Virtual Clinic UX Design Recommendations

The demand for Telehealth services is far from waning, despite the (so far) successful efforts to curb the COVID-19 pandemic. The technology does not fall behind, and new applications and solutions make their debut to meet the needs of the population.

With a much higher number of users than recently, the most successful solutions hone the user experience of their Telehealth platforms, as it becomes a truly competitive edge – with the rising number of similar apps and platforms available on the market.

That happens for a good reason – Telehealth, surrounded by misunderstanding and myths already, is plagued by poor interfaces and convoluted designs that push users away from the services. Not only the patients experience fatigue when using poor interfaces. Doctors struggle with the never-ending flow of administrative tasks and data input, which is both time-consuming and tiresome.

Now, what UX practices constitute the best outcome for a virtual clinic development project? This article will help you narrow down the specifics of Telehealth design and its nuances, alongside universally-tested UX principles.

Narrow down the user persona and their behavior

First and foremost, you must know precisely your target demographic. It can be general – all ages, any sex, any country. Or it can be highly specific – certain age, a certain domain of healthcare, even a certain type of treatment. The higher the accuracy of your target demographic, the easier it will be to create a solution that will have high customer retention. You don’t want users to bounce off your login page.

Define the user persona and make it a primary consideration when constructing the systems further. If you have a luxury of an opportunity to interview your customers, do your best to receive feedback during the early stages of conceptualization and development of your solution. Tweaking the project at early stages will prove invaluable in the long run.

Make sure there is value for the user and ease of access to every important system. If you’re uncertain of the foundations that make a good user experience, you can stick to usability heuristics true to any software design.

Design style and tone of voice

This area concerns the visual expectation of your target demographic. Basically, how hip the design should be for a younger generation, or how conservative for older generations? How much jargon, active voice can you afford to connect with your audience? What is and what is not appropriate?

A brilliantly made Telehealth solution resonates well with its target audience. In general, when it comes to user interface texts, simple and at the same time, ample explanations of confusing areas are well received.

Consider the design style, animation, and interface colors well before making a stance on what is the best fit.

Level of technological literacy and adaptability

Younger users can, in general, withstand more convoluted app design and find their way around poor design decisions. That does not mean that it is an acceptable direction to take, of course. Older and senior users are much more likely to meet attrition during the use of a solution built for younger people (more on that below).

Depending on the demographic, certain services should be provided differently. When it comes to psychological trauma, younger users may prefer to write their concerns or emotions down, instead of speaking out loud, as it may push them to relive the traumatic experience.

Usability for seniors

With a growing demographic of the senior population, this diverse category of patients requires extra attention when it comes to a comprehensive user interface design. With age, vision, hearing, and manual control decline. That must be taken into account during the project conceptualization.

Provide an opportunity to increase font and button size

What might be a breeze for a younger user to navigate, will probably be a hurdle to use by seniors. Small interactives might be difficult to use. Many people would know what it’s like to try and close a mobile app pop-up, with its infinitely small X button. That’s how it feels for elderly users in most scenarios.

Small fonts, especially on a high-contrast background might be difficult, even painful to read. Consider adding an option to increase font size and readability.
Provide the users with extra ways to provide or revert input

Don’t limit the ability to input text or date in strict ways. For instance, dates are often picked via a pop-up where month, day, and year must be selected on a wheel selection. An opportunity to simply type in the date shouldn’t be neglected.

Offer the users the possibility to revert changes and provide confirmation prompts before the submission of data is made.

Make sure the errors messages are understandable

Simplicity is key in this regard. Every user of your service will benefit from clear and simply written error messages. Explain thoroughly what went wrong and what steps can be made to fix it.

This is crucial whenever data input is concerned. Failed login attempts or forms that require information input in a certain way must be able to explain what went wrong and how it can be mended.

Specifications and the scope of the project

The interface conceptualization is one of the first steps that should be taken during the project assessment. During this stage, it’s crucial to have a clear understanding of the functionality your virtual clinic solution will offer to its users.

Let’s go over each important area:

• Search: patients and doctors alike should be able to use the search function to narrow down the solution’s functionality, help documents, etc. It’s a good practice when the search icon is available in the main menu, or parts of the interface that are visible on all pages
• Registration: the more options are available to register an account, the better. The verification of the account can be as thorough as you require to meet the privacy and safety criteria, but this first step is crucial. It is highly recommended to use extra security measures, such as phone verification, and strong password requirements.
• Patient profile data: if you can afford to provide a seamless experience for the longest part of the data entry (profile creation and record transfer), then it should be done. Modern solutions often offer chatbots as an alternative to forms.
• Calendar: always a useful addition, the calendar should be able to export meetings to popular calendar systems: Google Calendar, iCal, and others.
• Notifications: push, SMS, and email notifications should be brief, and precise. The delivery channel, ideally, should be customizable as well.
• Medication panel: if such a feature is present on the project scope, it is important to make sure this system is capable of providing the list of medications on a single page.
• Streamlined EHR integration: the easier it is to store EHR data and exchange/download it, the better. Ideally, the solution should be capable of fully exporting the EHR data (securely!) to another solution of a similar kind.
• General navigation: patients and doctors alike should have no difficulty in conducting a video or audio session. Minimizing the number of steps required to perform a session is important.
• Billing: provide your patients with an opportunity to cover costs through a variety of payment options. The transaction history should also be available.

Conclusion

Telehealth solution design is a highly complex and intricate type of software development. Ensuring a good user experience for your target demographic (or ideally, for all users) is extremely important. Generally, the practices of good UI are universal in software design and should be included in the project scope at its beginning, not its end. Otherwise, you might end up with a functional solution that no one will want to use, rendering your entire investment a loss. Don’t let that happen!

If you’d like to learn more about Telehealth solution design, our experts are always available for a consultation.