Island Health is a prominent healthcare facility in Anacortes, Washington serving over 130,000 locals. However, their website lacked the functionality that should accompany such a popular hospital.
In order to properly redesign their site our team researched the pain points of users, audited and mapped the site, designed paper and digital wireframes, created interactive prototypes, and conducted usability tests.
Island Health's navigation and information architecture was difficult to follow causing users to be deterred when trying to find information.
Pages usually led the user to a phone number, which increased daily phone calls to be more than what their office could handle. Patients who were unable to physically visit the hospital to schedule an appointment experienced high wait times to talk to Island Health's office.
With such little time to design, I had to rely on my client to be the expert on our users.At first, my client started suggesting features such as having the ability to plan a dive trip. I had to redirect their focus to the user and who their app is intended for.
Our users:
- Highly value the environment
- Prioritize safety of their dive group
- Love diving in good conditions
- Primarily amateur divers rather than experts
- Users will need explanations on diving data
- They don't want to waste time on finding conditions
- Users care most about accuracy of data
- Due to needing a dive buddy, building a community is important
- Not understanding the data for conditions
- Diving with bad visibility
- Diving when the conditions are unsafe
- Being misled by inaccurate data
I created two user stories to demonstrate the needs of both new and experienced divers:
- As a new diver, I would like to find the safest possible time to dive.
- As an experienced diver, I want to post a dive report to help others know how the conditions are
Creating user flows allowed me to conceptualize every step a user needs to take to complete their task. I wanted to consolidate the necessary steps for the best user experience.
Through a competitive analysis I found that Magicseaweed provides their users with information on conditions before they go surfing. Coincidentally, this app is also used by divers who reportedly love seeing all of the conditions within one app.
Through a 5-minute exercise, I wrote out my research to visualize significant findings.
I illustrated how users would interact with my app through a storyboard.
Starting with sketches, I started designing the screens based on the user stories.I submitted the low-fidelity wireframes to the client for feedback and made adjustments to the screens accordingly.
After completing usability tests on low fidelity prototypes, I moved into the visual design creating a moodboard and high fidelity frames.
Positives
Overall, I learned so much about working with a client 1-on-1 with little time to deliver an interactive prototype. I started realizing what was necessary to move the product forward and what can be cut.
Improvements
In the future, I would like to create more structure on how hiding a dive spot will work. I need to develop more guiding explanations for understanding data and let users favorite a dive spot.
Island Health is a prominent healthcare facility in Anacortes, Washington serving over 130,000 locals. However, their website lacked the functionality that should accompany such a popular hospital.
In order to properly redesign their site our team researched the pain points of users, audited and mapped the site, designed paper and digital wireframes, created interactive prototypes, and conducted usability tests.
Island Health's navigation and information architecture was difficult to follow causing users to be deterred when trying to find information.
Pages usually led the user to a phone number, which increased daily phone calls to be more than what their office could handle. Patients who were unable to physically visit the hospital to schedule an appointment experienced high wait times to talk to Island Health's office.
