Case One

Case Study: CareFirst

CareFirst - Urgent Care Center

CareFirst is a service organization with a vision to help doctors, nurses and hospitals educate patients easily and effectively through technology.

Amassing opinions of top healthcare professionals holding expertise in different departments, CareFirst tailors informative materials which can be used by patients.

CareFirst vision was to become a sole player in the field of providing educative materials for doctors to educate patients about preventive care.

Challenge

The client wanted to find a solution to improve the quality of patient-doctor conversation which discusses about new medication and treatments. As per statistics, a doctor has only 11 minutes to spend with one patient and talks about new treatments happens for roughly about 49 seconds. CareFirst wanted to increase the percentage of patients who could recall their treatment plan using cutting age technology by reducing time and cost.

Objective

Research, strategize and design an end-to-end PWA (progressive web app) experience solely dedicated to healthy lifestyle and have access to CareFirst members personal medical records to achieve their goals. Offer customers a highly valuable tool with a modern look and feel and intuitive navigation that makes self-service easy to find, use and understand.

Lacked understanding in customer wants, needs and expectations.

• Current frustrations and pain points?

• What did they really want?

• What did they really need?

Dived into an intensive 2-week

research sprint.

• User interviews

• Investigate forums, reviews and FB groups

• Map out a competitor and SWOT analysis

Random interview/survey questions that was asked.

(not matched in any order)

Data Analysis

• We were not surprised to find that members

were enthusiastic about the idea of a platform

dedicated to helping others with their personal

needs.

• We found out that members are motivated to

use a simple platform, where it is easy to

contact their doctor, refill medications, book

appointments, look up medication

information and a lot more.

Persona

User Journey

Persona

User Journey

Overwhelmed with insights

I needed to start prioritizing to form

a strategy.

• Understand key pain points needs

• Classify all insights gathered

• Present my synthesis to stakeholders

Jumped into secondary research to form

the product strategy and experience.

• Created affinity maps

• Prioritized customer pain points, wants and needs

• Presented the insights to stakeholders

I was on a very tight deadline and developers needed to start building soon.

• Should we design mobile first?

• Do we need wireframes?

• What was our visual design language?

• Do we need to write the complete storyboard?

• Do we need an inspirational moodboard?

Once the brainstorming questions were answered, I commenced the design right away.

• Move forward with a mobile-first approach

• Provide an inspirational moodboard,

user flows, wireframes, and high-fidelity

mockups.

• Focus on the login homepage, funnel

and pharmacy department first.

Inspirational

Moodboard

Pharmacy User Flow (mobile)

Wireframes

Wireframes

Wireframes

High Fidelity

Mockups

High Fidelity

Mockups

High Fidelity

Mockups

High Fidelity

Mockups

(Extra screen designs)

Testing

• For usability testing I used UserZoom GO to gain a deeper, more holistic understanding

of our customers through live video interviews and quick usability tests.

• Validately’s video chat platform was great for interacting directly with our users. Being

able to see their expressions as they answered questions and looked at prototypes and

chat directly with them made for a better experience than just reviewing video recordings

theymade on their own later.

• I found that the users were able to navigate from one screen to another and return back

to navigation screen without any problems. Adding products to cart to configuring the

payment process was done without a niche.

Results

• The number of follow-up and call-backs from patients was reduced by a mighty margin

which saves millions of dollars per year.

• Doctors were able to use the additional time to treat more patients.

• The need to check on patients about how well are they adhering to their treatment plans

was not needed anymore.

• Patients were able to refill medications through the app.

• Care First app won popularity among clinicians and thrives with hundreds of them.

Key Findings & Lessons Learned

Prioritize Accessibility and Inclusivity

One of the core lessons from this project was the importance of designing for diverse

user needs and abilities. My initial design concepts overlooked the challenges faced by

users with visual, auditory, or motor impairments. Incorporating accessibility best practices, such as high-contrast interfaces, clear labeling, and voice navigation, became

crucial to ensuring an inclusive user experience.

Balance Functionality and Simplicity

Finding the right balance between comprehensive features and an intuitive, streamlined interface was an ongoing challenge. While our pharmacy app needed to support a wide range of medical management tasks, overly complex menus and workflows risked overwhelming users. Iterative testing and a focus on task-oriented design helped us strike the right balance.

Emphasize Patient Safety and Data Security

Given the sensitive nature of medical information, ensuring the safety and security of patient data was paramount. This required a thoughtful approach to user authentication, data encryption, and access controls. Ongoing collaboration with our client's compliance team was essential to navigating the regulatory landscape and building trust with end-users.

Leverage Contextual Guidance and Personalization

Providing timely, relevant guidance emerged as a key strategy for improving the user experience. By leveraging user profiles, medication histories, and location data, we were able to surface personalized information and recommendations to help users manage their health more effectively. In-app tutorials and contextual help further supported user adoption and confidence.

Embrace a Continuous Improvement Mindset

The healthcare project was an iterative process of testing, learning, and refinement. Regularly gathering user feedback, monitoring analytics, and incorporating new requirements allowed me to continually enhance the application and address evolving user needs. Maintaining this mindset of continuous improvement was essential to the long-term success of the product.

The project underscored the importance of user-centric design, accessibility, and safety in the healthcare technology space. By prioritizing these key principles, I was able to create a more inclusive, intuitive, and trustworthy user experience that empowered patients to better manage their medical needs. The lessons learned will inform my approach to future digital health initiatives and strengthen my ability to deliver meaningful solutions that improve people's lives.