Medlink: A Patient-Provider Connection

SENIOR CAPSTONE PROJECT. UXUI. GRAPHIC DESIGN. RESEARCH PSYCHOLOGY. BRAND CREATION AND DESIGN.

This project was developed in the spring semester of my senior year, 2021. Our senior capstone is designed to give us the most opportunity to display the skills we've developed in the undergraduate graphic design program. “A capstone project is a multifaceted assignment that serves as a culminating academic and intellectual experience for students, typically during their final year of education.”

This project was conceptualized based on my experiences as a patient seeking healthcare in the United States. I frequently found myself frustrated by how difficult it was to find a reliable way to find doctors or professionals who fit my needs. Not only is it challenging to find physicians who fit within the bounds allotted by our countries healthcare practices, but it is jarring that the few resources who provide similar services often have sponsored search results and reviews (which falsely inflates ratings and rankings of search results). This makes the task of finding a professional who fits your needs extremely challenging.

My goal was to conduct research and a survey to have quantified data to find the needs and experiences of others within the United States. Then, I would design a resource with these findings in mind that would resolve these issues. My solution is MedLink.

MedLink is my senior capstone that I developed to solve a problem I frequently saw occurring in the United States. Patients in the United States have many parameters they must stay within to receive adequate healthcare that fits their needs. This includes, but is not limited to: insurance network, geographic location, and general availability of doctors/ specialists. There is little to no support for patients to find doctors/ specialists that fit their needs, besides traditional practices (such as existing doctor recommendations or basic google searches). In addition to this, sites that have similar offerings allow sponsored posts or search results, which can falsely inflate ratings or rankings. This destroys their ethics and honesty, and damages their relationship with their users.

MedLink was designed with the patient in mind. With no sponsored results or rankings allowed, the goal was to create an ethical site that was easy for any user to experience. This site also would put the search queries one would have to meticulously search separately into one easy to use site.

Want to experience Medlink for yourself?

Click here for the Adobe XD Desktop prototype, or click here for the Adobe XD Mobile prototype.

Final screens and branding

Desktop walkthrough

Watch a detailed video as I walk you though a working prototype of Medlink and its abilities for a desktop/tablet device.

Mobile walkthrough

Watch a detailed video as I walk you though a working prototype of Medlink and its abilities for a mobile device.

Introduction

What is MedLink?

Overview

Research and planning

External research

My research included: researching issues with healthcare and insurance in the United States, developing a survey to get first hand accounts and experiences, and examining comparable sites.

Research on healthcare issues in the United States:

“There is no data about how many patients lack access to specialty care. But there are roughly 35 million uninsured Americans and millions more who are underinsured or on Medicaid. https://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20140802/INFO/308029942/access-to-specialty-care-out-of-reach-for-many

In the United States, more than a third of patients are referred to a specialist each year, and specialist visits constitute more than half of outpatient visits. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3160594/

Because of the high cost of healthcare, 44% Americans didn’t go see a physician last year when they were sick or injured, according to a new survey. https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucejapsen/2018/03/26/poll-44-of-americans-skip-doctor-visits-due-to-cost/?sh=72cbcc676f57

Survey design and data collection

I held a fully anonymous, 19 question survey that asked participants a variety of questions in reference to their experiences when seeking out healthcare. I had 73 participants. https://s.surveyplanet.com/qzJyHR7jh

My findings included:
61.6% of participants suffered from a “chronic illness”, or something requiring a specialist’s care
61.6% of participants have felt isolated because of a lack of medical support or availability
91.8% of participants had insurance
53.4% have felt limited because of their insurance (or lack thereof)
53.4% reported having felt distressed trying to navigate their healthcare needs

Feedback from participants:
The 19th question was an optional field: they could leave any feedback, information, or experiences they’d like me to know about when designing.
“Waitlists were a big hindrance to me finding a therapist for so long. Some waitlists are as long as 6 months. Other times I’d find a therapist online, contact them, and they said they weren’t taking on any new clients, so they would refer me & that person either wasn’t taking on clients or they had a waitlist. It sucks!!!!”
“It’d be really great to have doctors for certain insurances. It’s been hard to find dentists, eye doctors, and even physicians for Medicaid. All insurances should have a set of doctors that they recommend for each service. Most of the websites don’t have these listed so you have to go through the doctors webpages to see which type of insurance they accept.”
“Payment/coverage/cost is my biggest concern with healthcare. I want/need to choose the most affordable option, which at times is difficult to access (long waitlist - up to 4 months!!!) or is poor quality (residents that rotate every 3 months rather than 1 consistent provider).”

Problem solving

Patients in the United States have many parameters they must stay within to receive adequate healthcare that fits their needs. This includes, but is not limited to: insurance network, geographic location, and general availability of doctors/ specialists. There is little to no support for patients to find doctors/ specialists that fit their needs, besides traditional practices (such as existing doctor recommendations or basic google searches).

Problem analysis: a listing of key aspects/challenges/issues that compose the problem

Building an accessible website for a large variety of needs or users
Lack of resources to independently seek care
Lack of ability for patients to take an authoritative role in their care
Currently, each issue or concern at hand must be individually searched for, despite being under the same umbrella topic
Lack of platform/s that allows users to use a ‘favorite’, or letting them make a list to save for future reference
Some sites have doctor ratings or reviews, but many hide things such as: if reviews are sponsored, if doctors are sponsoring themselves to appear in the top of the search, etc.
Not easy to inquire with a doctor in a timely or convenient manner (hold times via phone call, days of waiting for an email with no guaranteed response, etc.)

Competitor research

After conducting my own research and survey on the content of my site, I went forward to examine similar sites and their uses. I researched multiple sites that I examined to determine their usability, design, and format. The main two types I researched were medical search sites (ex.: WebMD) and housing finders (ex.: VillaFinder). One common theme I found of medically focused sites was the sheer amount of content they had. Many had the capabilities to not only find doctors, but also: read articles and news, search and read by condition, a symptom checker, comparing prescription drug costs and more. Despite the multitude of functions (and almost overwhelming amount of content), I found that they still were still lacking some functions that I was seeking as a user, such as an insurance input function. I also referenced housing finder sites, as they have multiple search input functions that I find very user-friendly, useful, and straightforward. These sites typically have much less content in comparison to medical search sites. The main issues I found with these sites included functionality, format, layout and hierarchy issues, general design tweaks (such as type and color adjustments). By researching sites that were laterally related to my site, I found strengths, weaknesses, and attributes that I wanted to keep in mind as I went forward to design.

Establishing initial goals

Design strategy

My audience is a wide variety of ages (~14+, since those under this age are typically seeking resources from parents or pediatric care), and includes all genders/ gender identities. My goal is to make a simple, easy to use platform that a variety of users can navigate with ease.

My 3 main goals for the website were to:
1) Allow patient data input (insurance, location, reason or condition for care, etc.)
2) Create profiles that have messaging and favorite’s list capabilities
3) Easily find providers that fit a patient’s needs, while also staying within their individual constraints (see 1)

Solution characteristics

My website (and brand) works to do the following:

Build an accessible user interface
Have numerous search input fields for specific data
Give power to patients through control and choice over their healthcare
Put the different issues patients frequently search or ask for assistance with (insurance coverage, location, etc.) at the forefront of importance
Have the ability for a user to create a profile
Let users favorite providers or save them to a list for future reference
Easily inquire with a provider with one-click: displays location, phone/ fax, email Design a friendly, welcoming brand identity that incudes a feeling of calmness and security

Design solution

The brand

The name MedLink is based on the idea of connecting patients and providers. The logo is a soft-edge sans serif font, with a contrasting all caps tagline below. The link icon above the brand name is designed to represent a halo to imply the idea of the site being a ‘God-sent’ resource for patients. The color scheme was chosen based on color psychology and how color impacts mood and emotions. These cool toned colors embody calmness (sage), structure (emerald), positivity (yellow), and professionalism (white).

Below is process work that helped me develop my branding and brand direction, along with final stylesheets.