Alignmed
Connecting women find providers they'll stick with
PROJECT TYPE
Conceptual
TEAM
UX Designer
DURATION
5 Months
DELIVERABLES
Desk research, User Interviews, Task Flows, Wireframes, Prototypes, Competitive Analysis
OVERVIEW
Finding suitable healthcare providers who create a sense of comfort is akin to cracking a complicated puzzle
When your health insurance changes, your trusted PCP is suddenly out-of-network. You dive into a sea of reviews to find a new one, but the choices overwhelm you. You settle for someone who seems okay, only to find they lack the warmth and kindness you need. The cycle repeats.
Health is a vulnerable topic, and we all want the best care for our bodies. Finding a good healthcare provider is complicated. Women, in particular, face unique burdens. Gender bias, medical gaslighting and racial disparities in receiving care add to the challenges.
SOLUTION
Alignmed facilitates seamless connections between women and healthcare providers, ensuring personalized matches that cater to their specific needs.
Highlights
Care that centers women
Alignmed’s network of providers are well versed in the obstacles women face when receiving care. They take a proactive approach to ensure women get the care they deserve.
Only get results that fit
Reduce constant re-entering of preferences when searching for a new doctor. Any provider the user matches fits within the preferences already established through a brief questionnaire.
Build a personalized care team
A trustworthy team of doctors empowers women's health management. Alignmed simplifies the process of building a comprehensive care team for a confident health journey.
RESEARCH
So what makes finding the right provider so difficult?
Given the nuanced struggle women face in finding the right provider, I decided to focus on them for this project. I used different research methods to tackle this question.
Desk research gave me a big-picture view of the industry and the struggles women face when trying to find care.
Competitive analysis of platforms including ZocDoc and Alma allowed me to see how other companies are solving similar problems, and what gaps for improvement exist.
The most valuable insights came from talking to five different women, where I gained a deeper understanding of their provider-finding experiences, needs, and challenges.
The primary persona derived from research are women who really care about their health and focus on preventive care. They're juggling making regular gynecological appointments along with dealing with other health conditions while working a full-time job. They value compassionate care and spend a lot of time shifting through provider reviews.
I’m naming this persona Olivia.
OPPORTUNITIES
Research insights helped me narrow in on solutions to address Olivia's needs and pain points
Guided by the insights from my research, I put together a list of key features essential for the product's success and tailored to meet Olivia's needs. These features formed the backbone of her product experience.
Transitioning to the next step, I created simple wireframe sketches to demonstrate how everything would come together and gathered valuable early feedback to identify any potential points of confusion.
Insight #1: People want providers they can trust and feel comfortable with
Among the 6 women I spoke to, 4 expressed the importance of a provider who understands or aligns with their emotional, cultural, and language needs. I explored different solutions keeping my persona, Olivia, in mind.
Design opportunity: How might we match Olivia with providers that meet her physical, emotional, and cultural needs?
Solution #1: Create a seamless experience to match Olivia with providers that suit her needs
Solution #2 Make it easy for Olivia to compile her favorite providers into a holistic care team
Insight #2: Healthcare is expensive and complicated–people want to make the right decision the first time
Just like in many situations, users invest quite a bit of time sorting through reviews to gather insights about a provider. They care about details like education, licenses, and the approach to care.
What really resonates with them is when they come across profiles that showcase the provider's human side. The ability to easily skim through reviews also ranked high on their list of priorities.
Design opportunity: How might we help Olivia more efficiently make an informed decision when selecting a healthcare provider?
Solution #1: Incorporate more personal and human-centered elements to provider profiles
Solution #2: Make it easy to scan through reviews from various sources
DESIGN & USABILITY TESTING
Users appreciated the questionnaire and provider matching, but were uncertain about the source of personality traits and how to update their matching results.
After several iterations and feedback from mentors and design peers, I transitioned my wireframes into an interactive high-fidelity prototype for usability testing. The test prioritized three main flows: sign-up flow to receive matching results, finding a match to book an appointment, and adding a provider to your care team.
Confusion #1: How are the personality traits populated? What is the source for them?
How I solved this: Implemented a tooltip to clarify the origin of personality trait labels and added platform logos to reviews, helping users recognize that previous patient feedback is sourced from reputable external sites.
Confusion #2: How do I edit my preferences to update matching results?
How I solved this: I incorporated a filtering system that allows users to view their questionnaire responses and readily modify or remove them, enabling them to update their matches seamlessly.
FINAL DESIGN
Alignmed: connecting women with providers they'll want to stick with
CONCLUSION
Lessons Learned
Explore different user perspectives
I looked at things mostly from the patient's perspective. If I had another shot at this project, I'd definitely try to dig deeper into how healthcare providers and hospitals see things. Does this solution actually make sense and benefit them? Or could it end up adding to their stress and burnout?
Deep dive into the healthcare system
This project misses some key insights on how the healthcare system actually functions. I need to do deeper research into a third party platform like Alignmed can seamlessly connect with hospitals and clinics in a way that still respects privacy and confidentiality concerns.
Learning what’s feasible
There are several features I’m unsure about in regards to feasibility. I will need to check this work with a developer to ensure these features are feasible and make sense to implement.