InovCares: Elevating Virtual Care Delivery
A UX case study: Webpage re-design for improved medical care for women of color
The pandemic has made all types of essential doings challenging to say the least. Including, but not limited to doctors appointments. Virtual doctor appointments are growing increasingly popular for non-emergency, preventative care.
With or without a pandemic, women of color, are often under-cared for, when it comes to healthcare in general. According to the National Partnership for Women and Families, maternal mortality is three to four times higher for black women than it is for white women. This is the gap in the medical care industry that Mohamed Kamara is solving for. Introducing:
InovCares roots were planted when Mohamed Kamara’s sister passed during childbirth. Her condition was completely preventable and it was due to lack of care and awareness from the physician. Mohamed was driven to come up with a solution to close the global gap in the healthcare industry. He took action by creating InovCares.
InovCares is an app and website with access as a provider, patient, and employer, with a centered focus on helping women of color feel comfortable, heard, and empowered to take control of their health.
Project Scope
Our team of 3, Bhimer Kahlom, Shanel Vicente, and me, Nora Pirsch, worked with direction and support from Mohamed Kamara.
The Challenge
- To re-design InovCares Webpage and tell compelling story to connect with target audience (Latinas & black women)
Duration: 21 days
Tools: Miro, Figma, google slides, pen and paper
Role: Research, UX, and UI design
Timeline
Heuristics Analysis
Heuristics Analysis is a review of the sites interface and comparing it against accepted usability principles. This is a way for us to determine focal points for our redesign.
We were provided a prototype site as a baseline for our Homepage redesign and that is what we used for Heursitcs analysis and initial user testing.
User Testing Round 1
We asked 6 black and latin women to describe the prototype website (screen shots displayed in above photo). Our questions were targeted to find out what our users thought on the initial landing of the site, who was it for, and what could you do. It was very clear from our testing, that our users were confused about who the target audience was, what they were supposed to do on the site, and who the benefits were for. We wrote some user stories to help us better define what our users needed from the site.
User Stories
Problem
- Patients and providers need a web portal that clearly communicates the holistic purpose, use, and benefit of the InovCares technology, so they can sign up for services.
Solution
- To redesign and tell a compelling story for our users, to create a user friendly landing pages that shows the customer the full value of InovCares while incorporating Mohamed’s passion into the story.
Drafts
All 3 teammates sketched out a landing page solution, which we combined with some of the features that we kept from the prototype landing page that we were provided with.
On the right, is our first Figma draft. Our users needed more context on first glance, so we made sure to add relevant imagery, story telling copy, and buttons for easy accessibility and guidance on what to do next.
Usability Testing Round 2
To make sure we were on the right track with our design, we conducted a second round of testing, this time on our newly designed prototype. We asked the same questions as the first round, with the hopes that the answers would be more positive when it came to context, imagery, and what to click on. We definitely did get some good answers, but it also highlighted what we needed to re-design.
Testing Highlights
Realization
After the last round of user testing, the message of “Who is this site for” was still unclear. At that point we realized that we needed a second site. One for providers and one for patients. From the user quotes above, we also knew that the colors of the site needed an uplift. So we went back to Figma to create a Patient Portal, update the colors, and polish up our hand off.
Style Guide
Conclusion
As a team, we discussed that at the start of the project we should have conducted more in depth interviews, instead of diving into user testing on the prototype site that was given to us. I believe it would have saved time and possibly resulted in a more user friendly design. I had a really great time working with my awesome team and with Mohamed. I learned a lot about the medical world and what providers and patients needed from a site. This was also my first client project and I feel privileged to have contributed to InovCares future.
Our Recommendations
- Our team agreed that it would be a great idea for InovCares to have some sort of certification, so that when a new patient joins the portal, they can be assured that their physician is a culturally sensitive doctor who will listen and care for the patients health needs.
- Another area of focus that Mohamed mentioned, but we did not have time to execute, was the provider dashboard. A space on the providers page, that once logged in, can see their patients profiles and progress with their health goals. From blood pressure to weight to concerns/questions from the patient themselves, the dashboard is another way to communicate with the patient, resulting in better care and happier people.
Thank you for reading,
Nora Pirsch
