Sniffing out hints in the data
We began with a shrug. I love starting with Neilson Norman group’s ten heuristics to conduct a heuristic analysis when working on a re-design. At the very least, it helps us orient ourselves with the current design. Our first hint was we found critical chatter online in the reviews of the mobile application, so every member of the team conducted their own Heuristic Analysis of Forward's mobile application. I took the average of the scores. Though informative it did not create a clear direction. We conducted a Competitive and Comparative (C&C) Analysis by completing Feature Inventories and a Delta/Plus Analysis of healthcare competitors. We found our second hint when we took the data from the Heuristic Analysis and juxtaposed it with the C&C analysis. There was a low Heuristic score when it came to user control and freedom. The C&C Analysis showed competitors providing features and organization that promoted user control and freedom. We conducted user interviews to see if control and freedom was what was needed.
Users told us what they wanted
We went straight to the users and conducted Interviews and researched more reviews. It evolved into an Affinity Map, finally revealing themes. It turns out folks have strong opinions over what they can control when it comes to their health care. We also learned scheduling with physicians was the primary source of connection and control for the user. Control and Freedom were indeed major themes. We had direction.
The data told us what they wanted too
Using our initial research in conjunction with our interviews and contextual inquiries we created a persona to humanize our data driven themes further and created a problem to solve.
We found the best experience
We conducted a design studio where we diverged to develop user flows on our own and came back together to share. After a few iterations, we ultimately agreed on a solution we thought would work for Chloe.
We got bogged down
We conducted a design studio where we diverged and sketched pages for the flow. We came back together to share. After a few iterations we ultimately agreed on a solution we thought would work for Chloe. We happily developed our initial medium-fidelity wireframes…and that's when we got bogged down.
We couldn’t agree
This one calendar page was the source of a very long conversation. A few of the team members believed this design would be information overwhelm for the user. There were a few fencing matches around whether that was true, and what directions the flow would take using other options.
And Finally
We sought insights from folks who had little bias. We then split up and went into to a design studio. When we came back together we shared our work. We found a solution that ultimately lead the user, one step at a time, through the scheduling process, and agreed on a flow that best suited our persona. We began to prototype the wireframes.
