UNCH
Marketing Site / Service Design / Design System
Foundational Belief
Flows, Not Pages
The work below was not focused on designing specific templates but on complete sections of the experience. This way, we could check ourselves against the user journey, and component set and only develop what was needed. This also helped steer the conversation with the client and keep the primary objectives in focus.
Having the right people in the room, at the right time helps. This is one of the first projects where both front and back-end development teams were present during the UX and design phases. It was a great benefit to have them confirm the functionality of data sets speaking to each other. This eliminated surprises and allowed them to start solutioning ahead of time to eliminate possible hurdles for launch.
The Ask
The organization at UNC Healthcare felt that its current site no longer kept up with the changes that its business and the healthcare industry were facing in modern society. They also needed a better way to promote everyday health, and wellness, and maintain an active lifestyle messaging.
The Approach
UNC Health embarked on a multi-year engagement with Hero Digital to ideate the future of a healthcare system focused on being more patient-centric. A multidisciplinary team at Hero Digital started by developing the “Care Journey” that meets the customer where they are in the diagnosis process. Three phases of diagnosis were identified–research, diagnosis, and second opinion. Once the user selects it, the site will offer content to hold the patient's hand from diagnosis to appointment scheduling. The idea was to change the patient relationship to develop lifelong patients and erase the idea of a cold, transactional medical institution.
The Concept Phase
Urgent/Primary Care Triage Flow
Through a simple set of questions about the patient’s condition, provide a recommendation on proceeding to Urgent Care or Primary Care services based on the answers provided. If an Urgent Care visit was advised, a list of nearby locations and wait times with the ability to reserve would be offered up. If a Primary Care visit was needed, a list of physicians with the most immediate availability was listed.
Doctor Match
A tool to determine the best physician(s) for your needs by answering a few personal preference questions upfront. After submitting the answers, the user would be given the top three matches with the ability to book right in the flow.
A comprehensive, yet refined number of components were created. We began wrenching on the details as soon as a design direction was chosen to move forward with.
One of the fundamental reasons for the redesign was the ability of a patient to book online 24/7 to seek care. There were logistical obstacles around some physicians and specialties needing referrals but providing a path for patients to begin the journey with a primary care physician was the goal.
In order to help ensure that patients were making the right decision and they didn’t reach dead ends in the experience, we included insurance validations and a list of similar practitioners if the physician was not actively accepting new patients.
+400% Increase: Online Appointment Booking
Because of HIPAA patient protections, a lot of the initial analytics reporting ability was removed from the site. We were able to understand that the newly implemented online booking flow was very effective in allowing patients to easily schedule appointments.
The real fun came from developing the empathetic design that really brought the personality of UNC Health with bright color expressions to the digital experience. For example, we added unexpected moments like an animated multicultural personnel icon set that added a bit of fun and intrigue to what could have been just a flat experience.
