PROJECT: Tiny Teeth
ROLE: UI/UX Designer
TIMELINE: 4 months
Project vision
Challenges
Allow users to schedule an appointment quickly and easily. Provide users with the option to cancel or reschedule an appointment.
Incorporate a way for users to sync the appointment with their calendar and set up reminders.
Provide users with a few communication channels via the app: messages and live chat for emergency situations.
Design an interface for check-in/check-out, allowing them to submit all paperwork, make secure payments and receive visit reports.
Allow users to schedule an appointment quickly and easily. Provide users with the option to cancel or reschedule an appointment.
Provide users with a few communication channels via the app: messages and live chat for emergency situations.
Incorporate a way for users to sync the appointment with their calendar and set up reminders.
Design an interface for check-in/check-out, allowing them to submit all paperwork, make secure payments and receive visit reports.
Kickoff
Our goal was to create a solution for busy parents to ease and quickly make dentist appointments for their children. Qualitative research methods proved to be the most effective during our design process, most notably our user interviews and usability testing sessions.
“What is the product and who is it for?”
“Who are our biggest competitors?”
“How can we make it stand from other apps?”
“Who is our primary audience?”
“What are the challenges we will face moving forward?”
Preliminary ideation
We used affinity mapping to identify not only the general scope of Tiny Teeth, but to decide which direction we wanted to take the product. This was a form of brainstorming during our kickoff period that proved to be very helpful in setting up the foundation for the rest of our process.
Research Insights
We conducted user interviews to identify the needs and pain points of those who make dentist appointments for children. Here below is a summary of the findings and feedback we have obtained from the interviews and which were the basis of our design process.
99% of participants stated they are usually the ones who make appointments for their children.
85% of participants stated they are too busy to call the office or send an email to make an appointment during the business hours.
More than 75% of participants stated they would prefer to have access to educational materials for their children regarding their dental health.
All of participants stated they would like to be able to make an appointment at their convenient time and to receive immediate confirmation.
85% of participants stated they would love to sync the appointments with their calendar.
75% of participants stated they would like have access to child's visit reports, treatments, and bills without having to ask them from the office.
Meet the Users
PRIMARY
NAME: Anna Miller
AGE: 42 y/o
EDUCATION: Bachelor's degree
OCUPATION: Interior Designer
HOMETOWN: Bethesda, MD
FAMILY: Married, 3 children
Anna Miller is a 42-year-old white woman who lives in Bethesda, MD. She is working as an interior designer and is an entrepreneur. Anna has 3 healthy children and never misses their well visits. Andrew, her husband, is helping with the kids whenever he can, they try to split children care between them.
SECONDARY
NAME: Oscar Alder
AGE: 45 y/o
EDUCATION: PhD
OCUPATION: Lawyer
HOMETOWN: Washington, DC
FAMILY: Married, 2 children
Oscar Alder is a 45-year-old white male who lives in Washington, DC. He is working as a lawyer and is very busy. Oscar is married and has two children. He has dyslexia, which makes it difficult to read text quickly and process information in fast-paced settings.
SUPPLEMENTARY
NAME: Ruth Douglass
AGE: 37 y/o
EDUCATION: Bachelor's degree
OCCUPATION: Teacher
HOMETOWN: Arlington, VA
FAMILY: Divorced, 1 child
Ruth Douglass is a 37-year-old black woman who lives in Arlington, VA. She is teaching history at a local high school. Ruth is divorced and is raising alone her child. As a busy mother, Ruth has hired a part time nanny to help her with her child, who is on the spectrum and needs to be taken to different therapies.
Meet the Users
PRIMARY
NAME: Anna Miller
AGE: 42 y/o
EDUCATION: Bachelor's degree
OCUPATION: Interior Designer
HOMETOWN: Bethesda, MD
FAMILY: Married, 3 children
Anna Miller is a 42-year-old white woman who lives in Bethesda, MD. She is working as an interior designer and is an entrepreneur. Anna has 3 healthy children and never misses their well visits. Andrew, her husband, is helping with the kids whenever he can, they try to split children care between them.
SECONDARY
NAME: Oscar Alder
AGE: 45 y/o
EDUCATION: PhD
OCUPATION: Lawyer
HOMETOWN: Washington, DC
FAMILY: Married, 2 children
Oscar Alder is a 45-year-old white male who lives in Washington, DC. He is working as a lawyer and is very busy. Oscar is married and has two children. He has dyslexia, which makes it difficult to read text quickly and process information in fast-paced settings.
SUPPLEMENTARY
NAME: Ruth Douglass
AGE: 37 y/o
EDUCATION: Bachelor's degree
OCCUPATION: Teacher
HOMETOWN: Arlington, VA
FAMILY: Divorced, 1 child
Ruth Douglass is a 37-year-old black woman who lives in Arlington, VA. She is teaching history at a local high school. Ruth is divorced and is raising alone her child. As a busy mother, Ruth has hired a part time nanny to help her with her child, who is on the spectrum and needs to be taken to different therapies.
Competitive Analysis
We looked at several potential competing apps, and although none compete directly with Tiny Teeth, they can still infringe on the business’ revenue & popularity. Tiny Teeth has the opportunity to capitalize on this by offering clients convenience and address their pain points, thus ensuring a better experience.
The majority of the features between competitors were very similar, however the main differences that we noticed were:
- Simple and clean interfaces vs Cluttered interfaces
- Customizable vs Non-customizable
- Immediate confirmation vs Pending confirmation
- On stop shop vs Some features
Preparing the Journey
We constructed a user flow of what a basic start to finish journey looks like while scheduling an appointment. This helps us in understanding ways users can interact with the product, as well as allowing us to see navigation through user goals.
Wireflow
After sketching out some wireframes and thinking through the preliminary flow, we reviewed what was necessary, unnecessary , and what areas needed improvement. We poured a lot of our time into this step to make sure we had the finishing touches on the underlying UX before moving onto the visuals.
Iteration
After creating our prototype from low fidelity wireframes, we conducted an unmoderated usability study. We asked different participants to schedule an appointment in our prototype in hopes of garnering enough feedback to use for our next set of design iterations.
We found that most users were confused to where to start to make an appointment. Users need better cues for where to star making an appointment.
Some users were not sure why they need to select a reason for the visit. Users need a brief description for each step of the scheduling process.
There was expressed a concern on whether the list of reason is comprehensive. Some users stated that the list is too long, while others couldn't find the right reason. Users wanted a more compact list.
For most of the users it was unclear whether they will receive the appointment confirmation via text message or email. Some users wanted to be able to select the method of receiving reminders.
The main objective of Tiny Teeth is to allow users to schedule an appointment quickly and easily at any time of the day. A clear and simple interface is critical for achieving a great user experience. The app also provides users with the option to cancel or reschedule an appointment as easy as making a new one.
There is nothing more convenient than check in or check out online. It saves time and offers social distance. A secure payment method is another pain point we have identified during our research. Users prefer making online payment rather than give their credit card details to the clinic.
The research has shown that users get frustructed when they need to manually add an appointment in their personal calendar. Thus, we have decided to incorporate an “Add to calendar” feature to let users sync the appointment with their calendar and set up reminders.
Tiny Teeth is offering users a live chat to ask questions or express concerns to the dentist. The chat is available during the business hours and it is a convenient way to reach to the clinic without the need to stay on the phone or wait for replies via email.
Style Guide
For this project we have used colors specific for the medical industry, which have a calming and soothing effect on the users, do not pull too much attention or irritate. The selected colors helped convey the feeling of comfort to our users while using the app. Shades of green, blue, orange, pink and purple are somehow specific for children, creating a cheerful environment. The main typeface of choice for the app is Karla. We wanted to select a sans-serif typeface that would bode well with the rounded edges within our interface, as well as the black/white contrast inside of the app.
Takeaways
Tiny Teeth made me realize just how easy it can be to produce an application when you are among the target users. I had faced myself many challenges when I was trying to get appointments for my children. Fortunately, I am one of those parents who know all, or almost, of the pain points and luckily, I know how these can be addressed.