Link Nonprofit
Bridging the healthcare gap in various undeserved communities in Houston, TX through making clinics and health related information accessible.
Overview
Context: Link Nonprofit is an organization that focuses on connecting underserved communities with healthcare resources. They want to create an app to help streamline the process of matching patients to clients. To learn more about Link Nonprofit visit their website at https://www.linknonprofit.org/.
The goal of this project was to create an app that will make finding appointments easier and more convenient for individuals who need services but don’t know where to get it.
Duration:
Jan 2024 — May 2024
Team:
Allison He (mentor), Maleah Brady, Joanna Anil, Freya Zhang, Caroline Huynh
Role:
UI/UX Designer
UX Researcher
SUMMARY
Quickly and Reliably Match Patients with Clinics
This project focuses patients and undeserved communities who need healthcare but are unaware of how to access it. It addresses the current pain points that the organization, Link Nonprofit has with spreading healthcare resources. As a team, this project was designed in hopes of making healthcare accessible and inclusive.
THE PROBLEM
Individuals don’t know where to find reliable clinic and healthcare information
Moreover, the problem of underserved communities not having access to healthcare is a major problem in the Houston area. There are many uninsured patients or patients of low social economic status that require healthcare but can’t get the help they need. Due to COVID, this problem got even worse. While there is information about free resources among other things, these resources are extremely hard to find. Free clinics are also unable to provide more expensive services for patients. Therefore Link nonprofit fills in this gap.
Link Nonprofit aims to advocate for preventative healthcare and connect patients to free/discount healthcare services
Link Nonprofit is a nonprofit organization focused on linking patients with the resources they need. This includes showing up to different events to spread awareness on available resources, providing basic healthcare check ups, and even arrange transportation for those who can’t easily reach clinics. Their current website though rich in content, does not have a pairing system and can be difficult to navigate for their target demographic.
Our client desires to create an easy to navigate app that primarily focuses on connecting individuals with clinics, complementing their existing website.
Our client’s current website uses a lot of jargon found in the medical field. This is a problem as their intended audience is estimated to have a 5th grade to middle school reading level. Moreover, there are a lot of problems with navigating their website, such as being unable to find the resources that an individual actually wants and needs, and their website targets more than just their intended audience. Therefore, the client wants to create a mobile app that would streamline the process of connecting clients to clinics and health information, while making the app as accessible as possible.
RESEARCH
Understanding the Users
In order to properly create an app that helps users find clinics, we need to first understand how users are responding to the current platform. The current Link Nonprofit website has a low retention rate and many users don’t seem to make it out of the home page.
Quick Statistics
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We conducted user testing to understand how users navigate information
There were 4 tasks that each user had to do.
Finding resources specific to diabetes/hypertension and clinics for these conditions
Finding and setting up a clinic meeting for child/pediatric care
Finding locations of mental health clinics in the nearest area
Find how users utilize the contact page
We found that users were frustrated navigating and scrolling through the pages. They had a hard time finding the right clinics and were confused. Users stated that...
Through this, we found that the navigation bar is more about the organization and partnership with Link Nonprofit as opposed to providing primary healthcare. There is more of a focus on their story. There was also frustration with finding specific resources for conditions. The map made it confusing as it makes the user think that one can find the needed locations on the map. Though one common theme is that the aesthetics and colors of the website was nice.
Deep diving into their current website
That being said, to truly understand the client’s pain points we need to take a deep dive into the website itself. For a closer look yourself, visit:
https://www.linknonprofit.org/..png)
To better guide our direction, we created a user persona, Emily
After much research, we came up with a user persona. Emily is a 65 year old retiree who is concerned about her blood pressure. She has been worried about her blood pressure for a while, but couldn’t figure out how to find the closest clinic that can help her.
Who are the competitors that may attract users like Emily?
There are many apps that are health related. Among them, the 3 that stand out the most are Zocdoc, Teladoc, and AdventHealth.
PRODUCT GOAL
How might we prioritize accessibility to local resources so that users can feel equipped to address their health needs?
- How might we ensure users can feel confident about finding resources specific to their needs?
- How might we better highlight extra resources that the users may seek before contacting or looking for a clinic?
- How might we facilitate contact with users and clinics to streamline finding resources?
What kind of features do we need to accomplish this?
After much research and taking note of all good features within existing health apps, we came up with a set of practical but unique features. This is because our client would like to avoid having to deal with patient confidentiality problems due to lack of security or dealing with HIPAA regulations. Therefore, there are certain features we had to avoid. Moreover, there were also complications with integrating appointment systems of each clinic with the app.
App Navigation
We came up with a user flow that would help streamline the process of finding clinics. Thus front and center we will have a search feature with the clinics listed. The below is an easy to navigate flow based on research and how most people search for what they need.
VISUAL DESIGN PROCESS
Low-Fi: Visualizing What the App Looks Like
We started with outlining what each feature should look like. We wanted to make sure that each function ties seamlessly together and the interface was cohesive and intuitive. Our only problem was that since we were a team, each designer’s style was slightly different. But this problem quickly went away as we worked on our hi-fi.
USER TESTING & ITERATIONS
Feedback...
We did many different iterations in order to deliver the best design. We got feedback from users, the client, and fellow Rice Design Consulting members. This allowed us to arrive at the end product we now have.
Mentor Feedback
Other Rice Design members (not part of this project) gave feedback, including our mentor. In our first few iterations there were areas where the margins were inconsistent and buttons were also inconsistent. Moreover, some of the ways things were placed made the design look awkward or not intuitive. Our first big change in our hi-fi was merging the home search feature with the list of clinics. There were also other details that were changed which will be covered later.
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Client Feedback
After meeting with the client they loved the design. Though they did want to change a few things.
- Fewer words more pictures (for resources page)
- Asking clients if they needed transportation and making them aware that messaging link nonprofit telling them they need a ride to the clinic would work
- Removal of health history from the profile page to avoid regulations and leak of private, sensitive health data
User Testing and Feedback
During user testing we wanted to see how users navigated within the website and if it aligned with how we envisioned the user flow to be. Moreover, we also listened to their feedback to see how we can better improve the way the features were presented
Search Feature Change
We changed the search feature a bit more, the placement of the toggle between map and search looked awkward. We also wanted to follow their brand colors better by incorporating dashes of yellow. Moreover, the placement of the search input field and filter felt weird due to the sizing of the header
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Filter Feature
We updated the filter by giving it its own icon as opposed to leaving it within the search bar. Moreover, we grayed out the background to help the users focus on filling out the input fields. To ensure input field consistency we also changed up the colors.
Making the Profile Easier to Navigate
We changed the search feature a bit more, the placement of the toggle between map and search looked awkward. We also wanted to follow their brand colors better by incorporating dashes of yellow. Moreover, the placement of the search input field and filter felt weird due to the sizing of the header
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Appointment Page
Our client wanted an appointment page such that patients can easily access information about the appointments. Moreover, it was later brought to our attention that Link nonprofit offers transportation to those who have difficulty reaching clinics. Therefore, we created an appointment page, which can be found in the profile section.
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Changes in Coloration and Formatting
We changed the search feature a bit more, the placement of the toggle between map and search looked awkward. We also wanted to follow their brand colors better by incorporating dashes of yellow. Moreover, the placement of the search input field and filter felt weird due to the sizing of the header
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FINAL DESIGNS
And the result was...
Onboarding
The onboarding experience is the first time the user will get to interact with our app, thus it is extremely important to make a good first impression.
We want to make the onboarding process as easy as possible. Therefore, there aren’t a lot of information to fill out there. Users who don’t want to make an account can stay as guests
List, Map & Filter: Finding the Right Clinic for You
The whole goal of this app is to find the clinic just right for the patient. Finding the right clinic means finding the clinic that takes the user's insurance, is the right distance from the user, and more.
There are two parts of this feature, the list view and the map view. This helps individuals who have preferences for one or the other use the one they are most comfortable with. Aside from that, users are also able to filter by preferences. This would help them narrow down the clinics that are suitable for them.
The clinics are listed based on distance from the user.
Resources Page: Understanding Your Health Better
The resources page is for users to better understand current health issues in the world or find reliable resources on their problems. For example, given Link Nonprofit showed up to fill in the gaps within the healthcare system especially after COVID, resources within this app may include reliable information about current COVID cases, symptoms, and prevention methods. By making information more readily available, users are less likely to be misinformed.
Moreover, within this page, there is also information about current free or discounted healthcare services and events.
Profile: Keeping Track of Your Appointments and Health
The profile page is mainly for users to keep track of their own information and ensure that their contact is up to date. This includes being able to update address, phone number, email, and more. Our client really emphasized having something in the app that would allow users to track their health data, such as blood pressure or glucose level. So we added in a chart and a button to enter information.
Moreover, there is also an appointment tracker. This is to ensure that after the call there is somewhere to keep record of when the appointments happen. A day before the appointment the app should its users a notification to remind them in the case that they forgot about the appointment. Furthermore, Link Nonprofit offers the service of transportation. That's what the "I need a ride" button is for.
Settings: Accessibility and Contact Link Nonprofit
No app would be complete without a settings page. Therefore, this page s for changing settings within the app. For example, if someone thinks the text within the app is too small, they can go there and increase the text size. If someone needs the app to be in another language, then there is a setting for that as well.
We also chose to put the contact us and about us page within the setting. We believed that this was the best location to place it as the most important part of the app is for users to find a place to see a doctor as opposed to explaining what the organization does. However, since users may still be curious about what Link Nonprofit does, there is still a location for them to see that.
REFLECTION
First client project done! On this journey, I learned...
A lot of things from this experience. I loved working with my teammates and big shout out to our mentor, Allison. She’s so sweet and supportive!! I’m so grateful for this opportunity.
Trust the Process & Be Flexible
In the beginning phases the prototype looked awkward and we weren’t sure whether to fully follow the client’s vision (due to the implementation not being feasible). However, it all worked out in the end, after we collected more data and further refined our project. Moreover, being flexible is important as the original solution and design ideas aren’t always the best.
Communication with Client
The client from time to time was unresponsive, which is totally understandable as they were premed and extremely busy. Their vision was also hard to implement on a coding level as it required the app to integrate with multiple different hospital appointment systems. However, by clearly communicating the problem they were understanding as well. Moreover, they were really open to discussing alternatives and provided feedback on where they clearly wanted to do with the app.
Don’t be Afraid to Ask for Help
As a beginner in UI/UX, there were a lot of different parts of design that I was unsure about. This included how to place elements properly in a way that would look good and remain cohesive, as well as theories on how features should be presented to be intuitive and accessible. Our mentor was extremely open to questions and helpful. This really allowed me to learn a lot about the design process and how to make apps look more legit.
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