UX/UI Case Study: MedHub App

The healthcare system has seen a tremendous load with a large increase volume of patients to treat, changes in funding and staffing resulting in shorter office visits and an increased need for paperwork leading to higher complexity for patient’s to navigate the system. Coupling the increasing pace and complexity of the healthcare system with the physical impairments of the geriatric population often lead to inequities and mistreatment of this patient population. Issues like hearing loss, vision loss, memory impairments and mobility challenges leave these patients frustrated and fearful of not being able to independently navigate the overall cognitive and physical load required to receive quality medical care.

MedHub is a mobile application that would target the geriatric population (55+ yrs) and address the difficulties that they face when navigating the healthcare system. This app would allow patients to input their medical history and medications list and have a QR Code or link that medical staff couple use to into their systems to ease lengthy onboarding, each of the patient’s practitioners would have their own tab so that they can visually keep contact/office directions/messaging organized and a transcription option that they could run during a live office visit to have a written recap that they could review after the session.

In running a SWOT analysis and live patient interviews, it does appear that there is value in producing an application to address this target population and this issue. There does not appear that there are any other applications with a similar target audience. Difficulty may arise when trying to gain permissions from practitioners to gather transcription during sessions and strict HIPPA laws need to be addressed to protect medical information. While there are some aspects that need further investigation, the investment in the design of this application would be beneficial to the geriatric patient population.

In research prior to design of this app, SWOT analysis and target audience interviews were conducted. The result of the SWOT analysis showed that the strengths and opportunities to serve the geriatric population far outweighed the weaknesses and threats. The outstanding positives to developing this product include the dirth of products on the market serving this patient population, decreasing patient frustration, increasing patient compliance and easing some toll medical staff.

The interviews conducted on 4 patients within the target audience showed that there is significant distress when trying to navigate to medical offices, confusion with repetitive paperwork and difficulty maintaining adequate communication to fully comprehend diagnosis and treatment.

Version 1

Version 1 of app: Figma was used for the design and prototyping of the MedHub App. Version 1 was used design and prototype of the general user/task flow was created for peer feedback. The design was very elementry at this stage in attempts to work out general concepts.

Version 2

Version 2 of app: Based on feedback from peers that some difficulty was found navigating back to an anchorpoint within the app, the home screen was developed where users could return and then migrate out to another function. Aesthetic changes were also made to create more contrast to help user find the button borders and make navigating more successful.

Overview Version 3

Version 3 of app: For the final version of the app, the appointment functions were more streamlined, linked back to homepage and the prototype was made ore interactive for the user.

The process of taking the app through usability testing was very helpful to learn what is not completely intuitive to the user. The testing revealed that some of the buttons that were chosen were not taking the user back to the home screen in some cases and users were confused as to how to navigate farther. This was rectified in the final version, but the process informed the design iterative process.

The UI/UX process has been very informative to me as the designer. It was so helpful to see the overview of the design process and see the user flow as the purpose of the design verses focusing solely on the asethetics.

From this process, I have learned that the more information gathered in the research phase informs the whole process. Getting to know what the true problem is and finding aspects that were unforseen helped to navigate the design of the app.

I found that the prototyping phase of the project was the most rewarding. To really think through how the user would navigate and when they may feel lost was strangely a natural process. I find that making aesthetically pleasing products that are also interactive is very fulfilling to me as a designer. I am proud of how the app has evolved and the potential that it has to solve a real problem.