What's COVID19?
COVID-19, first identified in Wuhan, China in December 2019, quickly became a global pandemic due to its rapid human-to-human transmission. Despite the lack of vaccines or treatments, scientists and healthcare professionals have developed guidelines and testing kits for diagnosis. However, many individuals struggle to find nearby assessment centers, understand wait times, and navigate available testing options. While the U.S. offers online locators for nearby testing sites, Canada only provides lists of centers without filtering for proximity
The Problem
In Canada, people who are symptomatic or asymptomatic of COVID19 needs to find testing centres because they want to get medical help and stop the spread of the virus. Most people who are looking for testing centres do not know the types of testing kits available and how long it will take before their turn to get tested.
All about the product creation
Using the market research, I created ‘covidcator‘ with the purpose of helping users locate the closest COVID19 testing centres near their location, option to know what type of testing centres are available, giving the users an option to join virtual line ups instead of going in. Now, let’s explore the design thinking process.
Mobile Architecture
The concept of the application breaks down into 4 sections: locating where the testing centres are, option to search for testing centres, additional resources about COVID19, and users can use their profile to save all the data about these centres and resources.
How the concept was made
Using the key features listed, I envisioned the application to show the user a map with pins of different testing centres located close to them. The map and pins are common patterns used for products or services related to location and tracking. I added in the option where users can join a virtual line up to avoid as much human contact as possible before the test.
Paper wireframe of all the features I wanted to add to the application.
Low-fidelity wireframe of the layout to finding a testing centre and joining a virtual line up.
Mid-fidelity wireframes showing the same process of finding a testing centre and joining a virtual line up.
Design Decisions
Brand Identity
Covidcator brand asset represents ‘communication’ and ‘openness’. There are many stories of how people treat people with COVID19 as viruses themselves and to prevent that stigma, I want to create something that gives anyone the ability to locate a testing centre without feeling afraid of getting tested for the virus. We are here to stay strong together and not to segment communities.
High Fidelity Prototype
The high fidelity prototype was built using Adobe XD for all the logic connections and Adobe Illustrator for UI elements. The prototype was made with improvements and the goal of reducing pain points that users experienced data collected from the usability test.
Onboarding
The application will onboard the users with some COVID19 related questions to help detect the closest testing centres to the user.
Home - Locate a testing centre
On the home page, users are able to locate a testing centre by sharing their geolocation or manually adding in a location.
From the user research, the test users thought the having a detailed information card for one location was more useful than having the swipe pattern to see multiple locations around. Using the research, when the user clicks on any of the location icon, an information card for the select test centre will pop-up for the user to see how far is the distance, where it is, hours of operations, and wait-times.
Find a test centre and join a virtual line
When users make a selection, they will go into a more in-depth information page about the testing centre. Users will have the opportunity to join either a walk-in or drive-thru virtual line. Before joining the line, they will need to select the date and time slot that they want to go get tested. They will need to fill up some quick personal information for the health clinics to know who is going in - this information can be sent to the health clinic database to keep track of people's information. After submitting all the information required, users will receive back a ticket and QR code for the line they joined.
Notifications
From the user research, having notifications to alert the users about their turn is an important feature that all test users expected to see when using the app.
On covidcator, users will be given notifications for permission to use their location and enabling push notifications when their turn is almost up. When it is almost the user's turn, there will be a notification sent 30 minutes earlier on the application to remind them about their time slot as well as an option to cancel if they do not need to get tested at that location anymore. If the user does not show up within 15 minute of their time slot for their testing, their time slot will automatically be given to someone else to not stop the queue in the virtual line up.
Additional Resources
During the usability test, many of the test users did not know whether they had COVID19 or know what the symptoms are. So to help the users out, I included an "additional resource" section where they can learn more information on symptoms, prevention, statistics and other useful information about the virus.
Updating Profile
In the beginning of the application, users completed questions to help populate testing centres near them. In the profile section, users are able to edit that information including information related to account settings and saved testing centres that they want to refer back to in the future.
Final Product
Covidcator's main goal is help users find the closest testing centres (in Ontario) near them. This application can help maintain a steady contactless experience between the health care provider and users who are sick.
Check out the prototype: https://adobe.ly/2OrMYLn Challenges, lessons, and future goals
• This is a new disease that does not have any cure or vaccine for it yet, so there is limited data on which type of testing is the best way to diagnose the disease.
• As this is a new application, I have limited research on our users’ behaviours and patterns when using the application. However, I want to do more usability tests and other methodologies to help clarify some components and points of the data.
• Finally, as this application is meant to share resources between the health clinic and user, not all health clinics are willing to use the the queue system so there might be inaccuracy in real-time data regarding wait-times, and people in front of the user.
Future Goals
• Explore building a stable database for the healthcare / testing centre side to help information accuracy between application database, instead of just focusing on the application users
• Expand the application to tablet and desktop responsive versions
• Expand the idea of the app to all of Canada instead of restricting it to Ontario only
• Integrate and build a partnership with other healthcare medical applications
• Expand beyond COVID19 and help to detect assessment centres for other diseases
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