4 Factors That Determine the Usability of Your Healthcare App

Bringing user experience to healthcare improvement is not just about the placement of buttons on the screen, or reducing the number of clicks to perform an action. UX designers aren’t simply devising a route navigating the menus and screens of a product, they’re actually redesigning relationships and workflows in the system to make them function efficiently. In doing so, designers dive deep into the system to determine the values, goals, and working methods that drive it.

This year has provided abundant opportunities in healthcare UI-UX design on digital products to manage provider-patient remote interactions, recording and managing patient’s vital signs, fitness and wellness apps, medical insurance apps, and more.

While these products seem to cover a wide spectrum of services and complexities, there are some common design practices that can make any healthcare application more effective and efficient in giving the users to get what they truly need.

4 Ways to Uplift Healthcare User Experience

When creating an application that lets users take care of their health and improve their lifestyle and wellbeing, seamless functionality is paramount. Usability can be determined by these factors –

The efficiency with which users can accomplish a task or achieve a specific goal correctly and completely in a short time;

The user’s subjective satisfaction and acceptance of the process of using the product.

Usability is targeted to achieve goals such as – intuitive interface and experience. ease of learning, efficiency, memorability, error prevention, and user satisfaction.

As usability is at the heart of a successful product, it’s important to place the user at the center of every design and development decision from the start.

Impart a sense of security

Despite the government-mandated security regulations, site continue to remain dodgy on that aspect. It is paramount to impart a sense of security to users when they’re using a healthcare product. To ensure they know that their data is truly safe and their privacy is intact. A feeling of reassurance that any action they take won’t result in things going sideways. How can this feeling of security be conveyed to users? Several ways –

• By offering easy-to-understand explanations while sourcing any vital information and by providing clear responses to actions taken.
• By helping them anticipate the next step, and the next step should be in line with what they have anticipated.
• By clearly let them know why are they being asked for a certain kind of information, how will it be utilized and stored.

And above and beyond, this sense of security should be consistent across the entire experience.

Hand the reigns of control to the users

As a healthcare app user, receiving a 50-page privacy agreement full of technical jargon at signup is never a good thing. No one is going to read that, and if they did, few would truly understand what they’re signing up for. Instead, when users are given a list of 4-5 options with whom their data would be shared, it helps them make an informed choice, consciously. It helps them gain a feeling of control and installs trust. Users of healthcare applications are required to submit personal information at various stages.

Therefore, making the privacy section clear at the signup stage itself gives them a sense of confidence and control, and instills trust in the application. This should include information about revoking access to data, what happens when they move to a different service, and other options available in terms of privacy.

Don’t be helpful just for the sake of it

In most cases, people are already in a somewhat tense state of mind when they first find themselves using a healthcare application. Healthcare user interface design has to be welcoming and comprehensible. Your user, a patient, in the case of this example below, is seeking help through your technology, likely because something is wrong.

The patient has suffered an injury and is seeking assistance from a medical professional online. Before the virtual appointment, the patient is asked to upload an X-ray report for the provider to access during the session.

As the patient uploads the file, an instant notification pops, explaining the failure to upload, along with the reason why, and the corrective action to be taken. Creating a helpful, streamlined experience forms the foundation of good UX.

It’s supposed to be a friend, not a troll

To say that healthcare applications are intimidating is an understatement. The usage of complex medical and billing terminology in healthcare apps can be overwhelming for patients and their families. Or, in the case of providers, the voluminous data entry and the complex interface can be intimidating. What is truly a nerve-wracking situation for the user can be transformed into a positive healthcare user experience with some sensitive touches.

For example, here’s a healthcare UX case study where we enhanced the EHR to provide only the most vital and relevant information to the primary user (doctor) in a single glance so as to help him make an informed diagnosis.

Using a healthcare facility, either virtually or in person is not something people look forward to. Users on both sides, patients and providers are there because they have to. Creating a good user experience can go a long way in easing the stress and frustrations associated with it.

The pandemic has had people turning to healthcare technology in droves, and this ex expected to continue. In the coming years, there will be an increased emphasis on creating a healthier population to reduce the burden on the provider system. From the design perspective, it would mean creating tools that are more welcoming, engaging, and serve a true purpose. It would mean an even higher emphasis on user-driven experiences.