Lighthouse Health is a mobile first application that allows users to more easily and more personally search for and screen potential doctors. It aims to cultivate a communicative relationship with your current doctors and more easily manage care for multiple recipients all in one place.
I think everyone can agree that navigating the healthcare system in the United States can be complicated and confusing. Finding a doctor that you trust is a huge part of the struggle. As a woman, finding a doctor you trust can make a huge impact on your health and wellness as you age and your body changes.
There are many reasons a woman would be in a position to search for a new doctor. Let’s say you recently moved to a new city, are pregnant, changed insurance providers, had a bad experience with a previous doctor, or are struggling with health concerns or a pre-existing condition.
What are your first steps? Combing through long lists of doctors from your health insurance provider. Calling each one of them, waiting on hold, finally speaking to a nurse, only to be told that they’re not taking new patients right now. Calling friends and family for references? Googling ‘doctor near me’?
You finally make an appointment and it’s 4 months away. You're in the doctor's office for 15 minutes. They’re gruff, a bit cold, not your style, you’re uncomfortable. You have questions and concerns but it feels like you barely had time to ask any of them. Why even try to find another doctor? Your insurance surely won’t cover another well visit. You might as well start over again next year, make an appointment with someone else and hope that it’s a better fit.
Finding a new doctor can be confusing and frustrating
The process includes a lot of trial and error
Finding consistent care as you age is important
The first thing I knew I needed to do was talk. Talk, but mostly listen, to all different kinds of woman at all stages of life and find out the answers to these basic questions:
How do you find new doctors?
What things are most important to you when searching for a doctor?
Most of my interview participants had experience using apps and websites to help search for and book appointments with new doctors using ZocDoc, Healthtap, and insurance provider’s online portals. I compared app reviews and took note of each of their strengths and weaknesses.
At this point I paused and thought for a moment….
What makes my application different and what would make people inclined to use this one over potentially more familiar alternatives? How do I appeal to users regardless of age or life experience? How can I make this useful for all women at all stages of life?
Finding a new doctor can be confusing and frustrating
The process includes a lot of trial and error
Finding consistent care as you age is important
It was at this point that I realized I had uncovered more problems. I needed to narrow my focus, excavate the true issue/s within the sea of many issues.
In order to do that I had to head back to the source, the user! I developed multiple personas, gathered card sorting results and dove into storyboarding.
Through my storyboarding I came to the realization that I needed to view users in a broader more empathetic light.
I went back to story B and thought, some users might need to manage care for multiple people as well as themselves. Children, elderly parents, chronically ill spouses or family members. How does one take care of themselves when they are running around trying to remember doctor’s appointments for other loved ones?
Is this issue affecting women more frequently than men? Women after all, are not always the primary caregiver and this feature would be useful to men as well.
I can include multiple profile management within the app so the user has a place to search for and manage care all in one place for all of their loved ones. This would be the biggest feature to set my app apart from the competition and provide my users with a solution to a problem I had uncovered through my research.
I realized this is not just a female centered problem and decided to make the app for all genders. For this same reason, I decided to widen the net and include all types of care.
As I began to plot out the task flows I took a look at the essential features I needed to include as a result of my research thus far. It seemed like I was still missing something so I thought back to the initial question. I asked myself, am I doing enough to fulfill the user’s needs? Am I solving the problem? What would be the best way to eliminate the trial and error process of selecting a doctor in the first place?
I realized what I had right now was not all that different from other applications and solved all the basic issues except for the most important one, finding a doctor who is a good fit for you. How would I do that?
I decided to add a feature here where prior to booking an appointment, a user could book a screening phone or video session to get to know the doctor and see if they might be a good fit. This feature would provide the user with a unique experience that would help solve the initial problem and set my product apart from the rest.
I began to sketch out the various important screens and create low fidelity wireframes in Figma. When designing the UI, I wanted to convey a sense of familiarity, calmness and comfort in the color scheme and components.
Through user testing I learned that participants were still confused by the profile selection process. It was difficult for some to toggle between profiles and some felt that the swiping feature might hinder older users.
Some were unsure of how to differentiate between different users. How was I distinguishing between the main profile and the sub profiles?
I decided then to modify the profile selection page to show all available profiles at once. I decided to also condense this feature into the home page as well as the doctor search page (shown below). To prevent confusion now that the screens were condensed, I also modified the navigation bar at the bottom to change color, indicating where you are in the app.
There were many other iterations I made to the app in the end. More were smaller text hierarchy issues that needed to be reworked. Learning how to empathize with the user and head into the research process without prior biases and viewpoints was crucial. I saw the importance of empathizing with the users. Managing health is a universal issue, no matter the demographic, and the most important part of that is learning how to confidently and proactively navigate the healthcare system in the US. The next step is to keep reiterating on users feedback.
