Finding the right therapist

MyHealth1st.com.au

 

Overview:

Myhealth1st is an online search and appointment booking service for the healthcare industry. Our team were looking for a way to allow MH1st to extend their services as it’s potentially difficult to find the right match.

My role:

In a team of three, my role involved primary research, competitive research, feature prioritisation, initial concept design, user flow, and prototyping.

Tools and Methods:

  • Business analysis
  • Competitive analysis
  • User Surveys
  • User interview
  • User archetypes
  • Affinity mapping
  • customer journey
  • Empathy map
  • Business model canvas

Key deliverables:

Two weeks of research and ideation + three days of detailed design:

  • Competitive analysis
  • Key insights of patient and therapist interviews
  • Survey analysis
  • Customer journey map
  • Archetypes
  • Wireframes & prototype
  • Overarching strategy
  • Handover documentation

Problem overview:

Patients struggling to find the right therapist when bookings for mental health professionals. So, MH1st needs to improve the process and feel comfortable facing such problems head-on.

Solution overview:

“searching for the right therapist is sort of like dating”

We recognized the issue that currently exists for public and self-stigma for people who needs the psychotherapy. Also, there are various personal, interpersonal, and professional barriers (Age, gender, education) that might prevent those in need of receiving mental health services.

In 2 weeks of research, we came up with these recommendations for MyHealth1st website:

  • Open lines of communication
  • My health journey
  • User onboarding
  • Essential information
  • My health budget

We examined our data from a holistic standpoint and came to more focused on improving the onboarding process to find the therapeutic match for patients. And help them make informed decisions based on the following:

Practitioners profile:

  • Reviews
  • Recommendations
  • Experience
  • Qualifications
  • Areas of specialisation
  • Location
  • Ice breakers (unique information)
  • Gender/age preference

Process:

During our research, we took into consideration balancing business requirements with users’ needs.

  • We invited patients and therapists into our process to understand what they go through is key

  • We filled our days in these early parts of the project by inviting patients and practitioners into our process and user journey analysis sessions with the client, This helped us wrap our heads around a problem that spanned different type of patients and their needs.

    Through interviews with therapists, we found out how a website can help them facilitate their treatment processes.

 

  • We surveyed over 80 people
  • We mapped out all our data
  • We performed various workshops with our client

 

  • The second part of our approach was to draw rough sketches, white-boarding, and participatory design sessions with the client and lots of ideas jotted down on post-it notes.

  • The challenges we faced in two weeks were the limited access to the business and potential users. So we needed to make some assumptions during our process to come up with the solid recommendation for MyHealth1st goals

Our Strategy:

After our research process, we prioritized our recommendations into:

  • Communication
  • Allow patients to communicate with each other through various modalities
  • Facilitate further communication between practices and patients

 

  • My Health Journey
  • Encourage patients to keep track of their health journey
  • Allow users to understand their path to an ideal lifestyle, and help them along the way

 

  • Onboarding

By designing efficient searching, patients can make informed decisions based on the following:

  • Recommendations
  • Experience
  • Qualifications
  • Areas of specialisation
  • Location
  • Gender/age preference
  • Reviews

 

  • Essential information
  • Providing essential information about practitioners can help patients to find the right therapist. (Practitioners profile)

 

  • My health budget
  • Having prior knowledge about the cost of the treatment program can lead to a  better arrangement.

Finding the right practitioners:

We found out when patients need treatment, they require more information about practitioners to find the best match for their problem.

As I took on different ways to improve the patient’s journey, it was clear that efficient searching is potential to help patients to find the right practitioner in the booking process on the MyHealth1st website.

User flow to book an appointment with their match

The case study continues here to showcase detailed deliverables…

Efficient searching:

Efficient searching + Practitioners profile

Results and reflections:

Our suggestion is to continue to do research, continue to understand what the patient really needs, and what is really lacking. We recommend efficient searching and easy access to essential information on practitioners’ profiles as the overall strategy to ensure the users find a therapist who meets their specific requirements. Also, these features could apply to search other types of practitioners as well. Allowing those in need to easily access the services they need with utmost ease will lead to a successful journey through the mental health field.