Mental health was a fad in the year 2020 in India. Though the storm of social media posts gradually suppressed, the subject still deserves mainstream attention. UX is one such phenomenon that can encourage awareness and significantly impact people’s mental well-being in the 21st century. From building a seamless user interface to usability testing, healthcare UX tests many skills of a designer. Building a stress-free UX is no cakewalk for a designer, but a few tips and tricks can simplify the endeavor.
We witness how our phones now come with in-built health apps that can keep track of our daily physical as well as mental well-being. Whether in-built or downloaded, these apps can have little or no impact if the functionality of the UX design is compromised. Some standard and effective design practices can allow product designers and business owners to create functional and efficient healthcare apps.
Stress is the greatest enemy of productivity. As mental health concerns like depression and anxiety are getting common in the fast-paced life, UX design stands in the spotlight to offer fast, intuitive, and effective healthcare solutions.
Facilitate interaction
They say people shouldn’t hide anything from the doctor. Well, this is also true in the case of digital healthcare. While physical interaction is the best way to build a patient’s trust in the treatment, UX can play a massive role in facilitating this trust through an interactive and assistive design. An intuitive and user-friendly online medical platform can contribute towards the two-way relationship between a doctor and a patient. For instance, a quick appointment, convenient checkups, discussing the diet plan or medicine plan with a trustworthy doctor will consolidate both the doctor-patient relationship and usability of the app.
Indeed trust develops dependability and lowers stress. Similarly, once a well-constructed patient app successfully cements trust, it will simplify user compliance over data-sharing. Though privacy issues become a hindrance for many people, data sharing with medical experts can certainly play a pivotal role in providing holistic treatment to patients.
Technology has made it effortless to facilitate interaction and augment a healthy relationship between doctors and patients via an assistive and user-friendly UX.
Minimalism is the key to a simple and stress-free UX.
Healthcare apps can be technical and complex for most patients. It is best to keep the UX simple and with minimal features to offer a stress-free interface. Complex detailing and sharp colors may nullify the stress-free serving of the medical platform. Soothing pastels with minimal contrast is a simple way to ease anxiety and stress for users depending on health apps. Thus, designers here should calculate the fun part of picking colors on the lines of the theme and goals of the platform for designing a stress-free app for a UX designer.
Adding smart and intuitive features like chatbots in the design result in producing an instructive and indicative health UI. Interestingly, the principle of progressive disclosure can assist designers here. Unleashing features in a gradual and informative manner eliminates confusion and provides users a stress-free feel. Similarly, a few artificial intelligence elements also enhance the utility and simplicity of the design.
Heavy jargon, complex information, intense detailing, and wrong colors may make the medical app lose the whole point of relaxing patients. Therefore designers should be minimally creative with these factors to ensure a simple, straightforward, and stress-free UX.
Don’t take risks with the focus Features.
People with anxiety and stress issues may not be able to open and properly navigate the health app. Putting the most expected user questions right before the eyes as highlights of the app is the best way to optimize the genuine usability of the stress-free app. Learning to remove screen clutter and design straightforward content can help UX designers achieve their goal of making users stay on the app and solve their problems. Patients should be able to book an appointment or open medical history within a few clicks on the medical app. Determining the importance of several features and then setting them accordingly boosts the functionality of stress-free medical apps.
UX design features such as hierarchy can prioritize the features and arrange them in a profound order.
Most users do not use even 20% of the features present in the health apps. Therefore, for the sake of functionality and usability, it is vital to place the key features of the app on the main pages of the health UX.
Seamless app exploration
Once key features are set in order, exploration and easy navigation rise effortlessly in the medical app. Navigation and functionality go hand in hand; however, to design a stress-free medical app, a clear navigational guide for the users becomes the backbone of the design. Here, the classic 3 click rule can save UX designers from inventing new easy navigation ideas. 3 click rules provide any information on the digital platforms within just three simple transitions. Similar tools to employ seamless navigation in stress-free apps are navigation drawer, adding a tab bar, hamburger menu, etc.
These features can particularly save time for gathering electronic health records (EHRs) through medical apps. However, to make it effective, designers should swear to make it faster, or else the stress-free app may not stand out compared to other similar health apps.
Seamless and easy navigation should be a prominent element for a health UX to offer. Effortless navigational structures save time and increase the chances of achieving the fundamental goal of dealing with anxiety on the stress-free app.
Last but not least- Personalize
Stress can take a terrible toll on a person’s mental health. UX designers should bear in mind that while they create a stress-free app, they should offer users not just technical assistance but also a trustworthy friend and guide in the form of a health app. As mentioned earlier, features like chatbots and AI elements may assist in achieving this goal. In addition to this, friendly and affirmative tones like “You did great today!”, “Hydrate and stay focused!” may make patients feel connected to the medical app.
Customization can ease passive health tracking for the patients and enhance the assertiveness of stress-free health apps. Give users the liberty to set their favorite colors as the app theme colors, mute push notifications, enroll their particular health concerns, and more. Customization also gives room to accessibility and limits negative impacts of the health UX.
Customization and personalization deliver a unique or special experience to the users. Along with increasing the likability of the stress-free app, it allows patients to track health problems and solve them regularly.
A decent UX design speaks for itself when it solves user problems. Sensitive designs of healthcare apps require a safe and aesthetic vibe along with advanced interaction tools. Though this may seem arduous, a UX based on user pain points and emotions can be both interactive and assistive. Optimizing transparency and simplicity are other critical requirements of a stress-free healthcare app. UX design has the potential to eliminate barriers of technological discomfort and build a non-disruptive as well as a trustworthy health app.