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
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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
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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
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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
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Productivity based
Entertainment based
Education based
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.