Ecommerce Website Redesign
For this project, I was put on a team with two other UX designers, Stephanie and Eugenia. After Stephanie told us that her parents wanted a new website for their physical therapy company, I was eager to jump on the challenge.
Monks Corner Physical Therapy (hereafter to be called MCPT) was having problems with cancellations and no-shows. With that in mind, our goal was to make them a website (they never had a website before), improve the patient/client user experience, and solve this cancellation problem.
Monks Corner, North Carolina
2006
Physical Therapy
4 permanent employees
Challenge
Stephanie’s parents, Richard and Fran, told us they were having problems with cancellations and no-shows. They said that these no-shows were costing them $20,000 per year and that a new online booking process could be the solution to these problems.
Results
The new website had an intuitive booking walkthrough, maintained the sprit and branding of the physical office space, and even had a space where patients could specify what area of their body was hurting. had a space for clients.
35%
Improved onboarding process
25%
Increase in user retention
84%
decrease in cancellations
The Process
Research & Analysis:
To begin, I interviewed existing patients at MCPT. Almost every single person said that trust is the main factor they look for in a physical therapist. Those that were used to scheduling appointments online at other medical facilities said that they felt frustrated having to confirm their appointments multiple times. They also listed speed and convenience as must-haves in any online booking experience.
So, right off the bat, I knew I was going to have to design something that is simple, not time-consuming, and incorporates a feeling of caring and trust.
Digging Deeper
I kept asking myself “how might we integrate a sense of loving trust and caring within this online booking process?” Here are some of our ideas:
a video walk-through of the office
interviews with staff
a 24-hour on-call secretary for bookings (lol, that’s funny)
a pre-recorded voice that guides the user through the booking process
However, none of those solutions really got at the heart of the caring issue, which is that people need to feel cared for at the beginning, during, and after receiving medical attention.
Inquiring about the user’s pain before they even step foot in the office would hopefully elevate their level of trust in MCPT.
That’s how we arrived at this: a body-part identification tool.
Starting to wireframe and prototype
We designed low-fidelity wireframes to visualize the new layout and navigation, iteratively refining them based on user feedback.
Usability Testing: Some of the feedback I got from our first user testing was:
Ew, gross — I don’t want someone to call me to confirm my appointment
where do I click on the first page?
I want the appointment to automatically save to my calendar; I don’t want to have to save it myself
More consistency in the design (some of our pages are designed with a left alignment, some with a center, and some with a right
Too many clicks to get to the final appointment confirmation page. In our initial research this was a big problem
Style Guide
The finished prototype
Landing Page
We designed the homepage as a typical landing page, with social reviews, calls to actions, and photos from the actual clinic. Since trust was a huge determining factor for new patients we wanted to do everything we could to instill a sense of trust in the users from the get go
Booking page with body-part identifier
Conclusion
To know if our design solved the original issue of no-shows and cancellations, I would simply look for a decrease in the number of no-shows and cancellations and an increase in profit
Now that the clinic has a website, they can also use metrics such as google analytics to look at conversion rates, user heat maps, and any complaints that people submit. With those findings, the clinic can then revisit our original hypothesis that connection and trust will mitigate cancellations and no-shows.
Key Takeaways for next time
When I felt like I was redesigning and doing things over again, what I was actually doing is what’s called “iterating”
“Iterating” is a key component of the design thinking methodology
The best projects iterate A LOT
Iterating, when done well, saves time, money, and grey hairs
Designating each other as “mini-bosses” for certain parts of the project certainly saved grey hairs. This allowed us to divide and conquer without getting stuck in lengthy and laborious conversations about design decisions