When you are launching a project to improve your product and you have to give value to the customer and at the same time to the business, how do you do it? In the following case we explain how we do it through the Design Thinking methodology: focusing on the patient and keeping our feet in the reality of the company. 

The following case is about a company in the medical sector, specifically, its area of work is focused on providing delivery service of treatment material to patients in their homes and hospitals. This project is a clear example of Patient Experience, remember; the patient is not a customer.

PROBLEM

With the pandemic, our client was faced with the need to improve adherence to its application in order to move part of the service to a non-face-to-face channel; reducing costs and obtaining patient evolution data as a basis for future user-centred decision making.

CHALLENGE

How could we offer the user greater or equal value to the effort required to adapt to the new medium?

OBJECTIVES

Carry out a design proposal that improves adherence to treatment and facilitates the transition of the service to digital channels.

METHODOLOGY

We started by aligning the core project team: What did they expect to get and what did they want to offer in return? What were their first assumptions? Who was the user we were going to focus on?

At the start of a project, we align ourselves with the client. This step is key to be able to subsequently move forward in an agile manner towards the proposed goals

Once we understood the bases of the project and established the first hypotheses, we went on to contrast them through initial research. In this research, we analyzed the existing application , using tools such as Heuristic Analysis, and we investigated the real needs of the user, using ethnographic tools such as Qualitative Interviews.

This first analysis of the application helps us to get to know it and offers a list of usability problems on which the client can focus. The analysis of the application also helps us to better direct the second part of the research and helps us to empathize with the user.

By understanding the application and the user, we were able to redefine the challenge, identifying the needs or pain points to solve for the user in the application. This allowed us to generate the first information architecture proposal and the first wireframes, which we used to contrast the direction of the project with the client.

We checked the first proposals with the client in an open discussion, very similar to a co-creation, where we finished landing the concepts presented in high quality wireframes. Once this was defined, we then created a navigable mockup to test the value propositions with the user.

Due to the pandemic period and to ensure patient safety, we decided to do the testing completely online. To do so, we adapted our techniques and met with patients via videoconference. After the interviews we were able to test not only the usability of the application, but also the value perceived by the user of the proposals.

Once the proposals have been presented and the value proposition validated, we carry out a color prototype for further development.

The user feedback allowed us to finish defining the proposal and polish the design to maximize the value offered to the client. We ended up adding details such as color, making a high definition navigable mockup that would serve as a reference for the client for its future development.

CONCLUSIONES

At Thinkers Co. we work on the conceptualization of products and services working side by side with the people who really have the problem, the customers and in this case, the patients. If you want to learn more about this project or launch impact products for your business providing value to your users, contact us and we will explain how.