MindfulMeet:
The User-Friendly Scheduling Solution for Mental Health Providers
MindfulMeet
Project duration: October-November 2022
MindfulMeet is an App that streamline’s the patient scheduling process for mental health professionals, enabling them to spend more time with their clients, and less time on clerical work.
Problem
Mental health professionals often find themselves working on care-adjacent tasks, leaving them with limited time to focus on the patient. This can be frustrating for professionals who are passionate about providing quality care and building meaningful relationships with their patients.
Insight
Mental health professionals often find themselves spending a significant amount of time on administrative work, such as scheduling appointments, managing client records, and handling billing. These tasks are necessary, but they can be time-consuming and take away from time that could be spent meeting with patients.
Opportunity
Design an app that helps mental health professionals with their clerical work so that they can spend more time with their clients
Role
UX researcher and designer leading the app from conception to delivery. Conducting research, interviews, paper and digital wireframing, low and high-fidelity prototyping, conducting usability studies, accounting for accessibility, and iterating on designs
Toolkit
Figma
Google
Docs
Google
Forms
Google
Sheets
diagrams.net
Adobe
Illustrator
Research
Market Research - Competitive Audit Summary:
I conducted a competitive website audit for MindfulMeet to identify the strengths and weaknesses of competitors' scheduling apps. This helped inform the design of MindfulMeet's UX by highlighting features that users expect and value, and areas where we can differentiate and innovate.
Strengths: The collective strengths of these websites/apps include intuitive design and navigation, robust non-scheduling features, and appealing branding. They also offer helpful guides for users, integrate easily with other apps and software, and prioritize user accessibility. Additionally, two competitors offer multiple language options for users.
Weaknesses: The four websites/apps audited have some common weaknesses. Firstly, there is a lack of accessibility options across all the websites/apps. Secondly, some of the websites/apps have a weak or generic brand identity that fails to distinguish them from competitors. Thirdly, some of the websites/apps lack language options, making them less accessible to non-English speaking users. Fourthly, there is a lack of invoicing features in some of the websites/apps, making it difficult for mental health professionals to manage payments. Finally, some of the websites/apps make telehealth an additional cost, which can discourage use of the service.
Opportunities: To improve the user experience of my app, I plan to implement several strategies. First, I will ensure that the user interface of the app can be customized to match the branding of the mental health practices that use it. This will help create a sense of familiarity for the users and enhance their overall experience with the app. Second, I will ensure that the user interface of the app is customizable for ease of reading, with options to adjust font size, contrast, and other readability features. This will help to accommodate the needs of users with different visual abilities. Lastly, I will integrate my app with voice assistive technology to provide an inclusive experience for users with disabilities or who prefer to use voice commands. These steps will help make the app more accessible, customizable, and user-friendly.
Accessibility considerations:
Provide sufficient color contrast: Ensure that text and other UI elements have sufficient color contrast so that users with visual impairments can easily distinguish them.
Use clear and simple language: Using clear and simple language is important for users with cognitive disabilities. Avoid using complex jargon or language that may be difficult to understand.
Use captions and transcripts: Provide captions or transcripts for videos and audio content to ensure that users with hearing impairments can understand the content.
Make sure the app is compatible with assistive technology: Ensure that the app is compatible with popular assistive technologies such as screen readers, voice recognition software, and switch devices.
Allow users to customize the app: Providing options for users to customize the app's layout, color scheme, font size, and other elements can help users with various disabilities better access and use the app.
User research: summary
I conducted interviews and created empathy maps to understand the users I’m designing for and their needs. My target audience are mental health professionals and their office staff. With this in mind, I found that users wanted expanded features that would allow them to centralize and streamline their workflows. For example, in addition to scheduling, they wanted patient portals, invoicing, appointment reminders.
User research: pain points
Security
users need alternate methods to keep data within the app safe
Contact creation/editing
users need a way to send new patient forms/requests for updated forms directly to new patients so that the patients themselves can fill them out.
Invoicing
users need invoice automation options with the ability to select when and how frequently to send the invoices
Appointment reminders
users need appointment reminder automation options with the ability to select when and how frequently to send the reminders
Personas
Laura Diaz
Age: 35
Education: MD
Location: Newark
Family: Spouse and 2 children
Occupation: Psychiatrist
“I want to provide my patients with the best care possible, and that requires a neat and organized foundation of communication.”
Summary: Laura has just opened her own practice and is heavily relying on technology, especially while the practice is establishing itself. She is handling some clerical duties herself while she finds the right staff. Laura enjoys spending time with her spouse and two children, and would love to not have to worry too much about scheduling/communication while she’s at home.
Goals
Find a more convenient way to handle appointment scheduling.
Spend less time doing clerical duties at work.
Spend less time ensuring HIPAA compliance.
Frustrations:
Office staff is currently minimal - Laura is handling more duties in the interim and would prefer to meet with her patients.
The practice is still choosing software solutions, and Laura is having a tough time finding solutions that integrate well.
The scheduling solution used at Laura’s previous practice was not mobile-friendly. She hated having to keep a laptop nearby for ease of use.
Problem statement: Laura is a mental health professional who has recently opened her own practice. She needs a scheduling app that streamlines communication and management of appointments so she can focus on her patients and spend more time with her family
Emon Ghosh
Age: 18
Education: Highschool
Location: Los Angeles
Family: Parents, brother, and cat
Occupation: Front desk receptionist
“It’s not 1950 - why am I filing actual paper?”
Summary: Emon has recently graduated high school and is taking a gap year to save up money and get a better idea of what he wants to study in college. He likes the idea of being a therapist, and is excited to get a glance at the profession while he works as a front desk receptionist at a practice. Emon wants to do a good job and impress the higher-ups at his practice so he can ask them for a letter of recommendation once he begins applying to schools - the possibility of poor communication and mishandling patients endanger his goals.
Goals
Find a more tech-savvy way of handling scheduling.
Spend less time explaining tech to his coworkers.
Find a solution that merges phone and web appointments so he can cut down on repetitive tasks.
Frustrations:
Emon is the youngest employee at the practice and sometimes finds himself explaining tech to his coworkers.
The software his practice currently uses looks very outdated - Emon thinks it’s an eyesore.
His practice schedules appointments online and over the phone. He has to consolidate these manually and it takes too much time.
Problem statement: Emon is beginning his gap year working as a front desk receptionist at a mental health practice, he wants to make a positive impression on his colleagues and impress them with his work ethic. Emon needs a scheduling app that is intuitive and easy to use, with clear communication features and safeguards to ensure patient confidentiality, so he can focus on doing his job well and earning a positive recommendation letter for his future academic pursuits.
User journey map
Persona: Laura
Goal: Schedule a new patient in-person, ensure they arrive for their appointment, and send follow-up information
Mapping Laura’s user journey revealed how helpful it would be for users to have access to a simple scheduling app that included reminder features and invoicing features
Design
Paper wireframes
Paper wireframes allowed me to iterate quickly and provide a variety of alternative design options that could be used modularly to address user pain points. For the home screen, I prioritized a quick and easy way for users to select the actions they wanted to complete.
Low-Fidelity Wireframes
Low-fidelity prototype
After completing the low-fidelity wireframes, I created a low-fidelity prototype. The primary user flow guides users through scheduling a future appointment with the patient they are currently meeting with. This was used in our usability study
The low-fidelity app prototype for the scheduling app for mental health professionals was tested and can be viewed here.
High-fidelity mockups
High-fidelity prototype
The final high-fidelity prototype presented more direct user flows that also enabled users to easily move from one task to the next. It also features clearer graphics for ease of viewing.
Validation
I conducted two rounds of usability studies. Findings from the first study helped guide the designs from wireframes to mockups. The second study used a high-fidelity prototype and revealed what aspects of the mockups needed refining.
10 minutes. Remote, United States. Unmoderated usability study. Each study used 5 participants between the ages of 25-55, residing in metropolitan and suburban areas. All participants have experience using scheduling software.
Usability Study 1 Highlights
Participants in this study used the low-fidelity prototype.
Users wanted alternative security options. I added push notifications and face recognition as options. The image depicts the screen before and after the change.
Users wanted more flexibility in sending invoice reminders. I implemented this feedback by making it so that users can now choose the mode and frequency of invoice reminders.
Users wanted the ability to request that patients fill out their own profiles. I added a feature that allows the user to text or email forms to patients, allowing them to fill out the forms themselves.
Usability Study 2 Highlights
Participants in this study used an earlier iteration of the high-fidelity prototype.
Users desired more exciting graphics that would better visually communicate the purpose of a feature. I revised the prototype and included isometric images in contrasting colors to make the app more vibrant. The image depicts the screen before and after the change.
The second usability study revealed a need for additional confirmation methods - users were concerned that they would send messages out before they were fully complete. To prevent this I created additional confirmation screens that added an extra step to processes that sent communication out to clients. The image depicts the screen before and after the change.
Users want to send group invoices, so I added the ability to send invoices to groups of patients who had appointments within a certain timeframe.
Next Steps
User Impact
The app makes users feel like they (and their vertical: mental health professionals) are specifically being catered to.
Takeaways
Usability testing is key to developing a good app. Listening to your users helps ensure that the app is easy to use and understand by the target audience. It can help identify areas of the app that may be confusing or difficult to use and allows for adjustments to be made before the final release. It’s also a great way to develop new features!
Iterate
Investigate how competitors use group reminders.
Gather previous user study participants and a set of 5 new participants. Have them use competitor apps.
Update prototype with new features and run a new usability study with participants previously mentioned.
Explore creating a browser-based partner application that users can use to view the features on a larger screen.