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In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, UC Davis has developed a daily symptom survey and rapid COVID tests for students to get tested regularly. The current system students use to book appointments is called Health e-Messaging, but the process is long and repetitive and confusing to navigate.
Over the course of one week, I redesigned the patient portal on Health E-Messaging to streamline appointment process steps for UC Davis staff and students by 70%, to improve a lengthy and stressful experience.
How might we consolidate and present information in a visual and organized way to alleviate frustrations and issues and make the scheduling process easier for users?
I consolidated all the necessary information and steps onto one page to reduce navigation issues and allowed users to schedule and get everything checked all within one screen. I also simplified the process time by removing unnecessary steps, condensing information, auto saving previous information, and overall creating a clean, simple, and intuitive design.
I conducted one on one interviews with 8 different people. In order to to gain the perspective of both sides of the experience, my target audience consisted of on-campus residents and students and staff who use HEM frequently to schedule appointments, as well as the testing employees who experience the other side of checking people's survey results and appointments.
I recorded all the insights and ideas I received from the interviews and organized them into categories after identifying some commonalities. These categories were the main themes that I wanted to focus on by improving or adding features that will help address this.
Goal: Design a solution to give users a simpler and more streamlined way to schedule appointments, a more organized home page with a clear hierarchy of information, and an intuitive navigation.
Using the results from my interviews and affinity mapping, I created 3 different personas to help me understand individual users' thoughts and feelings and center my designs around them and their experience – how can I help them?
Jenny is a remote student working on campus and has to get tested every seven days, but she often forgets her last test date and when she needs to get her next one by. She usually remembers to schedule while she's outside on her way to work, so she prefers to schedule on her mobile phone, while she's on-the-go.
Nick is a student living in the dorms, so he has to take the daily symptom survey every day, but he dislikes having to take it twice to schedule a covid test. He dislikes having to read the same information every time and has grown tired of the repetitive and lengthy process. He has difficulty finding the button to take the survey and often misses it, and he wishes there were more accessible survey results.
Marissa is a mother who lives off campus, and works long shifts at the front door having to check student symptom surveys and covid test barcodes. Marissa usually splits her work with a coworker, so that one person can check survey results, and the other can check for the barcode.
After compiling the results from my research and ideating, I drafted sketches and made more clearer drafts as I developed an idea. For my first initial idea I was planning on doing a “1 click” scheduling process where all the information and scheduling is on the homepage.
In between drafts I had users test the idea and provide feedback and I learned that a one-click scheduling wasn't the most efficient solution. I initially planned to have all of your information from previous appointments save, so you could just click once to schedule again. While having everything on one page may seem convenient, it would be a lot of scrolling, which was something that users complained about with the current HEM design. I also received feedback that they wouldn’t want to schedule the dates and time on the same page as all of their other information because it can get cluttered. Users don’t mind it having a couple steps they just want it be more concise and quick. I sketched a new idea where the primary information and scheduling buttons would be on one page, but scheduling a test would send you to the next page.
The new portal utilizes font and size variation, making information easy to read with a clear hierarchy of importance. Call-to-action buttons are also prominent and clear.
The home page now also only shows the three main features: the symptom survey (taking the survey and seeing the results), scheduling covid tests, and seeing covid test results. As you schedule your appointment, a progress bar shows what step you are in the process. All steps have back buttons, so that users no longer have to start the process over from scratch if they make a mistake or change their mind.
If the symptom survey was completed, users can continue to the next step, otherwise users are directed to the symptom survey page.
While all information is still editable, all of the user's previous answers (contact information, appointment type, etc.) is saved from your last appointment, except for the date/time and consent form.
Dates and time are concise and clean, eliminating unnecessary redundant information like the location. The continue button is also in a fixed position, to reduce scrolling.
The final step is consenting and then your appointment is scheduled!
After your appointment is scheduled, it's easy to see all the important information regarding it.
Along with the date, it also counts the number of days since you last took your test, since employees are required to take it once a week. This provides a clear countdown and makes it easy to keep track of your covid test dates and requirements.
The “More info” section allows you to click on it if it's your first time scheduling, or if you need a reminder, otherwise most users can skip that step. The barcode can also be clicked if it needs to be viewed larger to scan easily.
The old process has 12 steps, while this process only has 4 steps. This design reduces the amount of steps by almost 70%, increases legibility and organization, improves efficiency, and makes it easier to follow and access, while maintaining a clean and simple visual design.
👤 Focusing on the user
When I first started I had a clear idea of what I believed was the best solution. After getting feedback from user testing, and enjoying the new solution even more, I learned not to take critiques personally. It also reminded me that I'm designing for them, not me!
🧑🤝🧑 Know your audience
For this project I didn't just think about the people using the scheduling services, but also the people on the other side of it who were checking it. Expanding my audience and thinking about all the people involved in the experience helped me craft a better solution to improve the experience of not just one group, but multiple.
