Being a medical student and a product designer was not ordinary. It was a blend of creativity and medicine. To be creative means thinking beyond and consistently observing the smallest details, which in a sense align with my area of study. Enough of the long talk, let’s get to the real deal.
As a medical student, healthcare in Nigeria always bothers me and the urgency of a solution is long overdue. However, due to governmental neglect and lack of awareness among citizens, lives are lost.
I took a deeper dive into this issue to gain an in-depth knowledge on it to help proffer effective solutions on a global scale not Nigeria only." Nigerian health care has suffered several down-falls. Despite Nigeria's strategic position in Africa, the country is greatly underserved in the health care sphere "Source: PubMed Central
I thought about an app that can facilitate remote healthcare services and enhances patient doctor interaction, would that make sense? Let's go deeper don’t you think?.
What Exactly Is Blu?
Blu is a telemedicine app that facilitates remote healthcare services and enhances patient doctor interaction. My goal is to design a mobile app that provides easy access to virtual medical consultation with healthcare professionals and educating users with necessary basic life support skills.
What Was My Role?
I was the sole product designer; I conducted a comprehensive market analysis to grasp the significance of what I was designing, analyzed competitions to understand how they work, their weakness and possibly ways to out-perform them, researched Blu's target audience to comprehend their pain points and determine top priorities, designed the user interface and prototyped it. I wore so many hats
Market Analysis:
"The greatest wealth is health" is a paraphrase of the Roman poet Virgil's, The idea is that our physical and mental well-being are arguably the most valuable assets of all.Whilst analyzing my target market, I came across a report from Expert Market Research on Global Telemedicine Market Outlook
The global telemedicine market size attained a value of USD 87.21 billion in 2023. The market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 19.3% during the forecast period of 2024-2032 to reach a value of USD 426.90 billion by 2032. The growth can be attributed to the increased technological advancement and increased adoption of teleconsultation in healthcare.
This report added more relevance and strengthened my goal to design a mobile app that provides services entailing virtual medical consultation with healthcare professionals and educating citizens with necessary basic life support skills.
It also broadened my knowledge on the global benefits of the telemedicine market to providers and users.
To the providers:
1. Telemedicine is being used by healthcare organizations, physician practices, and skilled nursing institutions to deliver more efficient care.2. Electronic medical records, AI diagnostics, and medical streaming devices that are coupled with telemedicine software can help providers diagnose and treat patients more effectively.
To the users:
1.With video consultations, patients can avoid spending money on gas or wasting time stuck in traffic.
2. Childcare/Eldercare Issues: Those who are having difficulty finding care options can turn to telemedicine solutions
Making sense now right? Yeah.
Now some might ask " Who would use this app? & Why will they use it? " Ngl this is a valid and important question which I'll answer so walk with me…Well to answer your question, I found an interesting and insightful report from Expert Market Research that highlights the scenario of the telemedicine market stating that the adoption of digital technologies and teleconsultations has become a useful technique for treating health issues globally.
Teleconsultations are less expensive and reduce the workload on healthcare workers. This is the key reason why government organizations are emphasizing more on installing digital health technologies, further aiding the growth of the market.Furthermore, as social alienation has become the new normal, the demand for teleconsultations and digital health services has soared.
Every year, the prevalence of neurological illnesses rises at an alarming rate. According to World Federation of Neurology research, over 14% of the United States population has some sort of noncommunicable neurological disease, which is expected to quadruple by 2050.
Among the regional markets, the Latin American telemedicine market is expected to grow at a rapid pace during the forecast period. Although the region's total healthcare infrastructure is still at a nascent stage, there is an enormous opportunity for growth in telehealth solutions.
Within Latin America, Chile and Uruguay are the two regions which are set to become the leading providers of telemedicine technologies in the world. Colombia, on the other hand, is already soaring high in terms of telehealth solutions and held more than nine million telemedicine visits in the first six months of 2020.
Competitive Analysis:
The importance of conducting a thorough competitive analysis is that it helps you understand market trends, identify strengths and weaknesses of competitors' designs, and pinpointing opportunities for innovation and differentiation. It helps designers like me make informed decisions, validate design choices, and create solutions that stand out in the marketplace.I analyzed five key players involved in the global telemedicine market:MDlive, Inc,Practo, Sesame Care, Teladoc, Inc.
User Research (App reviews):
Due to limited time, I used app reviews from existing apps to understand their overall user experience and I found out that almost all the users with low star ratings had similar bad experiences while using some of these apps. Bad functionality and poor customer service were the most frequently reported issues. Most of the issues users complained about were not resolved, some could recall that the issue lasted for 5 months.
So my job is to design a telehealth app that has great and usable functionality with excellent customer service.
Wireframe:
This part is the heart of my user interface design and my favorite part too. I can't skip it, I might try to skip other processes but I always end up clueless when I open figma to design.
Some benefits of wireframing includes:
- Wireframes give room for an iterative design approach, allowing designers to quickly create and test multiple versions of a design to find the most effective solution.
- It also helps to clarify ideas and communicate design concepts effectively between designers and the team.
User registration:
While designing this section, I focused on user retention, as the experience here determines whether the user stays or leaves. Initially, I created a 3-screen walkthrough, but in the second iteration, I condensed it to 1 screen with a one-sentence heading and a short subheading outlining Blu's core features. I made every screen after account creation skippable in case the user doesn't want to spend too much time, and I reminded them they can redo it later.
Book a call:
The most crucial and important part of Blu, I had to make it short to retain users and simple without missing any details in it.
Check schedule and messages:
This section includes upcoming appointments and messages. The appointment card shows key details about the meeting and a CTA to join it. The messages tab allows you to catch up with healthcare professionals you've previously or currently booked.
Profile , customer service and other screens:
To achieve a fully designed app, I didn't compromise on other screens such as the profile screen, customer service (After user research, I tasked myself with improving customer service because users had many complaints about it), health record screen, learn screen, saved items, notifications, and more.
Note: Every clicks in real prototype were corresponding, it was after the video I realized the clicks in the prototype video were not corresponding, this is a issue from Figma or maybe my screen recorder not my prototype.
Overall Video