Overview
Jobs to be Done
When patients visit their family doctor’s office, they want to avoid waiting in line to check in and arriving early just to complete repetitive paperwork at every visit. Instead, they want a quick and simple way to confirm their appointment, update medical information, and complete any required health screening ahead of time — making the check-in process more convenient and efficient.
Problem Statement
Patients want to check in efficiently and avoid arriving 15+ minutes early just to complete repetitive paper forms. However, current check-in processes often require patients to fill out the same paperwork in person at each visit, which adds unnecessary time and frustration. While appointment delays may still occur due to doctor availability, the manual check-in process contributes to longer in-clinic wait times and places an added burden on both patients and clinic staff, making the experience feel outdated and inefficient.
Design Hypothesis
If patients are given the ability to check in digitally by confirming their appointment, updating medical history, and completing health screening questions through a mobile app or responsive website at least 24 hours before their visit, then average in-clinic check-in time can be reduced to under 2 minutes, allowing staff to process patient data more efficiently and improving the overall experience for both patients and clinic staff.
Research
Our research highlighted key frustrations with existing patient portals. Patients want a faster, simpler check-in process—especially on mobile devices. We focused on addressing poor mobile experiences, overwhelming navigation, and lengthy forms.
If you’re interested in how I arrived at the final design, keep reading to explore my process—from early user research and low-fidelity wireframes to high-fidelity designs, iterations, and usability insights. This section highlights how initial ideas evolved into a refined, user-centered solution through feedback, testing, and continuous improvement.
Project Requirements
Platform: Mobile
Health Screening:
Patients must be able to answer initial health screening questions easily and quickly
Daily Interaction and Engagement:
• Users can quickly check in upon arrival, filling out basic health screening questions.
• The app can remind users to complete their health screening questions or check in ahead of their appointment.
Research Process
1. Methods & Rationale: To understand how patients currently check in digitally, I analyzed Duke MyChart, WakeMed MyChart, and the UNC Health web portal—platforms I’ve used firsthand. Because of Epic’s consistent interface and feature set across institutions, analyzing these portals provided representative insights into how digital check-in works for a broad range of users.
2. Pain points Identified:
Complex Navigation - Many portal have unintuitive interfaces and too many options in menu
Limited Mobile Optimization - Not all platform are fully optimized for mobile devices, leading to an awkward or frustrating experience when filling out forms on smartphones or tablet
Long and tedious form - The check - in process often involves filling out long, repetitive forms that could be simplified or pre-filled based on user history.
3. How my solution addresses these pain points
Simplified user flow: Simplifies access to check -in tasks with fewer steps and clearer navigation
Clear Instructions: Guides users step-by-steps, reducing confusion or mistakes
Mobile optimization: Ensures a fully responsive experience, optimized for mobile usability
Planning & Architecture
In this phase, I focused on developing key elements to structure the user experience. This includes a sitemap to establish clear information hierarchy, a user flow to map out the step-by-step check-in process, and a storyboard to visually depict the user’s journey and emotional states during the check-in process.
I focused on ensuring consistency in typography, colors, buttons, and other design elements. I used Auto Layout for responsiveness, enabling quicker design development for future web adaptation. Lastly, I ensured the core flow remained intuitive, easy to use, and focused on helping users complete check-ins with minimal friction.
For this project, I followed a structured ideation process taught by Google's UX Design course. I began by creating multiple wireframe variations, exploring different layouts and interaction patterns. After generating several alternatives, I evaluated each element by starring the most effective solutions across different versions. This allowed me to make rationale-driven decisions for the low-fidelity wireframes, combining the strongest elements into a cohesive design that addresses the core user needs while maintaining simplicity and clarity.
Usability Testing
I conducted a moderated usability test with 5 participants across different age groups and medical backgrounds to evaluate whether the check-in flow was intuitive and easy to complete.
Tasks Observed:
Locate and check in to an upcoming appointment
Complete the health screening questionnaire
Navigate back to the home screen
Key Insights:
The flow was easy to follow and fast to complete due to minimal typing
Some users were unsure if the questionnaire was successfully submitted
Users expected an option to complete the questionnaire before checking in
Second Iteration
Made design changes to address key concerns raised during usability testing.
Goal of the second iteration: Redesign the homepage and appointment flow to better support long-term app usage. Displaying everything on the home screen would lead to clutter and a poor user experience, especially if users had to scroll heavily through multiple upcoming and past visits.
Created a manage visit modal bottom sheet that allows user to manage their appointment visits directly from the home screen by clicking on the manage visit button.
The design focused on delivering a fast, intuitive check-in experience that reduces effort for patients. Instead of recreating lengthy paper forms, the interface prioritizes only essential questions, minimizing input and streamlining the process. The core feature—digital check-in—can be completed quickly upon opening the app, helping users move through the flow with minimal friction. This sets the foundation for future enhancements like pre-filled answers based on patient profiles and medical history.
Future Enhancement
To further enhance the patient experience, future iterations could expand the platform beyond check-in to include core features typically found in patient portals. These may include the ability to schedule, cancel, or reschedule appointments, send secure messages to doctors, request prescription refills, pay medical bills, and view test results. By centralizing these tasks in one intuitive interface, patients can avoid long hold times and gain direct, on-demand access to their healthcare information—all in one place.