UnitedHealth Group, 2021—2022
Optum Virtual Care: designing a Telehealth app
I was tasked with revamping the app design end-to-end, handling everything from planning to execution by myself.
Products
Web
Mobile (iOS & Android)
Team
Product Manager
UX Researcher
UX Designer (me)
What I did
Revamped the platform end-to-end
Made iterative changes post-launch
UnitedHealth Group
(my employer)
UnitedHealth Group aims to modernize healthcare for 152 million people. Optum Virtual Care allows eligible patients to schedule online and chat with a provider 24/7 for urgent and primary care.
What is the Optum virtual care?
Getting sick isn't planned. Whether day or night, virtual care (telehealth) is a convenient option for consumers whoneed sudden care for themselves or a loved one.
Optum Virtual Care cuts patient wait times, enhancing efficiency for care teams, doctors, and patients by:
01
simplifying appointments
ensuring professionals can multitask without missing them.
02
integrating patient records seamlessly
so professionals don’t keep switching systems like before.
03
adding chat for patients & members
to coordinate, solve IT issues and respond queries.
Due to COVID, our company saw a surge in virtual consultations
would leave their current doctor for telehealth services.
of consumers are interested in using virtual care.
prefer virtual visits to in‑person visits.
To meet demand, we redesigned the system for efficiency and scalability to handle millions of calls.
The experience before:
In a nutshell, I was tasked with
revamping Telehealth platform end-to-end
focussing on efficiency and scalability.
integrating patient records
so professionals don’t keep switching systems
making iterative changes post-launch
solving new problems based on customer feedback
I engaged with the Product Manager to gain an understanding of the project goals. To ensure clarity and alignment, I also communicated regularly with developers and understood their capabilities and technical constraints.
The design approach I adopted:
01
Research
02
Define
03
Design
04
Test & Repeat!
I interviewed 5 healthcare professionals
to identify previously unknown struggles
The goal was to shape an archetype and add value through design principles.
Mary Williams
In-house doctor
Key tasks:
Consultation
Writing prescriptions
Checking patient records
Notes
Communicating with medical assistants
I want to know my immediate appointment and give my full attention to my patient. I don’t want to struggle to keep up with a soaring burden of administrative tasks.
some additional major issues I found:
Missing appointments
while juggling between tasks.
Admin tasks are challenging due to
constant system switching.
Coordinating with team
on mobile while attending patients.
IT issues
during virtual visits leave patients and doctors hanging.
Incomplete pre-visit
work by assistant forced to switch systems.
Why did we choose the dashboard to address these issues?
because doctors were busy and needed a single system where they could effectively multitask.
How might we simplify appointment management
for providers to multitask without missing them?
How might we integrate patient records & forms
to minimize cognitive load?
How might we simplify emergency alerts?
How can we integrate chat and note-taking for doctors
to coordinate with colleagues & respond to patient queries?
We A/B tested 2 layouts
to ensure the layout was easy to navigate for doctors in a hurry
A
puts spotlight on the next meeting
but makes navigation confusing
B
all appointments in a list
the easy navigation made it a clear winner
Despite its detail, the layout was distracting for hurried doctors.
The list improved navigation and presented information clearly.
As a trained graphic designer, I love collecting references
such as ongoing apps or concept mockups, for my mood board.
These references expand my creative thinking and enhance my visual inventory during system design.
Selected design approaches that served as the foundation
The dashboard is the central hub for
managing appointments, emergency alerts, patient summaries, and communication because doctors were busy and needed a single system where they could effectively multitask.
Doctor’s dashboard
Patient's dashboard
I broke down complexity with visual cues
The human brain processes images faster than text!
Color codes quickly reveal complaints.
establishing behavioral patterns.
Profile pictures aid in quick identification
of meeting participants.
Chat made it easier to
co-ordinate with team members
convey complex medical terms to patients
solve IT issues
There’s more to multitask!
Seamless addition of
patient’s information
Color-coded improve response efficiency.
& indicate wait times
I aimed for a clean, simple interface that's easy for both doctors and patients
Doctor’s Virtual Care
Patient’s Virtual Care
An intuitive and predictable design facilitated multitasking and eased development.
Some accessibility contributions I made making it more inclusive and universal.
As Telehealth apps are used by people of various backgrounds.
quickly address patient compatibility issues
without waiting for IT support.
alerts with audio prompts
for quick user notification.
Auto captions improved comprehension
for hearing-impaired people and in low-volume situations.
With my development background, I know how complex designs can be prone to errors
To minimize mistakes, I provided precise measurements.
Additionally, I tailored the app for tablets and mobiles(iOS & Android)
Selected design approaches that served as the foundation
The central hub for multitasking
The dashboard is the central hub for managing appointments, emergency alerts, patient summaries, and communication because doctors were busy and needed a single system where they could effectively multitask.
Seamless addition of patient’s summary saved resources, cost and efforts.
The chat feature allows swift and convenient interaction for addressing queries and concerns.
Color-coded notifications streamline patient prioritization for providers, indicating wait times and improving response efficiency.
Visual status chips, beyond color, ensure noticeability for color-blind users by offering contrasting information.
2. Virtual Care
We aimed for a clean, simple interface that's easy for both doctors and patients to use, making consultations focused and efficient.
Adding the patient's summary seamlessly saved resources, costs, and efforts.
Additionally, we tailored the app for tablets and mobiles, providing cross-platform flexibility.
3. Accessibility: The Biggest challenge
Alongside the UX Researcher, we created journey maps to pinpoint where users were struggling, and we discovered that accessibility was one of the core issues.
Painpoint
Making the interface elderly-accessible, as they constituted 70% of the patient user base.
Feedback
Patients struggled with simple controls like volume adjustment, toggling the mic or the webcam.
To address these issues, I implemented the following solutions that significantly improved the user satisfaction rate:
I created alerts along with audio prompts to quickly inform the user about what's wrong.
I provided doctors with a new dashboard to view patient environment details and suggest quick fixes for controls.
This is just a glimpse of my design approach; we crafted the entire interface from login for providers to slot booking and call termination. We also optimized the app for tablets and mobiles, ensuring cross-platform flexibility.
To this day, UnitedHealth Group continues to use and evolve the app
I developed a comprehensive design system
that included all design assets, such as colors, typography, icons and animation guidelines.
After design and development, UnitedHealth Group's Telehealth provider rapidly grew
from 100 to 2000 daily bookings due to overwhelmingly positive customer response.
Smart appointments and seamless report integration led to 97% of urgent care seekers booking same-day appointments with an average wait time as low as 3 minutes and 13.47 minutes across states.
Our virtual care program, along with online scheduling, enables simple and straightforward access to care. Our providers are seeing over 1,000 patients per day across the program. Optum Digital Scheduling has enabled virtual urgent care access for patients in need — and we have plans to continue to expand the program.
Chief Operations Officer, Unitedhealth Group
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