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Dates

July 2021 - January 2022

Overview

Altais is an emerging healthcare innovation startup that aims to revolutionize the healthcare experience by supporting the movement to value-based care through its unique product offering. 

The product, still in its conceptual phase, was a dual-faceted solution targeting healthcare providers and patients.  The provider component was middleware meant to integrate seamlessly with and enhance the function of Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems. An accompanying app would provide the patient and their support network with complete access to their medical records along with customizable features to help them understand and take charge of their health and treatment plans.

I was brought on as the founding Senior Interaction Designer and UX Research Lead to play an instrumental role within a 4-person thought leadership team in the company’s product design studio.

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• Launch and lead a UX research program within Altais’ product design studio.
• Collaborate with product managers to establish a unified product strategy and prioritize MVP development anchored in user feedback.
• Conceptualize the future product and determine how to differentiate it from the competition.
• Define healthcare client workflows to identify pain points and service gaps our product could address.

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Securing buy-in from core teams

To be effective, we needed our colleagues to understand what the UX design lifecycle was, what we would be doing, and why conducting UX research was so important. In an agile environment focused on delivering results as quickly as possible in order to bring the product to market, we had to show how conducting research on the frontend would save time and money on developing the wrong product down the road.

Balancing research needs

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Being the sole UX researcher posed its challenges. With four user categories (primary care providers, administrators, patients, and non-professional caregivers) and a vast product landscape, prioritizing research areas was daunting. With finite time and resources, I was pushed to make strategic choices concerning research methodology.

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Empowering with privacy in mind

We aimed to craft a tool that granted patients maximal control over their records. At the same time, it was crucial to ensure the entire care team had the information they required to collaborate effectively, all while strictly adhering to HIPAA regulations.

Designing complex interactions

Our challenge was in tailoring experiences for users with differing security permissions and levels of product engagement. This included ensuring accessibility for non-customer physicians and carefully differentiating access for diverse stakeholders, such as primary care providers versus hospital administrators or family members.

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UX research initiative

I view a UX research practice as an internal service steered by the needs of the teams designing and building the products. User research should not be perceived as passing judgment on the existing product, but should be a source of knowledge and inspiration for future iterations. With this mindset, I first set out to build connections with and earn the trust of the product teams. I met with senior leadership and product managers to understand the overall vision and what they were working on separately. I took time to explain the UX process and the various ways we could help streamline their work and improve outcomes.

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Once I understood the company’s aspirations and current product landscape, I collaborated with product managers to set our main objectives and strategy for the research we were about to conduct. I presented three potential research strategies and the relative merits and drawbacks of each. Once we came to a consensus on a strategy, I began to focus on creating individual research plans.

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To be time-efficient, most of our studies were conducted via remote unmoderated interviews using UserZoom. I created click-through prototypes and recorded demos to present product features to participants. Participant audio and video were recorded for each session. I employed the 'think-out-loud' technique to record feedback as participants completed tasks and used click tests to generate heat maps. I also gathered qualitative data via Likert-scale type survey questions and click counts. I presented research findings and actionable insights at our biweekly company-wide design demos.

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To fill in gaps in scope, I also conducted heuristic evaluations on existing prototypes to help ensure UX best practices were adhered to. I presented my evaluations visually and ranked recommendations so that product managers could decide how to prioritize improvements in upcoming sprints.

After completing a quarter's worth of studies, I set up a research repository in EnjoyHQ, chosen because it integrated well with UserZoom and was within our budget. In alignment with best practices, I established a carefully-thought-out taxonomy to aid discovery and comparison of key research insights and satisfaction ratings over time.

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Facilitation and collaboration

I planned and facilitated workshops with design and product managers to unify our terminology for product features and shape the product's roadmap. These sessions were devised to merge design thinking methodologies, insights from human behavior, and fresh research findings to steer product development.

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Concept generation

Our differentiation strategy for the patient-facing app focused on leveraging data analytics, machine learning, natural language processing and generative AI (which was not yet a reality, but the tech world knew it was coming) to create a personalized, interactive experience that would constantly adapt and learn from patient interactions. Our leading concept featured a virtual universe led by an intelligent, conversational star. The most fun I ever had as a designer involved embodying the voice of the Altais Star in all subsequent concept pitches.

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Defining client workflows

Our software was developed in collaboration with several clinics and physician groups, who were set to be our inaugural clients and beta testers. We engaged in discussions with those stakeholders to understand the complex ecosystems they operated within and the specific roles and workflows involved. I performed background research to identify all of the involved parties and their pain points. I then mapped out their processes, roles, and interactions, which we used to start the conversation around existing gaps and how our product might fill them.

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Additional initiatives

Mentorship: I began to mentor a junior designer who was interested in gaining experience conducting UX research. I trained them on using UserZoom and planning studies, with the plan to scale up our research practice in the near future.

Drop-in hours: I established weekly virtual office hours in which any employee or team could drop in to discuss all things UX, whether work-related or curiosity-driven.

Research requests: I created a Research Request Form which enabled anyone in the company to ask a question or request a topic for research. Those submissions would be considered when planning and prioritizing future studies.