MAR 2020 / 10 weeks / UX DESIGNER / Academic project
eroHealth is a sexual health resource that supports users with the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). This is achieved by connecting users to local sexual health clinics for screening and consultation; while providing a way to track diagnosis, schedule treatment and appointment reminders.
Routine testing is one of the best ways to get ahead of potential health complications caused by Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) while limiting their transmissions. Without testing, it’s difficult to know if someone has an STI, as symptoms aren’t always obvious and noticeable which is why it’s often recommended for anyone who is sexually active to get tested at least once a year.
While most people are aware of the importance of getting tested regularly, many often feel hesitant to take action. Combined with the reality that many also lack access to a regular health physician or have difficulties talking about sexual wellness due to stigma, the motivation to seek and maintain care around STIs can quickly feel out of reach.
Having worked in sex education and HIV advocacy, I was interested in exploring the field of sexual health further through a dedicated design process – with the challenge of building a mobile app solution.
However, since sexual health was such a broad topic, narrowing the focus became essential for the project’s scope and timeline. To begin this, I started with semi-structured interviews to understand people’s thoughts and feelings around sexual health and two central themes emerged: Reproductive Health & Sexually Transmitted Infections.
To define the project’s focus further, I looked into existing solutions for both themes. During this process, it was apparent that there were fewer comprehensive mobile solutions addressing STIs – which then became a core motivation to focus on this topic.
With the project’s focus determined, I conducted further user research – this time asking more intentional questions to gauge habits, familiarity, and approaches around addressing STIs. To guide my interview process, I focused on connecting with individuals who aligned with one or more of the following:
Participants between the ages of 18-29. This age group was a key demographic, as young adults between the ages of 18-29 were shown to have higher rates of getting STIs compared to other age groups in a study conducted by HealthLinkBC.
Those who had been tested or thought about testing. It was important to connect with individuals who had been tested, diagnosed, or thought about testing, as it directly addressed a core component in STI care.
Folks who identify as LGBTQ2S+. Input from queer and trans folks was essential to get a more comprehensive look at the problem, as STIs have historically impacted those in the queer community at a disproportionate rate.
While all respondents acknowledged the importance of regular testing when it came to sexual health, many also revealed that they often forgot to get tested or waited until more serious symptoms emerged. When they were then asked to recount back to those times of trying to access testing and resources, feelings of apprehension and uncertainty were shared among respondents.
Key Findings:
After the user interviews, I moved onto secondary research to elaborate on some of my findings. The following were the additional discoveries I made:
It’s true, there are many who don’t have a regular health physician. In 2018, the Canadian Institute of Health Information reported that nearly 4.8 million Canadians did not have a primary care provider. This finding reinforced the reality that many lack access to a regular health physician.
There’s stigma when it comes to talking about sex and STIs. Additional research revealed that even when access to a primary care provider was available, addressing sexual health concerns remained difficult. Patients have cited nervousness and concerns of being discriminated as core barriers, which were often heightened for those in the queer community.
Getting tested is important for anyone who is sexually active. Because many STIs don’t show obvious symptoms, it’s often challenging for someone to know if they have an STI. This is why testing is so important, as it’s one of the only ways to know for sure whether someone has an STI.
Sexual health clinics are unique alternatives. In most traditional patient and physician settings, multiple visits typically had to be arranged between the GP’s clinic and laboratories for testing. In contrast, dedicated sexual health clinics provided both testing and consultation onsite. This was beneficial as it greatly reduced travel between sites, which made these clinics much more accessible. Some examples of these clinics include the Health Initiative for Men and Options Clinic.
Following the research, I moved onto translating my findings into a user persona that best embodied the data.
Riley moved to Vancouver from Toronto about a year ago for his bachelor’s degree in environmental sciences. As a regular user of dating apps, Riley often met other guys for dates and hook-ups. And by being active in the dating scene, Riley felt that getting tested for STIs regularly was important for his health. He had also started thinking about going on PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis), a medication used to prevent HIV for those who are HIV-negative.
But because of his busy schedule, Riley often found himself putting things off. It also didn’t help that by being away from home, he was removed from the many support networks he had, like his family doctor – which made accessing care and resources even more overwhelming.
Riley's Pain Points:
After defining the persona, I began mapping Riley’s user journey by detailing his thoughts and feelings. Given how clinical testing is such a core part of STI healthcare, the map follows Riley’s experience leading to, during and following screening.
This patient journey can roughly be outlined as the following:
Once I had a better understanding of the audience, I conducted a competitive analysis on existing products addressing the problem space. Below, are some of the key takeaways:
It was common to specialize on just one stage of the patient journey. Most solutions simply focused on one area, such as providing informational resources or appointment booking. This meant that there were no dedicated solutions guiding users through the entire patient journey from the point of discovery to outlook.
There were only a few comprehensive apps. Safely was one of the few comprehensive mobile solutions I came across. While its app features were limited to only those living in the United States, it did provide a way for users to get tested and track results. Their approach was easy to follow, and became a key reference for eroHealth’s ideation.
Sexual health clinics lacked prominence and support. Most solutions, like Safely, primarily focused on directing users to general physicians for testing. Options Health was one of the few solutions that offered a search directory for dedicated sexual health clinics. With that said, there wasn’t a way for users to make an appointment using the platform.
Treatment and aftercare were missing in most solutions. All STI-related products were missing features for managing treatment, which includes tracking medication intake – critical for aftercare following a positive diagnosis.
Through the competitive analysis, it revealed the need for a solution that addressed multiple stages of the patient journey together rather than separately. So that a user could essentially complete a task like booking an appointment while setting up a treatment reminder all in one platform – to optimize efficiency and reinforce the cyclical nature of STI healthcare.
From these discoveriess, it strengthened the value of having access to onsite testing together with services like consultation. This pointed back to the benefits of sexual health clinics, where patients could get tested while having questions answered by practitioners experienced in facilitating inclusive and sex-positive care.
More importantly though, the journey map also illustrated how the user wasn’t just looking to get tested once, but to get tested regularly while building lasting sexual health practices.
This revealed the importance of viewing the stages that came before and after testing as cyclical rather than linear, to ensure that testing not only happened but that patients were also motivated to continue taking care of their sexual health. Furthermore, I also noticed how access to onsite support from health practitioners were often absent during these stages, where folks were usually on their own figuring out how to get tested or what to do following a diagnosis.
By drawing from these observations, I was able to frame the problem statement, which then informed the solution’s design requirements.
The Design Requirements:
Referring to the design requirements, I began ideating features that would best address the user’s needs. To begin, I revisited the patient journey and plotted features that complimented each stage that came before and after testing.
Afterwards, I prioritized each feature through a prioritization process by identifying ones that offered the most user value while being viable within the project’s scope and timeline. The identified key features then became the backbone of the app’s information architecture (IA).
The Main Features:
With the navigation structure outlined, I then assembled task flows to determine the potential interface components and information that had to be displayed. This was a crucial step for me to better imagine how users would successfully undertake a task and what I had to prototype.
Once the core features and task flows were established, I began ideating solutions through sketches. My thinking during this stage helped uncover the following insights:
Reminders don’t have to be organized chronologically. I realized that most users would have about 1-4 testing appointments a year which wouldn’t warrant the need for a weekly or monthly chronological list view – which I had initially envisioned. Instead, I opted to have reminders organized by the type of reminder it is, such as whether it’s a ‘clinic’ or ‘treatment’ reminder, as this felt more intentional.
Clear way to track completed reminders. Given that prescribed medications often require some form of tracking, there should be a way to indicate when a treatment and medication reminder had been missed or completed.
STI results should be easily scannable. With diagnosis being a key aspect in the solution, the main STI result screen should not be overly cluttered so that a user can assess their test results at a glance.
From the sketches, I then translated them digitally into mid-fidelity wireframes. Once I created the digital wireframes, I prototyped them to prepare for user testing to generate feedback and iterations.
Using the digital wireframes as a basic prototype, I was able to gather feedback from users to identify areas of improvement. The following were some of the insights:
Reminders were hard to distinguish. Many had difficulties distinguishing the different types of reminders from each other, particularly when trying to identify reminders that were designated as ‘Booked Appointments.’
Action prompts lacked visibility. Some noted that the action prompts and indications for missed reminders had low discoverability, which made it difficult to interact with.
Origins of STI results were ambiguous. Users also highlighted the difficulties of knowing whether the presented STI results came from a single test or multiple tests that could’ve occurred at varying times and clinic locations.
Based on the critiques from the user tests, I made the following revisions:
Dedicated appointments reminder card. Created a dedicated card solely for confirmed appointments, with a designated position at the top of the main reminders screen to make it more visible.
Unique icons representing different reminder types. Incorporated icons to aid in differentiating the types of reminders from each other, and to improve overall discoverability by more clearly visualizing action prompts for reminders that required attention – such as whether a medication had been taken.
Tappable text indication of test result sources. Included copy in the main STI Result screen to better communicate the clinic test(s) being referred to, while also having it be tappable to enable further information to be revealed – such as when and where a test had been conducted.
Once the wireframes were revised, I moved onto branding and building the visual elements of the app. For the branding, I aimed to incorporate elements that translated a sense of ease, reliability, and inclusiveness.
By using purple as the primary colour throughout the design it helped create contrast to a predominantly white palette while also being a familiar gender-neutral colour. For typography, I chose the sans-serif type Poppins for its readability, range of weights and geometric shape which provided a sense of structure and uniformity.
With the branding finalized, I built the high-fidelity mock-ups.
Easily find a sexual health clinic near you for testing or consultation.
Get your results once they are ready or have them imported manually.
Learn more about STIs and get key information on your diagnosis.
Never forget the next time you need to get tested or take a medication.
Access your information and resources in a private and secure way.
eroHealth's solution is largely guided by the following principles:
Center the stages of testing. With diagnosis being a critical component in STI healthcare, the solution focuses on clinical screening and its accompanying before and after stages – to ensure that patients not only get support with testing but also with potential care that follows a positive diagnosis.
Be a dedicated platform for STI support. Another goal of eroHealth is to serve as a central hub for patients. Where users can access resources covering the key stages of STI care in one dedicated platform. To essentially create a more streamlined experience for patients to discover what they need with more ease in a process that can often be overwhelming.
Connect patients to inclusive & accessible resources. Stigma and fears of being discriminated are common barriers when it comes to accessing care around STIs. In response, eroHealth focuses on providing resources that aims to be affirming and accessible. Much of this is facilitated by the language and content used throughout the design. But more importantly, it’s through the process of connecting patients directly to sexual health clinics for testing and onsite support. This is critical, as these clinics are typically drop-in friendly with lower barriers to access along with being staffed by practitioners who are often experienced with topics on sex, stigma, and health.
Altogether, eroHealth not only aims to make it easier to access resources to get tested, but also to help build more manageable sexual health practices and routines.
As with many projects, there’s always room to continue developing on what’s created. With eroHealth, the following are some areas I’d like to further explore:
Conduct further user tests. Like most courses, this project was completed in a time crunch, and I didn't allocate enough time to properly test the hi-fidelity prototype. A key next step then, would be running further user tests to gather more comprehensive insight and validate components that weren’t present in the wireframes, such as the use of colours, iconography and illustrations.
Exploring the world of telehealth. Telehealth was always an idea I was curious to explore for the solution. However, it was clear from the research that users greatly required access to onsite care. This then meant that in-person support had to be prioritized before diving further into other forms of care, such as remote services. Given more time though, I’d like to see how telehealth could be integrated into the existing solution, especially as remote care continues to gain more use and popularity.
Connect with clinics and healthcare providers. While much of the solution has focused on the patient experience, I am interested in seeing how it fares from the perspective of healthcare providers. By testing the current solution with those working at the frontline in the sector, I can likely get a more expert and industry-based take on the product. And ultimately explore how the solution can better fit into the existing healthcare system and workflows dedicated to patient care.
As one of my earlier projects in this field, eroHealth allowed me to put what I had learned about design thinking into practice.
One of my key takeaways from this experience, is recognizing the importance of designing with constraints in mind. Whether its constraints with time, resources, or the needs of a user, it’s through these limitations that often lead to more intentional and focused outcomes. I also came to learn that it’s okay to draw ideas from existing solutions and products that are working well. And that innovation doesn’t always have to mean creating something radically different, but rather a process of refining and expanding on what’s already working.
More importantly, I became more familiar with the practice of change in design, by being less attached to ideas and open to experiment and iterating frequently.