HealthX
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Designing for Crisis: Bridging the Healthcare Gap During COVID-19
HealthX emerged in 2020 during one of the most challenging periods in history the COVID-19 pandemic. As lockdowns swept across the nation, a critical gap became evident: patients desperately needed access to healthcare, but in-person visits had become nearly impossible. On the other side of this challenge, doctors found themselves searching for ways to adapt their practices to this new reality, seeking platforms that could help them digitize their clinics and continue serving their patients effectively.
HealthX was conceived to address this dual-sided problem a platform to connect patients with doctors through video consultations, with additional support for pharmacy services, lab reports, and home visits.
Understanding the Competitive Landscape
When HealthX was conceptualized in 2020, Sri Lanka's digital healthcare market already had two established players: ODoc and Health Net. ODoc focused on video consultations, connecting patients with doctors remotely, while Health Net specialized in online medicine delivery with doorstep service.
Through competitive analysis and user interviews with existing users of these platforms, we identified that, Users expressed frustration with fragmented experiences needing multiple apps for different aspects of their healthcare journey. Patients wanted an integrated solution that could handle consultations, prescriptions, medicine delivery, and lab reports in one place. Additionally, doctors indicated they needed better practice management tools and the flexibility to offer both virtual and in person home visits.
industry
Healthcare
timeframe
4 Months
tools
Figma, Photoshop, Illustrator, GA4
category
UI/UX
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User research identified two critical pain points: patients struggled to access basic medical consultations, while doctors lacked digital infrastructure to continue their practice remotely.
How might we bridge the gap between patients seeking convenient access to nearby healthcare providers and doctors looking to digitize and optimize their practice management?
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Identifying the Opportunity
Our competitive analysis revealed that existing solutions addressed isolated aspects of healthcare delivery. We saw an opportunity to create an integrated platform that would serve users throughout their entire healthcare journey, from finding a provider to receiving treatment and managing follow up care.
Market analysis revealed significant untapped potential of 20 million smartphone users, but only 100K downloads for existing healthcare apps, alongside a robust provider network of 18,000+ GPs in Western Province.
Defining Our Users: Proto-Personas
Given the project's tight deadline, we created proto personas based on stakeholder knowledge, market research, and initial conversations with doctors. These provisional personas helped align the team quickly, with the understanding that we'd validate and refine them through ongoing user research.
User Journey Mapping
To understand the end to end experience, I mapped the patient journey from recognizing a health need to post consultation care. This helped identify critical pain points and moments of friction that would inform our feature prioritization. Using proto persona, I mapped the patient journey for booking a general practitioner for a home visit. The journey map helped us identify critical pain points and opportunities to streamline the experience.
This journey map helped align stakeholder expectations with actual user needs, ensuring HealthX addressed the complete home visit experience rather than just the booking transaction.
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Patient journey map for booking a GP home visit, highlighting key pain points and emotional states at each stage
impact
While the competition was solving one piece of the puzzle, HealthX saw an opportunity to address the broader healthcare ecosystem creating a platform that would truly understand and serve the complete needs of both patients and healthcare providers.
idea
A location-based Doctor booking app that connects users with the nearest general practitioners (dispensaries and clinics). The existing solutions addressed individual touchpoints; there was no comprehensive platform that served the entire healthcare ecosystem.
Wireframing, Prototyping and Design System
Working alongside our Art Director, who had established HealthX's design system and tokens, I focused on translating user needs into functional wireframes and interactive prototypes. The existing design system provided consistency while allowing me to focus on interaction patterns and information architecture.
My design process iterated two steps of wireframing: Low-fidelity wireframes to explore layouts and user flows quickly and High-fidelity prototypes using the design system for developer handoff and usability testing. Key design challenges included balancing information density on doctor profile cards, streamlining the multi-step booking flow, and creating empty state UI for key feature sections.
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Usability Testing & Iteration
key metrics
Following iterative testing and refinements, HealthX launched publicly during Sri Lanka's second COVID-19 wave. The app quickly gained traction, within 6 months reaching 45,000 downloads and facilitating thousands of consultations during a critical period when traditional healthcare access was severely limited.
key learnings
While specific metrics are confidential, the project taught me valuable lessons about designing for two sided marketplaces. Balancing the needs of patients seeking convenience with doctors requiring robust practice management tools required constant iteration and stakeholder feedback.
