Medley
Connecting you with mental health professionals for on - demand care
Overview
Timeframe: 7 weeks
Tools: Unbounce, Figma, Google AdWords, Kickstarter
Role: UX/UI Designer, Market research analyst
Background & Problem Space
We wanted to tackle problems in the healthcare industry after agreeing that the U.S. healthcare system is broken; however, within that problem space, policies are not the only problems.
We found that Americans also have the highest healthcare expenditure per capita compared to other OECD nations but why is that no one seems satisfied and so many seem to be troubled by accessing care?
Interviews & Surveys
The main purpose of our interviews and surveys was to find the most frustrating part of the experience of accessing healthcare. We also had storyboards of possible solutions targeting different experiences that we thought were relevant.
Before conducting those interviews and surveys, we were also able to easily identify the parties/users involved in our problem space: The medical professionals, insurance companies, and patients.
To our surprise, paying for insurance out of pocket or shopping for insurance have become a way of life that people had no issues with expenses or affordability. (Perhaps due to our subjects' backgrounds being WEIRD) The most common complaint was actually accessing care quickly and efficiently.
People reported having to wait for weeks or even months to access a simple procedure with a designated medical center/physician.
The idea/storyboard that received the highest rating from our subjects was a tool to connect patients with medical professionals working from home for on-demand care.
Value Flow
But can this be a viable business model?
We want to eliminate the hospital/clinics and have Medley take its place and somehow link the doctors with the patients.
We followed a similar business model as most products and applications in the sharing economy, like Uber or Airb&b. This way we act as a "middleman" to support the exchange of goods and services between two parties of users.
Branding Probes & A/B testing
To determine the color palettes and fonts, we searched for branding patterns in our competitors and products that are also in the health & wellness category.
Since pink is a softer color that's often used to represent health and love, while blue communicates professionalism and cleanliness and we wanted to represent both qualities, we decided to test the two branding alternatives. But what would we be testing for?
Since the point of our landing page is to get more users to sign up either as a patient or a doctor, we decided to measure the conversion rate (clicks) on the "sign up" button.
After weighing the two versions equally on Unbounce, we turned to Google AdWords for advertisement to gain traction.
We generated 12.6k impressions and 151 clicks onto the landing pages. Version B had a 3:1 conversion ratio compared to version A, although not in huge numbers, the increase in conversion rate by 150% was significant enough for us to choose version B as our final landing page.
The key to perfecting any design is feedback. We've conducted interviews and surveys and developed a business model but have yet to enact the service with our users.
Service Enactments & Feedback
We conducted service enactments with patients and medical professions including a doctor in infectious disease, a orthopedic surgeon, several psychiatrists and psychologists.
To receive the best feedback, we require both groups of users to be familiar with the service and the way we operate. However, it didn't go as smoothly as we realized the process was not "natural enough". Ethnography is best done in the original, natural and relevant context in which the users will operate. Our subjects did not know each other, were still unfamiliar with the service due to time constraints and had difficulties grasping the objective of the role playing sessions.
The alternative that worked for us was to wizard of oz the experience with only one stakeholder at a time but one of the team members plays the part of the other user.
We received similar opinions in feedback and an overwhelming majority of our subjects believed that the idea is feasible but not for traditional medical doctors due to the time and money invested in their current practices. Equipment and staff are among other issues that required a pivot.
Despite the inability to appeal to general medical doctors, we found that psychologists and psychiatrists often do not need any medical equipment or staff but often practiced in offices they rented. Most therapists reported that they have the space and ability to work from home while patients reported the difficulty in waiting for a distant appointment date and the ineffectiveness of most therapy hotlines. We decided to pivot to focus on only mental health professionals because it seemed that our product would be more efficient in connecting patients and mental health professionals rather than medical doctors.
New Value Flow
With the new business model, we also updated our value flow diagram to include insurance companies since they work closely with doctors that have their own offices.
Prototype & Product
We finished our project with a 6-month budget plan, quantified growth prediction as well as a kick-starter campaign. The best part for me was seeing how technology enabled services in the sharing economy can solve everyday problems in simpler, more efficient ways.
Click HERE to interact with the live prototype of the patients' app
Click HERE to interact with the live prototype of the therapists' app
