WebMD Health Services creates and integrates personalized wellness programs for employees of large companies. These programs save on health benefit costs by helping employees reduce stress, eat well, and exercise more. WebMD wanted to shift from an emphasis on giving people wellness information to promoting behavior change. They wanted to create a self-help version of their personalized health coach offering.
The project launched just as I began working with WebMD Health Services. I presented a design plan that called for interviewing people who used WebMD’s personal health coaching services. But the company wanted to deliver the new product in four or five months and wondered if they should use an external agency. I proposed research with the health coaches themselves to save time. We would ask them to do the best they could to represent our users–the people they talked with every day. Product management gave the UX team a green light to lead the work and define the product.
The health coach interviews revealed five key themes that guided design direction for the digital health assistant.
While we didn’t have the right research to build personas, we did create a few user profiles, based on what we heard from the health coaches. This helped everyone focus on a few people to help and made us more creative.
I created a workshop with the research findings as the basis for group activities and invited all key stakeholders on the project to participate. I presented the findings and let smaller groups brainstorm on what would help our users most. One brainstorming activity involved a board game that simulated what it feels like to try to improve your health when you have a long way to go. People tend to put up barriers or good reasons it’s so hard to lose a large amount of weight through diet and exercise. They want to do too much and often fail, instead of starting small and building up from there.
After this session, I used the feedback we got to inform wireframes that followed the main path through the digital health assistant, from set up to tracking. I also reviewed these with potential users. We recruited people locally and showed them the designs for a quick check on value and direction, since we had no time for deeper research. I evolved the wireframes into more complete designs for the product manager and delivery teams.
The digital health assistant launched as planned, but it was clear from user feedback that we should quickly make a mobile version. Working with a visual designer, I created a few scenarios for one of our users, just to imagine how someone could benefit from having access to the digital health assistant from their mobile phones.
From there, WebMD Health Services decided to add condition management to basic diet and exercise tracking in the digital health assistant. They wanted to start with diabetes, as this is the most expensive disease for employer health care costs. Again, I proposed a design plan, and, because the UX team proved it could deliver quickly and thoughtfully, we got the time and money we needed for the research effort.
I recruited and visited six people with diabetes, at home and at work. I asked them to walk me through their day, as they manage diabetes. They showed me their supplies, how they monitor themselves, what they keep on hand, and how they handle meals. They admitted their failures and fears.
From this field study, I produced findings and recommendations.
I also created a “Day in the Life” for a diabetic. I discovered a range of people in terms of readiness and how much help they needed or would accept. It was clear to me that some diabetics would not respond to a digital health assistant for their condition. They were either not ready to accept their diabetes or they had already achieved a kind of zen for managing it well. Another type of diabetic was new to the condition, frightened, overwhelmed, and doing everything possible. They would want a digital health assistant very much, but as they were over-eager and trying anything, I believed that they were not the key audience to focus on. After a time, people realize they will have diabetes forever, and it becomes harder to summon the energy and determination to be good. People begin to backslide, and these were the best audience for the product–the admitted backslider.
I left WebMD before the completion of condition management for the digital health assistant, but it looks like they do offer this product.
I also produced early concepts for an application to help people gradually build any healthy habit. Working with a visual designer, we created a working prototype that we tested with people who worked in the same office building as we did. One man said he quit smoking with it!
