Find a Doctor: connecting patients and providers
Find a Doctor: connecting patients and providers
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Discovery Research and UX Design
Discovery Research and UX Design
Role: Lead UX Researcher, Lead UX Designer
Research Methods: Competitive Analysis, Analytics, Heatmapping, Interviews, Cross-functional team workshops, Usability Testing
Project Team: Jessie Bond, Aditi Bothra, Chris Gordon, Will Moore, Amanda Nicolai, Eva Wong
Tools: Hotjar, Qualtrics, Google Analytics, Figma, Miro, Webex
The problem:
The problem:
When looking for a new provider, patients want to be in control of their time and care by selecting a compatible provider they can trust to meet their individual care needs. OHSU's 'find a doctor' site needed hierarchy and content improvements to prioritize the information that is important for patients to know.
When looking for a new provider, patients want to be in control of their time and care by selecting a compatible provider they can trust to meet their individual care needs. OHSU's 'find a doctor' site needed hierarchy and content improvements to prioritize the information that is important for patients to know.
Research Questions
Research Questions
How and where do people look for a new provider?
What kind of information is important for people to know about physicians to consider them as their primary care providers?
How do patients narrow down providers to match their specific needs, specifically when asked to schedule an appointment?
What are patients' impressions of provider profiles? What do they look for, if anything? What do they expect is the process for a provider to list specific services offered or expertise?
The Process: Iterative Design
The Process: Iterative Design
What is: Interviews and Analytics
What is: Interviews and Analytics
Looked at google analytics to learn about patients' journey before, during, and after reaching the find-a-doctor pages
Looked at traffic and search data to learn how patients were using the site
Conducted interviews to learn from patients - what do they look for in a doctor and clinic? Why? What are their current pain points?
What works well for them?
What if: Cross-Functional Affinity Mapping
What if: Cross-Functional Affinity Mapping
I presented the interview findings and hosted a workshop where we co-created potential solutions that built on the present
We leveraged our own ideas as well as ideas gathered from other academic health institutions
We asked ourselves, "If anything were possible, wow might we ensure people can easily narrow down the list of providers to match their specific needs?"
What wows: Prioritization Matrix Mapping
What wows: Prioritization Matrix Mapping
As a team, we assessed which ideas had more potential for positive patient impact
We also assessed which ideas were least and most feasible with the help of our development team
We prioritized ideas by creating a matrix of feasibility x impact
What works: Design, Prototyping, and Usability Testing
What works: Design, Prototyping, and Usability Testing
We tested our solutions with patients in the real world. Does this design solve their pain points? What refinements are needed?
We iterated on our process until we found a viable solution, which meant running two usability testing sessions
Process adapted from Solving Problems with Design Thinking, 2013 Jeanne Liedtka, Andrew King and Kevin Bennett
Key Qualitative Insights
Key Qualitative Insights
Most patients prefer to receive care in trusted organizations in locations that are convenient (short distance), but are willing to drive or take public transportation if able to
Patients may consider unknown organizations if referred by a known provider, family member, friend or if they already have rapport with a provider there
It's important to patients that their insurance is accepted and that appointment availability complements their schedule
When patients look for providers, they want to know their specialty, gender, years of experience, professional and personal interests, and their unique identities (WoC, LGBTQ). They find this information through bios and by reading reviews.
Patients are willing to wait longer for an appointment (for a non-urgent care issue) with the provider of their choice, than to see someone else sooner
The Solution
The Solution
A search experience that gives patients control of their time and care via a filter that can narrow down by ages treated, insurance accepted, location, availability, expertise, and gender.
A provider profile design with a hierarchy that prioritizes the information patients are looking for
Ensure actionable tasks, ratings, and availability are available above the fold
Give patients the ability to jump through profile sections
Scannable, mobile-friendly design breakpoints
A content strategy that uplifts the providers' specialty, experience, professional and personal interests, identities, and bedside manner so that patients can easily assess compatibility
Provider photos
Provider gender and pronouns (especially important for women and LGBTQ+ patients)
Enhanced bios that are professional and human
Up-to-date availability, location, and insurance information
Provider videos that showcase treatment approach when possible
Data-management enhancements between providers, clinics, electronic medical record systems, and online patient scheduling software to ensure availability and locations are always up-to-date
Results and Impact
Results and Impact
For patients and prospective patients:
For patients and prospective patients:
A 7% decrease in bounce rate on the provider search page, indicating more patients are interacting with the page
A 6% increase in average time on top provider profiles pages, indicating patients are spending more time reading the content on the pages
A 7% decrease in bounce rate on top provider profile pages, indicating more patients are interacting with provider profiles
Patient feedback through post-visit surveys that online scheduling is welcomed
For the team:
For the team:
Increased communication and cross-collaboration between previously siloed teams, working together to ensure information and systems can be accurate and up-to-date
Integration of a human-centered design process within the digital strategy and marketing teams, with increased opportunities for collaboration between UX, content strategy, and development
Future Opportunities
Future Opportunities
For patients and prospective patients:
For patients and prospective patients:
Extend online scheduling to more clinics and providers
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and healthcare provider and staff capacity constraints, online scheduling had to be turned off for the majority of clinics. Once the hospital is in a staffing position to support it, it is a feature that many patients expressed eagerness to have.
For the team:
For the team:
Because the development workflow was divided into sprints, all changes to provider profiles were not all published at once, requiring the segmentation of data each time a new element was added or configured. Once all page enhancements are made, there's an opportunity to further compare prior design iterations for more accurate impact data.
Assess the back-end profile-building experience to better guide profile stewards in the creation and maintenance of provider profiles
Identify which fields should be required when creating a provider profile (i.e. contact information, photo, gender, pronouns, and whether the provider is accepting new patients)
Give guidance for bio creation to ensure providers' unique identities and care philosophies are highlighted
Establish an off-boarding process once a provider leaves the institution so that profiles are up-to-date
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