Working in a health-tech environment provided me with the unique opportunity to interview a variety of stakeholders. From older patient populations to their care providers — I took leadership over numerous user research and testing initiatives.
For our usability testing initiative, we garnered user sentiments through activities like card sorting and prototype walk-throughs. Specifically, we aimed to understand:
- What information feels engaging to new members
- How users conceptually group related features
- How users understand navigation within the mobile app
We used userinterviews.com to pool together users who fit our market demographic (middle aged USAmericans with pulmonary diseases).
Research Methods: Remote interview, card sorting, prototyping walk-through
Duration: 1 hour
Participants: 18 Wellinks’ potential users
Demographic breakdowns: Age: 55-88; Gender: 10 female, 8 male; all diagnosed w/ COPD (diagnosis length 1-13 years)
Fielded from: 6/15-6/23
While on a call with the user, I had shared my window screen so they could see our Figma prototype. The other half of my screen contained our interview script.
As I shared the feature overview of our app with the participants, I asked them to conceptually group these features in a card sort. Then, I asked them to rank the importance of each feature in managing their COPD. I recorded any additional user sentiments accordingly.
I began to standardize the data by assigning each feature a numbered score based on importance. This allowed me to determine the top and bottom priority features though quantitative rather than qualitative analysis.
I totaled the scoring in a spreadsheet and found that potential users are most interested in exercise guidance and planning , communicating with a health coach, and clinical reading trends. Conversely, users expressed mixed sentiments around good day/bad day check-ins and support groups.
Our card sort revealed that users conceptualize features into three prominent themes: Goals, Support, and Reading Trends. We also found that users expressed confusion over one of our components (floating action button) and overlapping expectations for Help/Talk features.
As a result, my recommendations are that we explore alternative ways for users to add readings without the floating action button to reduce user confusion. In addition, we should consider organizing our features into themes created by users (Goals, Support, Reading Trends/Medications). Specifically, we should consider combining Help/Chat into a generalized “Support” page to better align with user expectations.
The second initiative was a series of interviews with pulmonologists, primary care providers, and nurse practitioners. My goals were to understand: questions I wanted answered were:
- What clinical metrics do providers use to inform decisions to change care?
- What reading insights do people find most valuable?
- How can we better support clinician/patient communications during health appointments
Participants were selected through existing company contacts. It was important that we find passionate clinicians who were invested in patient outcomes. The more opinionated, the better!
Research Methods: Remote interview, product walk-through, impressions testing
Duration: 45 minutes
Participants: 5 pulmonologists, 2 primary care providers, and 2 nurse practioners
Fielded from: 7/13-7/30
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Participants were asked a series of open-ended conceptual questions regarding patient metrics before seeing the final product. This was to minimize potential biases in responses.
Then, we did impressions testing on the report itself. These reports were designed with assumptions around what patient information would spark a conversation around COPD management. We needed to know — were our assumptions correct?
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Our assumptions were challenged! We learned that most pulmonologists assess COPD severity using informal qualitative metrics rather than standardized quantitative metrics. In addition, exacerbation frequency/severity and oxygen use would be incredibly beneficial to track.
OVERALL: Impressions were extremely positive! All participants found the data visualization clear and useful in filling the gaps in knowledge between themselves and their patient.
5/5 pulmonologists said they use the report in their appointments with patients if it was made available to them. Success!
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