Increasing Healthcare Software Retention & Engagement
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The Problem
The MVP of the Hopscotch clinician platform had low retention and a high volume of support requests. The company was not meeting its goals for active users, and our customer support team was overwhelmed responding to tickets.
Company Overview
Hopscotch creates software for pediatric therapists to conduct engaging virtual sessions and manage their practice in one platform.
Role
UX Designer
Timeline
2 Weeks
Skills
User Journey, User Flows, Onboarding, Software, Data Analysis, Video Editing, Secondary Research, Personas, Script Writing
Limitation
Our development team did not have the bandwidth to make any major changes to the platform usability in the short term. The company needed a quick solution to the problem that didn't require a re-design of the platform.
Toolkit
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Analyzing the Problem
Hopscotch had two indicators that there was a high-priority issue with the platform.
1. A low level of returning visitors and active users on the platform.
The company was reaching its signup goals, but users were not returning to the platform. I analyzed software usage data to understand how long users spent on the site, what pages they navigated to, and where they exited the platform. This gave me the following insights.
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The content library was the most used part of the platform
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Many users were not utilizing the client management system and virtual meetings
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While there were some outliers, the platform had a large amount of users that did not continue to come back to the platform after 1-2 visits
2. High volume of support requests
I read each support ticket and grouped them based on the request. While a few support requests were errors within the platform, I found that most of the requests were questions about how to complete tasks within the platform, such as adding a new client, starting a meeting, and accessing their calendar.
User Interviews
Our team interviewed clinicians to understand their behaviors, attitudes, frustrations, motivations, and fears, surrounding virtual therapy. I identified the following pain points with the current teletherapy experience.
Usability Testing
During support calls, our team was able to determine areas of confusion and frustration for therapists and evaluate their ability to complete tasks.
Key Insight: Essential Tasks
For clinicians, being able to complete these four tasks was essential for them to be able to use Hopscotch’s platform in place of current solutions.
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Add new or existing clients
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Manage client profiles
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Host virtual meetings
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Manage therapy activities
The solution needed to show users how to do these tasks in order to be effective.
Child Therapist Persona
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Name: Jill
Age: 60
Gender: Female
Work: Pediatric Therapist in a private practice
Family: Married, 2 kids, 2 grandkids
Bio
Jill is passionate about working with kids to improve their mental health and set them up for success in the future. During the pandemic, she started doing virtual sessions with her clients. She is feeling burnt out because the activities she typically uses with her young clients do not translate well to a virtual environment. She has to spend more time searching for virtual solutions in therapy groups that can still teach important concepts and engage kids virtually. Another frustration is the amount of sites she uses to manage her practice, such as her calendar, payroll, client management, meeting notes, etc. She finds it difficult to engage with kids virtually because they are able to join calls at home where there can be many distractions or in the car.
Frustrations
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Learning and navigating virtual meeting software
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Finding engaging activities for kids for virtual sessions
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Managing her practice on multiple platforms
Fears
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Burnout from virtual therapy and learning curve of new technology will push her out of the career she loves
Goals
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Provide the best care to her clients during virtual sessions and continue their progress through the pandemic.
Solution Brainstorm
I worked with the leadership team to identify possible solutions to this problems.
Getting Started Video
Guided Walk-Through
Help Section
Tutorial Webinar Session
Chat Bot
Solution Evaluation
I used the following criteria to select a solution:
Effort vs. Impact
I compared the amount of effort the solutions would take and the presumed impact they would have to identify quick-win opportunities and thankless tasks.
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Cost & Time Constraints
Guided walkthrough software was outside of our budget and time constraints. Implementing a chatbot was also outside of our time constraint.
While live webinar sessions could be effective, they would need to be done periodically for new users and would take time out of clinicians' busy schedules.
Solutions: Getting Started & Help Section
Outlining User Flows
To better explain to users how to complete tasks in the product, I worked with the lead product manager to review user flows and alternative ways to complete tasks. This was an important step in determining the easiest way to explain the product to users. I used a combination of prototypes and recordings of the platform to create the video and help section.
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Getting Started Video
I created a video tutorial to teach users how to get started with the platform. This video was embedded as a popup for new users and teaches them how to complete the tasks that are most essential to their ability to conduct virtual sessions. Before the addition of the video, users had no onboarding when they logged into the platform. This video taught them the basics of the platform to decrease frustration and churn.
Help Section
I created a map of the tasks available to users on the platform and grouped them into categories.
Next, I made screenshots with callouts to explain to users how to complete each of the tasks above.
Lastly, I added the help text and images to the product documentation software, Archbee. "Help" was added as a menu item in the Hopscotch platform. I used the map from the first stage to organize the help section so that users could quickly find what they were looking for.
Creating Help Documentation in Archbee
Platform Experience
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Company Impact
The Getting Started video resulted in a significant decrease in support requests and an increase in active users. Because of the fewer requests, our support team was able to focus on tickets related to product issues and errors instead of explaining to users how to use the platform.
If a user did have a question about the platform, the team was able to direct them to the section within our Help that could point them in the right direction, which saved time for the support team.
There was also an increase in active users due to clinicians better understanding the product and all of its capabilities when they onboard. We reached the company's goal for daily tele-therapy sessions on the platform.
Next Steps
Iterate Based on User Feedback
Users responded positively to the Getting Started video becoming a part of the onboarding process. Although our goal was to keep the video 2-3 minutes long, users were willing to watch a longer video if the instructions were explained more slowly. I will be creating a Getting Started video with a slower voiceover to test with users.
Explore "Major Project" Solutions
In the long term, I would like to explore a virtual tour option to see how users respond compared to a Getting Started video. I would also like to incorporate a chatbot that can answer frequently asked questions using the help text or clips of our product videos.
Improve the Platform's Usability
I would like to work with our lead designer to determine opportunities for improving the platform's usability. Although the video was a great short-term solution, we need to design a better experience and make clinicians feel empowered and confident in their ability to use new technology.
Continuously Update Help
As the platform changes and new questions arise, it is important to keep the Help section up to date. I also want to explore using short videos in the Help section instead of screenshots.
What I Learned
Onboarding is key
As a designer, it can be easy to focus on creating an intuitive design and make assumptions about our user's ability and patience to figure out the platform on their own. However, our persona showed that the clinician population was not technologically savvy and easily grew frustrated with learning new technology. For this population, it was extremely important to have an onboarding process that included quick tutorials to show users the full value of the product.
Users were much less likely to use the help section than they were to watch the Getting Started video. This shows the importance of an effective onboarding process rather than trying to teach users how to use the product later. By then, they may have already churned.
Test prototypes with relevant users
Had our design team tested the prototype with clinicians to evaluate their ability to complete the four essential tasks of the platform, we could have caught design issues early on before development. As I’ve started to design software, I keep end users involved throughout the process to make sure I catch issues and iterate on design early on.