Medical Appointment Scheduling Via SMS

Make appointments without needing to make a call.

Industry: Medical
My Role: UX Researcher
Timeline: January 2024 - May 2024
Client: Simple Interact
[Accessible Design] [Journey Mapping] [Heuristic Analysis]

Results: Full accessibility compliance at no cost

Groundwork

Context Simple Interact was preparing to launch their SMS appointment booking system and needed to ensure that the product would be able to meet the needs of their buyers - medical offices - and their users - patients.

Challenge
The SMS components of cell phones are tied to the operating systems and cannot be re-designed.

SolutionEnsure that the web portal components of the system meet industry best practices for both patient and staff users.

Process

[1] Journey MappingMapped user flows to better understand the system:

[2] Literature Review

Heuristics: Best practices for designWith design heuristics, a digital system can be evaluated against a set of standards. Assembling telehealth heuristics from research ensured that quality assurance was data-backed and not simply a matter of preference. This allowed for each step in the user journey to be evaluated in a standardized fashion.

[3] Heuristic AnalysisAssessing each step of the system.

The 17 accessibility violations identified were ranked using a severity scale.
This allowed for the product team to prioritize which issues needed to be addressed first.

[4] Results
[4.1] Patient Flow
Key Issues: Limited error protection and given feedback.

Problems

Patients could fill appointment slots without submitting any information

Patient info could not be edited once submitted

Language toggle ceased functioning once selected

Solutions

Required form areas

Form edit request option

Translation API integrated across experience

[4.2] Staff Flow
Key Issue: Steep learning curve

Problems

No onboarding tutorial

Archived chats were actually deleted

Inconsistent design language

Solutions

First-time use guides

Recoverable archive

Standardized elements

[5] Final Product

Reflection

Learnings

Some aspects of a system are unable to be changed and must be designed around.
It is possible to contribute to a design with little to no budget.
Good accessible design provides benefit for all users.