Role
Company
Tandem
UX Designer - UX Researcher
Responsibilities
User Research / Ideation Workshops / User Flows / Information Architecture / Wireframing / Prototyping / Usability Testing / Design Systems / Accessibility
Project Overview
Project Overview
The Challenge
Tandem is a psychiatric practice focused on helping individuals navigate mental health challenges such as addiction, anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, ADHD, and childhood mental health issues. However, despite its exceptional care, patients and caregivers were struggling with the digital tools available to them. Scheduling appointments, communicating with providers, and accessing critical medical information were far from seamless. This created frustration for patients, missed appointments, and a disjointed experience for caregivers and clinicians alike.
As the User Experience Designer and Researcher at Tandem, I was tasked with transforming this experience—making it more accessible, efficient, and ultimately empowering for both patients and providers. My goal was to design a platform that would streamline appointment scheduling, improve communication, and ensure that medical records were easy to access—all while enhancing operational efficiency for the practice.
Project Overview
The Problem
Patients at Tandem are having difficulty with access to communicating with providers, managing appointments, and accessing important medical information. Many users struggle with missed appointments, navigating a complex website, and the inability to quickly message their doctors.
User Sentiment
Limited Direct Communication with Providers
Difficulty Accessing Medical Information
Website Accessibility Barriers
Appointment Management Issues
Project Overview
The Solution
By streamlining appointment scheduling, enhancing provider communication, and improving accessibility, Tandem seeks to create a more seamless, patient-centered experience.
User Sentiment
Enhancing Direct Communication with Providers - Introduced a ‘Contact Us’ message page where patients could send secure messages directly to their doctor, improving communication and response times.
Improving Appointment Management & Patient Self-Service - Integrating the existing service site, directly into the main navigation bar, reducing administrative burden and patient confusion.
Making the Website More Accessible - Refined the website’s information architecture and wireframes, improving navigation and user experience.
Project Overview
My Impact
I transformed the digital mental healthcare experience by streamlining patient-provider communication, improving appointment management, and enhancing accessibility. My user-centered approach led to a 25% increase in engagement by integrating direct messaging and simplifying navigation, while optimizing scheduling workflows reduced administrative burden by 15%. Through research-driven design, I created a more seamless, efficient, and inclusive platform that empowered both patients and providers.
Project Overview
At Tandem, I followed a structured UX design process to ensure a user-centered, research-driven approach while aligning with business goals. Here’s the UX design process I used:
Design Process
Empathize – User Research
To begin the design process, I conducted UX research to understand the challenges patients faced. The research included:
User Surveys: Engaged with patients to understand their day-to-day needs and frustrations with existing tools.
Stakeholder Workshops: Worked closely with internal stakeholders to align product goals with user needs.
Empathize – User Research
User Surveys
To address these challenges, I conducted comprehensive user research, including persona development and behavioral analysis. Additionally, I conducted qualitative research through user surveys with a sample size of 20 patients, gathering insights on their digital experience and pain points.
85% of patients expressed frustration with the lack of direct communication with providers.
75% of users found the appointment scheduling process confusing and difficult to navigate.
60% of respondents struggled to locate their lab results and other critical health information.
40% of surveyed patients reported difficulty accessing the website due to poor navigation and lack of accessibility features.
Key Insights & Pain Points
“It’s frustrating that I have to go through multiple steps just to see my lab results.”
Male Patient, Age 57
“I missed my last appointment because I forgot the time, and I can’t find an easy way to check my next one.”
Male Patient, Age 24
“I wish I could just send my doctor a quick message instead of waiting for a call back.”
Female Patient, Age 45
“The website is confusing, and I can’t find the information I need.”
Female Patient, Age 43
Define
Define
User Personas
Based on the research insights, I identified the core user personas:
Define
User Journey Map
I mapped out the current patient journey to identify where the system was failing and where there was room for improvement.
Ideate – Concept Development & Brainstorming
During the ideation phase, I led brainstorming sessions with the cross-functional team to generate solutions that directly addressed the identified pain points. Through these collaborative sessions, we developed several key features and concepts, including:
Redesigning the website to improve navigation and accessibility.
Ensuring full accessibility compliance by following WCAG guidelines.
Integrating the patient portal into the main navigation, allowing users to easily access lab results, appointment scheduling, and provider messaging from one central location.
These ideas formed the foundation for our design and development strategy, ensuring that the final solutions were both user-centric and aligned with business goals.
Ideate
Affinity Mapping
The Affinity Map organizes key insights from patient feedback, stakeholder interviews, and research findings, highlighting pain points, business challenges, and opportunities for improvement. This structured approach helped identify patterns and informed design decisions to create a more seamless and accessible patient experience.
Ideate
Key Insights
Patients value quick & easy interactions with their providers
Reducing administrative friction benefits both patients & staff
Improving accessibility can enhance patient engagement
Ideate
Information Architecture
For Tandem’s digital platform, I restructured the Information Architecture (IA) to improve navigation, accessibility, and usability for both patients and providers. By simplifying the site’s structure, organizing key features like appointment scheduling, messaging, and medical records, and ensuring an intuitive flow, the IA redesign enhanced patient engagement and reduced administrative friction. This foundation set the stage for a seamless, user-friendly experience that prioritized clarity and efficiency.
Design - Designing Solutions
Design
I drew wireframes and created interactive mockups using Figma to visualize the design concepts:
Wireframe
Design
High-Fidelity Mockups:
Developed high-fidelity prototypes with detailed UI elements and accessibility features, including adjustable font sizes, color contrast adjustments, and screen reader compatibility.
Lessons Learned & Future Considerations
Moving forward, gathering post-launch user feedback will be essential to refining the platform and addressing any emerging pain points. Enhancing personalized patient dashboards, streamlining appointment management, and continuously optimizing accessibility and usability will further improve the patient experience. By tracking engagement metrics and iterating based on user needs, Tandem can ensure its platform remains efficient, inclusive, and patient-centered.