Relieve stress for aspiring mothers at UCSF IVF Clinic
Evolving UCSF’s (University of California San Francisco) web portal to better fit the needs of women going through the IVF (In Vitro Fertilization)process. Creating a mobile platform where resources and personalized schedules are readily available and easily accessible.
My Role: Product Designer.
Timeline: April 2020; 8 weeks.
Challenge: Turn paperwork digital, eliminate gap in communication with patients and providers, and give women flexibility to personalize their IVF portal.
Solution: Create a mobile app that is a one stop shop for all IVF needs.
Research.
While learning about the IVF (In Vitro Fertilization) process, it became apparent women who choose IVF undergo a physically, mentally, and financially draining experience. It involves a chaotic schedule with countless appointments, medication and self injections, endless consent forms; all with little hope for conceiving a child. In comparing healthcare applications, I found most to have the expected “sterile” experience. Herein the goal with this project quickly became one of utmost empathy. If there is one thing that can easy the stress of the IVF process, it is organizing the logistics. Users need all of their files in one place, and a personalization tool that combines a daily planner, with healthcare.
Women going through IVF said:
”I feel like every other day I am trying to find a printer to sign and scan another consent form”
“Even google calendar can’t do everything I need, so I have several calendars with different things”.
“I once had to give myself a shot in the ass during roller skating night! Searching for the right instructions is my worst nightmare in a pinch like that”
Goal: Combine all necessary resources and allow for personalization.
Define & Ideate.
I created a journey map to better understand all of the information gathered during the interviews. It showed me how chaotic the IVF process truly is. There is not much linearity, as timelines change week by week depending on a number of outcomes (the woman’s body, cycle, reaction to drugs, etc.). This journey shows how emotionally and physically stressful the process is, and inspired ways to help mitigate some of that stress through logistics.
User Persona
Developing a Persona was crucial to this project as the user group is so specific. I wanted to make sure to maintain empathy for these women as I continue developing and iterating the design, as well as keeping their needs in the forefront.
Content Strategy
Since the current UCSF IVF clinic is only available on desktop, I needed to reevaluate the structure, while still maintaining the brand standards. This site map shows how I blended the new and existing features. In terms of brand and user interface design, I kept the logo, colors and text, but created a more modern aesthetic in the layout. I also added a new green color as my accent for the IVF clinic, as other branches of UCSF commonly have their own color.
Design and Test
The challenge for designing the wireframes was creating a balance between a calming, approachable design, while still evoking healthcare (trust). There is also a lot of equally important content to include, so deciding which features were on the main navigation took testing and iterating.
I made the calendar the homepage as this proved to be the place most users preferred to see immediately upon opening the app. They want to see their day at a glance and have the option to add reminders or notes as they move throughout the app.
Prototype.
Once all the hi fi screens were complete, I did a second round of testing with all of the IVF participants previously interviewed, as well as other people in the product industry to give further design input. I monitored testing as users completed tasks such as signing a document, locating glossary words in the resources, and adding a reminder to the calendar.
Results
The tasks were completed easily and overall app was well received. Users found the most useful piece to be the personalization and the resources, as these were previously missing from the platform.
Main updates made after results were confirmation window after completing docusign, and reorganizing the navigation to include personalization button on all screens.
This project pushed me learn a lot about a very specific and technical topic and really focus on the needs of the user.