack of control” and “unable to take action on their own”. While patients have also described to almost equally feel like “they are not being cared for”, patients engage in “information seeking behavior”, through networking and communicating with other patients to know what to expect and regain some sense of control.
How Might We help patients feel a sense of control while they wait for their specialist appointments in Canada?
Persona
This persona represents my target users by having common pain points, motivations, and behvaviours.
Experience Mapping: Current State
This is the current mapping of my persona’s journey. Let’s see how CeCe currently navigates her decision making process when she needs to book an appointment with a specialist doctor. This will help me as a designer to empathize with my persona and identify the key challenges in their current journey.
CeCe wants control:
The ability to choose her appointment than let the appointment choose her. This is why the focus of this project will be on the Booking Epic, which directly addresses the user’s control of choosing their appointments and doctors.
User Stories & Epics
Epic: Booking
Product: A tool that specializes in simplifying doctor booking experience.
Persona: Primary Caregiver
User Story: As a primary caregiver I want to view immediate available specialists so that I can book the appointment myself instead of depending on the appointment or a doctor to find time for me.
Current Practice: Family or General practitioners make a referral to a specialist doctor internally. This involves the patient waiting for a phone call from an unknown doctor, with no referral provided on how long it will take to receive the first call or when it will come.
Task Flow Assumption: Family or General practitioners provide a referral letter to patient which qualifies the patient to seek their first appointment with a specialist doctor independently.
Information Architecture:
A snapshot of what the entire app can function as
Design Inspirations
Design Decisions & Why?
Blue & White Colour: The users mostly use facebook, so the UI should match the apps they currently use.
List Form: The information should be stacked on top of another with a vertical scroll. Since the users are middle aged population who may not be as tech savy, there should be less clutter on the screen.
Days v/s Dates: The users' weekly schedules are structured like 9 to 5's. To filter dates, the option of which days in the week instead of dates will save more space on the screen.
Search Filters: There should be a drop down button stating “Filter by” - “ratings”, “reviews”, “location”, “years of experience”, “number of patients”, so the users can prioritize a doctor as per their needs.
Choose Location: There should be a map for the users to visualize how far their clinic will be from their home.
Sketches
Specialist Category Screen
Radio button
Specialist category type
Image of part of body specialized
Landing Screen
Friendly animoji
Referral Cards
Filter Screen
Which days of the week available?
What timings of the day available?
Select location as per GPS location
How soon is the appointment needed?
Doctor Screen
City location
Patient ratings
More Information
Number of patient reviews
Confirmation Screen
Patients can confirm if their selection or go back and select another option.
Message Screen
This screen will confirm the patient’s booking and notify what to expect next.
Mid-Fi Wireframes
User Testing
As part of the Patient First design process, I plan to conduct usability tests with about 5 users for 1 persona in order to obtain practical, real-time feedback that can be incorporated to improve the design, in order to provide a more optimal user experience.
Brand Discovery
This app is more classy than trendy
This app is more succinct than comprehensive
This app is more monotone than vibrant
This app is more visual than informative
This app is more muted than vibrant
Moodboard
Colour Extraction
Hex: #164DF1
Hex: #0F36A6
Hex: #034D8C
Hex: #135E8B
Hex: #DCEEF1
Typography Inspiration
Fajjala One
Fjalla One is a great font for web design, as it is highly legible and has a modern and minimalistic look. It is perfect for creating a clean and professional look for websites and logo designs.
Wordmark & App Icon: Dark & Lightmode
Accessibility
Normal Text
WCAG AA
WCAG AAA
Graphic & UI
WCAG AA
Large Text
WCAG AA
WCAG AAA
Ratio
6.23:1
#FFFFFF
#164DF1
Normal Text
WCAG AA
WCAG AAA
Graphic & UI
WCAG AA
Large Text
WCAG AA
WCAG AAA
Ratio
10:1
#FFFFFF
#0F36A6
Normal Text
WCAG AA
WCAG AAA
Graphic & UI
WCAG AA
Large Text
WCAG AA
WCAG AAA
Ratio
8.59:1
#FFFFFF
#034D8C
Normal Text
WCAG AA
WCAG AAA
Graphic & UI
WCAG AA
Large Text
WCAG AA
WCAG AAA
Ratio
6.99:1
#FFFFFF
#135E8B
Normal Text
WCAG AA
WCAG AAA
Graphic & UI
WCAG AA
Large Text
WCAG AA
WCAG AAA
Ratio
17.54:1
#FFFFFF
#DCEEF1
Key Takeaway
Researching on a subject matter and a demographic where I had little to no prior knowledge and biases, helped me in being objective in creating user centric solutions. I was quite surprised with the results of my interviews. Users with dependents felt the lack of control whereas the users without dependents felt the lack of care.
Going Forward...
I would redesign the app so users can filter location, time, and ratings based on whichever criteria is meaningful to them.
I would connect apple or google maps to the map on my app so that the users can verify if the location of a clinic is transit friendly.
I would create hover/ pressed states on each doctor to show the top 3 reviews.