UIC health logo featuring a green and blue cross icon next to "UIC" in a blue circle.

CLIENT

UIC ENT Clinic

Create a mobile app to ease the waiting time process for patients waiting for their appointment.

GOAL

DUTIES

RESEARCH – STRATEGY – DESIGN – WEB DEVELOPMENT

The ways other apps have approached managing waiting room anxiety.

Marketing Research

DISTRACT

Apps like Candy Crush and Youtube distract patients from their current wait. Patients often use them to entertain themselves while waiting.

ASSIST

Apps that let patients
fill out necessary paperwork and medical information on their phone

INFORM

Informs patients of the procedures and processes leading to their upcoming appointment. They also provide more information about the medical staff and facility itself.

CALM

These apps encourage users to calm themselves. That includes visual, breathe, and sound based methods. Calming apps find modest success in refocusing its users.

Uninsured, working class patient who are often sick, in pain, or under a large amount of stress

TARGET AUDIENCE

Understand the reasons behind the long waiting period and how it upsets patients and find solutions that address them

NEED

AFFINITY MAP

  • How a patient feels/does along with what they say/think.

    • Unpleasant waiting room experience

    • Feeling like the clinic does little to improve their negative experience

    • Health issue being addressed.

    • Confirming good health

    • Need to understand condition

USER INTERVIEWS

  • Waiting room patients asked about their time in the waiting room

    • Patients hate waiting for hours for an appointment that doesn't last more than 15 minutes.

    • Patients wish there was more information about why their wait is so long.

COMPETATIVE ANALYSIS

  • Based on primary and secondary market research, our group decided that our app will incorporate certain key features

    • clarity

    • friendliness

    • calmness

    • customization

    • information

    • layers of information

    • Productivity based

    • Entertainment based

    • Education based

Blue circle with "flow" text in gradient blue and white.

FLOW

The Calming Timeline App

The app with a visual timeline that maps each step of the patient’s projected visit, from the waiting room to their appointment.

From biographies of the medical staff to live waiting estimates, Flow lessens the anxiety felt by patients feeling their worst.

  • Doctor Search

  • Live Patient Queue Tracker

  • Timeline Process Onboarding

Features

Prototype

Conclusion

This project set all of us on our eventual career paths. Working with this group gave me a glimpse of what my future holds in strategic design and how to use it to improve conditions for underrepresented and underfunded populations.