Project

We redesigned the entire appointment creation flow with the goal of making the experience smoother, faster, and less stressful for patients all the while reducing the load on the helpdesk.

This process involved rethinking the information architecture to ensure that every step is clear, intuitive, and logically structured.

By decluttering the interface and prioritizing only the most essential information, we reduced unnecessary friction and cognitive load.

As a result, patients can now create an appointment in significantly less time and with greater confidence, while being less error prone.

How can we make the appointment creation flow less convoluted, confusing and error prone?

Process
We started by analysing the existing app and doing user testings based on the existing app to find the current pain points and what exactly created friction and frustration. Combined with our own testing we contacted the helpdesk to research why users logged tickets or called the helpdesk

This is an overview of the process

We used 3 types of research: 

1) We ourselves went through the flow of making an appointment multiple times to determine the pain points from our perspective.

2) We asked several users to go through the existing flow while sharing their thoughts out loud or answering questions we had.

3) Contacting the helpdesk to discover why users contacted them.

At the end we mapped these user frustrations with our own and created an overal picture of where the biggest problems were situated.

In the meantime we mapped all different flows a user could go through to book an appointment with a hospital. 

For instance, some hospitals only let you book appointments with a single ward while others allow you to make one with a specific doctor.

These different hospitals can also choose to add a questionnaire to the flow, making it more complicated. 

The challenge her was to find a way this could work for all different hospitals and users

After all this data was collected we mapped the technical debt and dependencies to make sure no time was lost or unnecessary money was spent in development.

An iterative design process was started. Final designs were implemented by the dev team every other sprint.

During development I kept a close relationship with development to ensure consistent implementation and to spot usability issues at an early stage

A more robust and faster experience to find open slots in the calendar view by combining relevant data and removing unnecessary clicks.

Showing information only when and where the patient needs it to reduce clutter and information overload.

A fully redesigned overview of your upcoming appointments with all the important information immediately visible.

Usability testing

During the development phase we conducted usability testing with a small group of 5 individuals. This to validate our assumtions we made during the design phase but also to test comprehension of certain features we were still hesitant about.

The appointment “new” indicator was not clear for users. They did not know what it meant and often looked over it.

We redesigned the indicator to more resemble already set affordances from other apps.

The new appointment overview for web was confusing and difficult to understand. Information was scattered and difficult to find and there was too much happening at the same time.

To address this we worked with a “master-detail” view. In this way the user has a clear overview of all appointements and it’s most importan information and can access additional information when needed.