Telehealth became imperative in 2020
Kaiser Permanente is recognized as a leading health care provider in America. The Permanente Medical Group is comprised of expert physicians and specialists supported by industry-leading technology, state-of-the-art care delivery, and unparalleled research and innovation backed by a $90 billion annual operating revenue.
It was with great privilege that my design and leadership expertise was trusted to improve the patient care experience of this not-for-profit medical giant. At the start of an unprecedented global pandemic, this was a colossal responsibility — and yet only the beginning of a new chapter for the brand.
At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, KP Digital realized the serious need of preparation to handle the predicted rise in remote appointments. The timing could not have been worse - a sizeable UX design department (50+ including contractors) grew siloed from the rest of the organization, and the same issues were felt within product management, development, and executive leadership. Solving these issues was paramount to the future of the organization, and its ability to quickly adapt to a growing number of public health, social, economic and environmental shifts, to better serve patients.
I started by gathering internal research on user behaviors, analytics, and their submitted frustrations with KP.org up to that point. It became apparent that patients struggled to understand the site structure, account features and personal profile menu.
The first prototype flows were created to explore a new top right menu based on ideation gathered from Agile sessions. This included the addition of personalization features like profile photos, and the handling of some issues with menu item hierarchies and accessibility, which seemed to be greatly reducing adoption of the site by potential frequent users.
To reduce the multiple unnecessary clicks and convoluted usage of links in the footer, we also employed the same principles to come up with a temporary simplification of disjointed web experiences, which consolidated functionality that many repeat users were coming to the site for: the Support Center page.
Simplified appointments anywhere
Patients are able to log in to KP.org, immediately understand how to access updated COVID-19 information, and if they have symptoms or questions, schedule a quick remote or on-site appointment. Previously, users were getting frustrated with the experience, feeling confused about site navigation and information architecture. This resulted in millions of dollars lost every year in avoidable support calls - and thousands of patients leaving the Kaiser Permanente network.
Although some of the initial ideation and wireframing had been done up to a year earlier, the pandemic urged us to design and deploy improvements as soon as possible. Some other key players I made sure to call upon included Sr. Lead Designer and natural born Business Analyst Catherine Booker, Lead Mobile Designer and UX Researcher Vanvisa Musigapala, and Principal UX Manager Weston Thompson.
As with most UX and design efforts, the expected returns and growth from user adoption and retention would most likely render any budget needs relatively insignificant - especially in a healthcare provider with ample funding allocated for service and product experience. So budget was not unlimited, but also definitely not a limiting factor - project success did not exactly hinge on monetary cost, but instead on design expertise and ability to leverage data to deploy precise solutions in a short time frame.
Navigation and profile
Relatable branding
Telling emotional human stories through simple anthropomorphic shapes. Suggesting ideal comfort through family, belonging, kindness, solidarity, caring, and being.
New patient hub
3. Solution (most important): boldly showcase design. video prototype, series of screens or interaction flow. Describe impact with metrics and testimonials to communicate the benefits on business, customers or organizational initiatives.
4. Approach: dive into process. Communicate clearly how solution was reached. key events, insights, and decisions that influenced design. No need to describe everything, but include relevant successes, failures and iterations.
Explain how problem was tackled based on your knowledge of design and the processes available.
5. Learnings (optional): reflect on what went well, what could have been done differently, and any feedback received throughout
