Dental Note

Role: Product designer, researcher

Timeline: 4 weeks (June 2023)

Tools: Figma, Miro, Adobe Illustrator

Simplifying the process of organizing and retaining patient information for dentists.

PROJECT OVERVIEW

A client management app for dentists to efficiently organize and keep track of patient records anywhere, anytime.

I was challenged by Google to design a mobile app that would improve the workflow of dentists with fluctuating schedules and increase patient connection.

Dental Note is an application that helps dentists productively add personalized notes, set reminders of important information, and review patient data before an appointment. It is also a centralized place to securely hold all documents and can be accessed anywhere. With its features growing, user growth and user retention are a priority.

PROBLEM

Background

With the constantly changing schedules for some dental professionals, patient information can be easily forgotten due to frequent distractions, therefore, leaving the only time to look over records is a last-minute study session right before seeing a patient.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

How might we provide dentists with an optimized system to improve patient information retention from anywhere?

Project Goals

1. Understand the needs and pain points of dental professionals

2. Design a solution that aims to increase user growth + user retention

FINAL SOLUTION PREVIEW

Record

At any time, users can add a new note, image, recording, or chart and customize the style of the file to fit their learning habits.

Remind

After reviewing, users can set reminders for specific notes to go through again later. Here they can set the exact time and date to work with their schedules.

Review

In each patient profile, users can look over past notes through methods such as flashcards, annotating, recalling, or listening depending on their needs.

But how did we get here?

RESEARCH SUMMARY

User Interviews

Questions revolved around:

  • Tools/services used

  • Process of going through patient information

  • Challenges of using their current methods

  • Living habits + schedules (to learn more about casual workflow)

User task:

  1. Navigating through the user's preferred documentation service

“It’s hard for me to build patient connections when their records are scattered in different places.”

“It’s hard for me to remember certain tasks because I’m juggling so much at once.”

I interviewed 5 participants who worked in the dental industry to understand document workflow through the eyes of those who worked inside and outside of the office.

“The current system I am using is too confusing to navigate and too much time is spent working around figuring out the application.”

Interviews revealed a few pain points in a dentist’s workflow.

Through these interviews with users working inside and outside of the office I was able to gain some insights and key takeaways:

Biggest Design Opportunity ✨

How might we offer more control over the process of adding and reviewing patient information from any place?

IDEATION

After brainstorming around the original project scope and transforming my insights into design opportunities, I came to the conclusion that optimizing the workflow was an incentive for growth and a reason for retention. My solution was Dental Note, a mobile app that could:

Sketches: Getting Ideas Out

My initial sketches of Dental Note involved figuring out how to lay out the home page most efficiently and allow users to see their appointment schedule as well as get to each patient profile in the least amount of time.

User Flow: Where Do the Clicks Lead?

While planning out the user flow, I was able to catch some inefficient paths and eliminate some unnecessary clicks. For example, adding a new note can now be done in two steps from the patient profile page instead of having to click the edit button for the whole page and then edit for the notes again after.

DESIGN SYSTEM

Dental Note’s style guide features calm blue tones with subtle gradients to create a more inviting experience and sense of trustworthiness for the user. The use of cards and imagery in the UI is made to be easily scannable, visually appealing, groups information, and helps the user digest the information effectively.

FINAL SOLUTION + HIFI DESIGNS

Simplifying the process of organizing and retaining patient information for dentists.

1. Onboarding to showcase key features

2. Password to secure classified records

3. Quick add with one tap

4. Efficient home page

Designed the home page to be an intuitive process by having a clear top to bottom hierarchy with
patient totals summarized on top, notes that need to be reviewed second, and a schedule for the day third.

Allowing users to begin using the app with confidence and know exactly what they are able to do.

This feature lets users leave and enter the app in a quick and easy way to ensure patient files
are protected and secure from unauthorized access.

This feature groups all actions of adding reminders, patients, and appointments into one place,
easily accessed from any page to minimize clicks and maximize efficiency.

I designed this page to increase efficiency in navigation and I implemented a filtering
system for users to easily find patients depending on the day.

5. Easily filter through patients

TESTING & FEEDBACK

Usability Testing

User tasks:

  1. Add a new text note in a patient profile

  2. Set a reminder to review a note later

To get further insight into how to improve Dental Note’s model, I conducted 5 rounds of user testing with the original participants I interviewed earlier. As guidance, I gave testers a set of tasks to complete, where I tracked their navigation through the prototype and recorded their responses to be improved in my next steps.

DEFINING GOALS & SUCCESS METRICS

  • Dental professionals who have options to curate their notes to fit their learning habits were able to better remember and relay that same information when seeing the patient.

  • All dental professionals rated that they felt more prepared for patient appointments after using the app. Dental Note has successfully helped them review and retain information beforehand.

  • Most users rated their mood to be more positive after using the app, meaning Dental Note has successfully provided a way to alleviate some stress of retaining information.

  • All dental professionals expressed a willingness to continue using this app meaning they enjoy the experience and are incentivized to continue using Dental Note.

REFLECTION

What I learned

Next steps

I had a lot of fun with this project! There was something incredibly rewarding about this first solo project as I pushed myself to tackle and build a product from the ground up in just a few weeks. There was a huge learning curve in the ideation phase when I realized I couldn't tie in every single idea to the solution. I, as the designer, need to pick and choose what fits the users needs best based off of the research. At the same time, I learned just how important it is to rely on users at each stage of the process to refine options and set the right restrictions.

Challenges and constraints

A constraint that limited communication and feedback during this project was not having an easy line of communication to the participants I interviewed. Having fewer opportunities to communicate my designs due to conflicting schedules meant less room for error while testing my work or during the meetings at all. From this challenge in the project, I learned how to manage the time I had with the users and how to prepare all of my thoughts beforehand to limit wasting time.

Expanding platforms

I envision Dental Note being accessible through all devices and platforms for both those inside and outside of the office. Users should not be limited in their organization and view just because the patient data cannot be transferred through platforms. I would like to explore what Dental Note might look like on non-mobile surfaces.