Designing a concept patient portal

AT A GLANCE

Patient retention is a challenge that every clinical trial faces. The fewer patients that leave a clinical trial the better. Whilst patients leave clinical trials for a variety of reasons, it’s recognised that patient engagement is key because a more engaged patient is less likely to drop out.

I was the sole UX designer for a project to examine how technology and user-centred design thinking might be used to improve patient retention within a global Type 2 Diabetes clinical trial. The project resulted in me designing and creating a concept for a patient portal to support patients during the duration of their clinical trial.

Identifying opportunities to improve patient engagement

In order to gather existing patient retention and engagement insights, and to discuss and agree the goals and success metrics of the project I planned and co-facilitated a 1 day workshop with the clinical trial team. A service model canvas (my own take on the business model canvas) was used to capture key details such as the users, proposition, KPIs and ROI. A user-journey map was then co-created to identify where technology might be utilised to improve patient engagement within a clinical trial.

Service model canvas — A service model canvas was used to capture and agree key details for the project

Customer journey mapping workshop — A patient’s clinical trial customer journey was mapped out to identify opportunities to improve engagement

A patient portal to drive engagement

The clinical trial user journey suggested that an online patient portal could improve patient engagement by providing important information, support and advice throughout the patient’s journey. I created a storyboard (using storyboardthat.com) to help communicate the concept and to show how it would improve patient engagement.

Patient portal storyboard — I created a storyboard to communicate the concept for a patient portal

Prototyping the patient portal concept

To bring the patient portal concept to life I created a high fidelity prototype (using Axure) showing how a patient portal might look on desktop, tablet and mobile. This allowed business stakeholders to get a better idea of how clinical trial patients might benefit from an online patient portal and the benefits to building a service like this.

Patient portal prototype — I created a high fidelity prototype using Axure to show what a patient portal might look like

Patient portal mobile prototype — The high fidelity prototype covered what a portal might look like for tablet and mobile

The results

By leading the clinical trial team through a user-centred design approach I was able to help them to identify how technology might be used to improve patient engagement and to build a compelling business case for a patient portal. The storyboard and high fidelity prototype meant that stakeholders were able to see how a clinical trial patient might benefit from a patient portal and has made it much easier to get buy-in and support for the initiative.