What's Up Doc
UX Design - App
Background
The ask of this project was to apply the user centred design process to research, design and prototype an app-based digital product of our own choosing. Thus, What’s Up Doc was born – a medical appointment management service aiming to both assist people with booking appointments and motivate people to become more proactive about safeguarding their health.
Competitor Analysis
A competitor analysis conducted of two popular apps, Health Engine and Hot Doc, uncovered the following observations about the existing experiences offered by other medical appointment management services:
Search Function
Patients can search for practices and practitioners to view their profiles and appointment times
Account Creation
Patients with accounts can pre-fill personal details and view past and upcoming appointments.
Appointment History
Patients are able to refer to the dates and times of their past appointments
Appointment Schedule
Patients are able to review the dates and times of their upcoming appointments
Edit or Cancel
Patients can edit or cancel any of their upcoming appointments
Preferred Practices and Practitioners
Patients can save the profiles of practices and practitioners that they prefer to visit
Practice and Practitioner Profiles
Profiles provide patients with helpful information about practices and practitioners
Alternate Patient Profiles
Patients can book appointments on behalf of family members
User Research
Given the COVID-19 restrictions at the time, user research interviews were conducted with 6 people via Zoom (with video) to closely mimic the face-to-face experience, with each session lasting between 30-45 minutes. These interviews revealed the following insights about people’s health habits and how they make and manage medical appointments:
People who don't book medical appointments regularly see no reason to keep an app for booking medical appointments, even if they enjoyed their past app experiences.
People who book medical appointments regularly have not enjoyed their past app experiences, but are interested in an app for booking medical appointments.
People want their practitioners to demonstrate a proactive and thorough approach and show they are genuinely invested in addressing their health goals and concerns
Experience Design
Driven by user research findings, What’s Up Doc wanted to assist patients with arranging and managing their medical appointments in the short term, while encouraging patients to adopt a more proactive approach towards achieving health goals and addressing health issues in the long term. The design of the What’s Up Doc app needed to focus on offering patients an informative and intuitive process to conveniently book medical appointments, as well as interest patients in returning to What’s Up Doc and nurture a habit of actively thinking about their health and speaking more often about their health objectives and concerns with their medical practitioners.
Appointment History
People often find it difficult to recall when their previous appointments were scheduled when asked by their practitioners. What’s Up Doc’s appointment history will enable patients to review their previous appointments to date and assess when future appointment bookings are appropriate.
Medicare Information
People indicated that it is inconvenient not being able to easily access Medicare information prior to booking an appointment with a practice they have never visited before. Practices listed on What’s Up Doc will be required to populate a ‘Medicare Information’ section, where they must outline whether they bulk bill and any available rebates.
Pre-Fill Personal Details
People who have booked appointments using an app before have expressed frustration at the need to populate their personal information each time an appointment is scheduled. What’s Up Doc will encourage patients to register for an account to save their personal information so appointment booking forms can be automatically pre-filled.
Appointment Reminders
People often forget to schedule follow-up or recurring appointments recommended by their practitioners. Through What’s Up Doc, patients and practitioners can both set reminders to prompt the booking of follow-up and recurring appointments in the short term, which should help patients then foster more proactive health habits in the long term.
Edit and Cancel
People do not enjoy having to contact a practitioner or practice by phone simply to edit or cancel an appointment is a time-consuming and inconvenient process. Patients will be able to revise and withdraw from any appointments at their own discretion directly from their list of upcoming appointments on What’s Up Doc.
Booking Confirmations and Reminders
People have indicated that while they find appointment confirmations and reminders helpful, they are disappointed that they do not always receive these. What’s Up Doc will ensure appointment confirmations are automatically sent after an appointment is booked to confirm with patients that their appointment has been successfully secured, as well as schedule automatic appointment reminders to prompt patients about their upcoming appointments.
Preparation Checklist
People feel it is troublesome and inefficient that they often have to contact a practice or practitioner by phone, or perform their own research online, to know what or how to prepare for their appointments. Depending on the type of appointment patients choose when booking their appointment, What’s Up Doc will inform patients of the relevant procedures, documents or reports to prepare.
Usability Testing
Usability testing of the What’s Up Doc prototype was conducted with 3 participants from the initial user research interview phase. The participants completed a total of 6 usability testing activities which explored 3 core user flows: ‘Search and Book Appointment’, ‘Edit Appointment’ and ‘Set Appointment Reminder’. Overall, 1 task yielded a 0% completion rate, 1 task yielded a 33% completion rate, and another task yielded a 50% completion rate. The remaining 3 usability testing tasks were completed correctly across the board.
The 3 tasks which resulted in a completion rate of 50% or lower revealed these findings that were deemed primary issues with the What’s Up Doc app:
People failed to utilise the ‘Sort By’ and ‘Filter By’ functionalities on the ‘Search & Book’ tab to refine their search results and struggled to find practices which aligned with their needs and preferences
People assumed follow-up appointment reminders would be set through the ‘Previous’ tab of the 'Appointments' page and incorrectly set reminders for new appointments instead
The remaining 3 tasks which all observed correct completion uncovered these additional issues with the prototype:
People were confused about whether they needed to attach a referral for an appointment type which typically wouldn't require a referral
People were interested in filtering practice listing search results to show practices which offered bulk billing and Medicare rebates
People struggled to populate the ‘Practice Name’ field on the ‘Set Reminder’ page as they couldn't remember the name of the practice they had previously booked with
These usability issues revealed that ‘Sort By’ and ‘Filter By’ features must be made more prominent, referral requirements for different appointment types must be clarified and the need for a single point of entry for both follow-up and new appointment reminders. As a result, these iterations to the What’s Up Doc prototype were recommended:
Features Onboarding
Walk-Through
Handy features (such as ‘Sort By’ and ‘Filter By’) and how they are helpful will be spotlighted during a patient's onboarding experience via a feature walk-through
Appointment Reminders
Point of Entry
Patients will be able to set both follow-up and new appointment reminders from the ‘Reminders’ page
Next Available Appointment Times and Geographical Distance
Next available appointment times and geographical distance from a patient's location to be shown on practice and practitioner listings
'Appointment Referrals' Page Selective Display
'Appointment Referrals’ page to only show where an appointment type which usually requires a referral to be provided is selected
Additional 'Filter By' Categories
‘Bulk-Billed’ and ‘Medicare Rebates Available’ options will become available as part of the ‘Filter By’ feature
'Practice Name' Search Bar
‘Practice Name’ field on the 'Set Reminder' page to be changed from a text field to search bar
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