When designing a healthcare app, you need to consider a few important aspects that significantly improve the user experience. Discover them in our latest article.
Healthcare app design must not only fulfill business goals but also cater to users' needs and demonstrate excellent usability. In this article, based on our experience with the Healthier project, you'll find proven tips for designing a healthcare app with a holistic approach. Read on!
1. Research
An essential part of the design process goes to figuring out the details:
• Getting to know the stakeholders.
• Eliciting requirements and business goals.
• Understanding users' interests and needs.
• Shaping the benefits for users.
Typical activities for this stage include stakeholder interviews, user interviews, competitor analysis, and customer journey mapping to elicit valuable insights.
During this phase, you may discover not-so-obvious pain points of a target audience you wouldn't even think of in the first place.
2. Navigation
The target audience of healthcare apps is versatile, depending on their purpose. However, you must consider one thing for all of them: simple navigation.
Don't put the data over users. Simplify the interaction with data (with the help of dashboards, visual elements, and animation) and think your onboarding steps through. For example, don't ask for too much personal data that doesn't have any relation to a user's health.
In designing healthcare apps, the rule of thumb is to balance straightforward navigation and overall aesthetics. Don't neglect the UI – it's just as important a part of the design as user experience (UX).
For instance, when designing Healthier, one of Codebridge's projects, a medical platform that connects patients and doctors, we wanted to create an attractive yet convenient design using the best practices and UX principles. The color palette fits the medicine theme, with the white background and blue elements with bright and warm tones for highlighting essential blocks. The Montserrat font is formal enough yet modern and eye-friendly.
3. UX writing
Microcopy, or UX writing, is the language of an interface: buttons, notifications, statuses, and so on. It is as essential as the application's interface and its features to convey the message to users and guide them. It's vital to speak to your audience with the right words and help users understand what the application is about, what values it provides, and how to get what they need.
When writing for a healthcare app, use simple language. Avoid professional medical jargon and terms if your application is targeted at a broad audience without a professional medical background and expertise in this field. Also, medical terms can create a false impression that their illness or a health condition is more severe than it is.
4. Visualize the data
"Tell me, and I forget. Teach me, and I remember. Involve me, and I learn."
This phrase vividly highlights the impact of data visualization through illustrations, animations, dashboards, and other elements. When designing healthcare apps that involve a high volume of health state displays, it makes sense to leave out long descriptions and visualize states like blood pressure, heartbeat, and weight gain dynamics.
5. Inclusive design
Don't leave behind people with disabilities. Make sure you can cross off the list these statements:
• Content is readable and suitable for all screen readers
• Videos have subtitles, while images and audio files have brief descriptions
• Font, buttons, and other navigation elements are adjustable and have labels
• Your microcopy is gender-free and non-bias.
In conclusion
Healthcare app design requires a thorough analysis of the target audience to understand their needs and pain points. Moreover, medical apps, like no others, require the usage of inclusive design guidelines to embrace the majority of target users.
If you've got an idea for a healthcare application in mind, drop us a line to discuss its implementation and design.
