Overview
With readymed, underrepresented populations without health insurance are able to check free clinics around their area. Our group sought the design opportunity to utilize the app to help users find a clinic and book an appointment.
Roles
UX Designer, UX Researcher
Team of 4
Tools
Design: Figma, Whimsical
Research: Google forms, good notes
Duration
January - March 2020
Course project
Problem Space
Seattle has an extremely large population that faces a variety of struggles, including finding access to affordable healthcare. This includes the homeless, refugees, immigrants, individuals between jobs, etc. To support this population, several free medical clinics have sprung up in the area, working to provide free/affordable healthcare to individuals whether they have insurance. One of the most challenging problems target users faced of these clinics is how to find them, know what they offer, and their hours of operations.
How might we increase healthcare information accessibility to underrepresented or uninsured population in Seattle area?
User Research
After identifying the problem area, our team targeted the stakeholder groups that would be involved in our project as well as the potential users. The potential impact of our project toward targeted populations is also considered.
Personas
Interview Insights
International Student
Without individual organizations such as universities or workplace in aiding affordable healthcare, it can be difficult to pay for visits like ER and outside clinical visitations
Reliability of free clinics and how clinics are able to maintain themselves without taking money is a consideration
“I don’t know where to find a free clinic, and I didn’t know free clinic exists in Seattle before this interview.”
Case Manager at Catholic Community Services
Working in a homeless shelter, the balance between emotional and behavioral problems of their residents due to being neglected and the work to ensure safety in the facility could be challenging
Facility pays a nurse to visit once or twice a week, but lacking stable finance causes residents unable to pay the extensive services such as fixing impaired wheelchair or other mobility devices
“My colleagues and I tended to pay out of our pocket because we understand how mobility is crucial to those residents.”
Elixir Founder
Founded Elixir as her way to achieve health equity in the society as well as aiming to connect 750,000 uninsured population in Seattle with over 500 clinics in the area
Views “healthcare as a right” conviction at a young age when witnessing individuals without healthcare in Pakistan
Runs monthly workshop at El Centro de la Raza on preventative healthcare, finding affordable healthcare options in Washington, and other topics.
“Healthcare should be a right, not an option.”
Muslim Community Resource Center Clinical Manager
Current goal for the clinic is to expend satellite clinic sets and extend service area
Transportation came in the way when patients are scattered around the greater Seattle area while clinics are located far east of Seattle
Clinics are also struggling to find consistent and committed health professionals, consistent location with space for lab rooms, and a wide range of providers
“Transportation and committed health professionals are the two most important factors that influence a clinic’s success.”
Solution and Design Features
From the research, our group identified the predominant problem for those who have limited access to current healthcare are the ones lacking stable financial support and information access to free clinic. Through collecting free clinics in readymed, users are able to quickly browse through the nearest clinic around them and make an appointment without concerns about not being able to pay the clnic visitation fee.
The most appropriate solution to our problem is to design a one-click download app integrating features that provide free clinic information, create a profile, make an appointment, and provide other resources aiding healthcare such as suicide/sexual abuse hotline. One may think creating an app for our main users such as homeless is not reasonable; however, study published by UCSF has shown 72% of the homeless population owns a cellphone or has regular access to one.
Low-Fidelity Wireframe
The lo-fi wireframe display the user flow and the overview of our app’s key feature, including home page with map to search nearest clinic, favorites page to add list of clinics, support page to display additional healthcare resources, clinic info page to specify clinic’s specialties, booking page to book an appointment from specific clinic.
Usability Test
Our team gave potential users the low-fidelity wireframe for user testing and receive some valuable feedback. User testers included international students and people who are not insured for healthcare in Seattle area.
Design Recommendation
Annotations besides each screen should be clearer
Interface should provide visual cue to which functionality has higher hierarchy
Free clinics would be beneficial for those who are financially unstable
High-Fidelity Prototype
The main task flow is to search a nearby clinic and make an appointment. Let’s take a look at Christina Lin’s journey:
Christina is an international student struggling to find a clinic when she caught a flu. Through readymed, she was able to setup her personal profile and find the specialty of the doctor, clinic’s operation hour, time slot opened to an appointment, and finally make an appointment.