END-TO-END DESIGN FOR AN APP TO HELP WITH MEDICAL BILLS

RESEARCH | SYNTHESIS | PROJECT STRATEGY | PROTOTYPE + TEST | UI DESIGN

This project was a major testament to the power of communication and teamwork. Our small team shipped an MVP of our mobile app in just over four months. I’m proud of creating a product that addresses major pain points and provides significant help to people struggling with medical bills.

Solution

Phone screen displaying dashboard of medical bill info

all bills in one place

A key frustration is being unclear on the total amount owed and to whom. I designed a simple dashboard for viewing bills from multiple providers on one screen.

Keep better track of bills

People need a better way to keep track of a bill’s progress. In response, I created an interactive timeline to record notes, payments, set reminders, and add to-dos.

Phone screen displaying negotiation help

EMPOWERMENT THROUGH EDUCATION

Importantly, the app also educates users on how to negotiate their medical bills, potentially saving thousands of dollars.

MY ROLE: Lead designer and researcher

PROJECT TIMELINE: Four months

COMPANY: Ruby, a B2C startup

Background

Medical emergencies set off avalanches of bills that leave people feeling powerless, frustrated, and overwhelmed. Because Ruby’s focus was to help families manage finances and important documents, we saw a product opportunity in a tool to help people with medical bills.

Challenge

Identify the key challenges faced by the target audience, design simple solutions that meet these needs, and ship a mobile app MVP in a very tight deadline.

Interstitial image of person holding phone displaying negotiation help screen

RESEARCH + DISCOVERY

Process + deliverables

Market + quantitative research

Key findings

Qualitative Research

Key takeaways

“...it just turned into a nightmare from there. I’m not even certain I’ve even paid off all of those medical bills and I’m still dealing with medical bills for my new baby. It’s overwhelming.”

Interstitial image of person holding phone displaying to-do screen

SYNTHESIS + DEFINING

Uncovering Insights + Identifying Needs

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100% of participants expressed feeling powerless when it comes to negotiating their bills.

Creating a payment plan is daunting to 66% of participants.

66% of participants expressed a desire to talk to someone for guidance.

All participants named not being able to keep track of their progress of their bills as a major pain point.

Defining the design challenge

Primary User Persona

PROJECT STRATEGY

Defining MVP

Based on the research, we felt confident that the final product would need to encompass the themes of Organization, Guidance, and Payment Assistance. However, for MVP, we needed to narrow the scope. I drafted a test plan to outline my approach which included concept testing and card sorting.

Concept testing

People were most excited about the timeline, the ability to see all bills in one place, and negotiation help.

Screenshot of concept test showing mid-fidelity mockup

Key takeaways

It’s rare to work on something that elicits so much excitement from the participants. We’re on to something.
Much to our surprise, the Organizing theme set was the clear winner.
We decided to focus on the bills dashboard and timeline features, with negotiation guidance as a stretch goal.

PROTOTYPING + TESTING

User Flow

Usability testing

We went through several rounds of testing and iteration. For each test, I created a usability test plan.

Key takeaways

There needed to be more points of encouragement and indication of progress.
The Oooh! moments were consistently: the ability to talk to someone, the timeline, and the negotiation script.
The timeline feature was important enough to need to be accessible through the bottom nav.
We are treating payment plans differently than bills. Realizing they should be treated the same way helped things really click into place.