Keeping Up With The Competition

The medical insurance industry is one of the most competitive there is. It is one that require’s medical insurance companies to stay in tune with their members needs. Using UX design methods my team started researching various medical insurance companies and noticed that many currently do not have a mobile platform in place. Medicare.org is one that was discovered.

Some background on who Medicare is:

But I Need…

Through research and discovery of Medicare, a project plan was establish that presented the following:

The problem and task would provided Medicare users with a personalized mobile app that would provide that following:

• Personalized user profile
• Doctor on call
• Physician finder within network
• Emergency contact information
• Insurance card section no need for paper plastic card/paper forms
• Wearable feature-Apple Watch

Who Is Doing What???

Competitive and Comparative Analysis was performed on three medical insurance competitors and also three competitor heart-rate monitor apps for the wearable feature. The analysis showed what was out there, and what was going good for users and what was not. Below are the competitors looked were looked into.

Once we knew who the competitor were; the following comparative analysis methods were used to further analyze the competition:

By using the above methods, a lot was learned from each of the competitors. Users conveniences and challenges were unraveled. Below are the similarities and differences that stood out:

Let’s Go To The Social

Now that the competitive and comparative analysis was completed, it was time to reach out and see what actual users thoughts are. A survey was compiled by first creating some broad questions to locate our audience and set up a survey using google forms. Once it was created it was then posted social media.

After posting to social media; time took it’s course and gave back potential interviewees. Over 40 responses were received, with a little over half willing to participate in an interview.

A new set of questions was created for the interview. The questions were keep open ended to allow the participants to express their thoughts without any probing. The interviewee’s were reached out to via phone or in person. Not all that were willing to participate in the interview were contacted. After a little over 10 interviews were performed, the data needed was received.

The feedback was synthesized by using affinity mapping and MSCW (Must, Should, Could, Won’t haves). Many themes were discovered from the interviews through these processes. Below are a couple of examples:

After research, discovery, and synthesis a persona was created that would help frame the creation of Medicare’s mobile app.

Meet Betty a member of Medicare’s target user base.

Let’s Make It A Reality

Now that all the data was lined up and synthesized, it was time for the design faze of the UX process. To first get the ideation out, a couple of the idea’s were sketched. While in this early stage we wanted to keep in mind who our target audience is and what challenges they face. While we know that Medicare is primarily for the elderly, 65 and over, we knew the app would have to be legible and very easy to use. Also we kept in consideration the Apple’s HIG to stay within specifications for both the app and Apple watch.

These rough sketches lead into low-fidelity wireframes, which were synthesized and iterated. After synthesis and iteration, mid-fidelity wireframes were created which lead to a prototype that gave the ability to perform the first round of usability testing.

While usability testing was being performed, on the back end developers were contacted to see if the ideation of the features the app and the wearable would contain were possible. The below image shows certain tech specs that were keep in mind while meeting with developers. The developers feedback was positive and the features were all possible with limited restrictions that would be worked out in the development process.

Now that the green light from developers was given the wireframes were taken into high-fidelity on both the app and the apple watch. The hi-fidelity wireframes were then inputed into the prototype so it could be tested.

`

The Feedback from the hi-fidelity prototype was very helpful and lead to further synthesis and iteration for updates:

•The icons were very helpful

•The layout is beautiful and easy to use

•What about language options?

•At times I have to tap through multiple back buttons to get back to main dashboard

Almost There…

The UX methods used will allow Medicare to see and realize that there is an opportunity to introduce an app and wearable that will benefit their users. The research and discovery portion of the process gave answers as to why an app and wearable are needed. The design and ideation portion show how it could be possible. The usability testing portion put a prototype into the hands of potential users of Medicare.

The feedback from the last round of usability testing showed that there is still a few more items that need to be addressed before getting the okay to go into development.

Below are the next steps to look into for the high-fidelity prototype and wireframes:

• Adding a navigation tab
• Adding the ability for the user to make an appointment from the app
• Refill your prescriptions from the app
• A home button
• Reorganization of the dashboard by importance of options
• Synthesis and Iteration

After looking into these next steps, the design will have to go through approval. If approved the development can start.