Kaiser Permanente
Kaiser Permanente: designing the digital healthcare experience.
SUMMARY
Between 2015 and 2017, I was part of a small design team that partnered with Kaiser Permanente. We were tasked with creating an entirely new digital experience to reflect their innovative and modern approach to medicine.
ROLE
Senior Designer, UX & UI
The mobile experience.
Our design focus was on a simple, modern and mobile-first experience. We wanted patients to be able to manage their healthcare anytime, anywhere.
KP.org
Our work included a portal redesign, as well as the outward-facing kp.org website. We relied heavily on KP’s rich photography library, using imagery that evoked warmth, community and family.
Designing to explain the hard stuff.
Through user research, and, frankly, our own experiences in life with the medical billing system, we were able to brainstorm some great solutions around medical bill confusion.
It’s impossible to tell someone exactly how much a procedure will cost, until that hospital stay and procedure is over with. With every test or procedure comes a range of costs. So we decided to be as transparent as possible with patients, allowing them to see low, middle and high costs.
We used some simple data visualization to show patients their billing responsibility, vs. what Kaiser would be paying. And we allowed patients to dive into more information below the graph, in case they wanted a breakdown of costs.
Billing & appointment flows.
In addition to monitoring the health of their entire family, members can access medical records, track prescriptions, manage healthcare costs, schedule appointments, and communicate directly with their caregivers, all within the KP portal. Below are snapshots from the billing (left) and appointment (right) flows I worked on.
The portal & designing for accessibility.
One of the biggest challenges was understanding and designing for accessibility. When we started this project, we had an idea of the bright and light colors we wanted to use, how we wanted text to appear above color and photography, and the sizing of text (very large juxtaposed with very small).
We were then told by the KP legal team that accessibility was a must. KP had been sued a number of times by members with disabilities, who were unable to use the website or the portal for their needs because of sight or other medical issues. And because this was a healthcare site, it was all the more important - we knew there would be a large number of members with disabilities, logging in and navigating around.
The solution: We had to throw away the majority of our colors and styling ideas, and start from scratch. Luckily, Sketch has several accessibility plug-ins, and there are various online tools for testing designs and web pages.
A few things we learned about accessibility:
Use accessibility tools to test your designs early, and often.
If you’re designing for a large company, talk with their legal team. There are varying degrees of accessibility standards, and it’s important to know which standard you are expected to follow.
Don’t lose hope: It may seem impossible to get the colors and styles you want. It can be frustrating to go from light and bright to dull and dark. But with testing tools and some thinking outside of the box, we were able to pull it off and feel all the better about the inclusive designs we delivered.