Nurx is a San Francisco-based, end-to-end telemedicine platform; they are focused on digital healthcare primarily for women, and making sensitive healthcare accessible to everyone. Their largest service line is birth control; they also provide acne treatment, migraine treatment, STI testing kits, emergency contraception, and more.
They challenged Berkeley Innovation, a student-run, human-centered design consultancy at UC Berkeley, to research the question of how to get patients through the Nurx funnel, seamlessly to the healthcare they need.
Our team redesigned the Nurx onboarding flow with the goals of promoting education, trust, and confidence. For this project, we focused on patients seeking access to birth control.
As the UX design and prototyping lead for this project, I coordinated and led meetings with co-designers through various iterations of our prototype. To construct these prototypes, we focused on mapping information architercture and perfecting our new user flow. I also led usability testing with previous interviewees, allowing us to construct meaningful stories with our user personas.
The pandemic, among other factors, have urged many individuals to shift certain in-person tasks to virtual settings. Understandably, personal wellness is a forefront issue for these individuals, and there has been a call for a contactless method for accessible and personalized telemedicine.
In comes Nurx, a telemedicine platform that delivers personal medical services – such as acne treatment, STI testing, and migraine treatment – directly to your home. Nurx's largest service line is birth control.
Getting access to birth control is difficult; whether it be because of stigmas against it, misinformation, or finding what actually works for your body. These difficulties were only made worse by the pandemic, which hindered access to care. Nurx aims to address these issues for users.
However, users experience confusion during the Nurx intake process and medical questionnaire. Thus, not enough users are reaching the final stage of checkout.
Some key questions the client wanted us to answer were...
How do patients move through the steps of the Nurx funnel?
What are their pain points?
Where and why do they get stuck?
How do they feel going through the process?
How quickly are users getting to checkout?
Our project focuses on Nurx's mobile web platform. While there is a Nurx app as well as desktop access, much of new user influx comes from ads found on social media apps, such as Snapchat and Instagram, directing them to the mobile website.
How might we provide patients with emotional support and build confidence in NURX as they go through the intake and pre-checkout process?
After discussing project goals with the Nurx product design team, we conducted a variety of research methods across multiple platforms. With this research, we affinity mapped to establish key insights.
Below is an overview of the methods we used for our research.
We took on the role of a typical user and went through the website's user flow to uncover pain points.
We compiled notes and drew insights from 12 of Nurx's top competitors, such as Hers and The Pill Club.
In order to understand the purpose, benefits, and popularity of telehealth, we performed independent research.
We explored many subreddits and posts about experiences with Nurx and their competitors, primarily focusing on posts that stressed difficulty with the onboarding process.
We surveyed 100+ respondents about their experiences with birth control and telehealth services; this built on our data stack and produced valuable insights.
Our team interviewed 12 birth control users with varied backgrounds and experiences to further understand past, present, and potential users.
After conducting these research methods, we reconvened to affinity map and establish the following key insights.
Before prescriptions are made, users want to feel more confident in their knowledge of birth control options. They want to know that their input into the decision is well-informed.
Everything I know about birth control comes from my friends… And I’ve only ever relied on my parents for medical stuff. I’m not so sure I can answer these questions accurately.
I don’t even know what I want, let alone what the choices are.
In order to trust Nurx, users want to know where their information is going, who is viewing it, and what gives Nurx credibility.
I'm all for trying new things, and consider myself a risk taker. So when I see an ad for a product like Nurx, I'm willing to give them a shot – but only if they seem transparent about who they are and what they're doing.
Where is my information going? Who is viewing it? Why should I even trust them? I need to know these things.
Users were confused by some questions; they did not understand their purpose – or sometimes even their meaning. Consequently, they worried about the questionnaire's significance to the prescription process. The flow also made it unclear where the process was going – users didn't know what to expect.
The ‘anything else we should know’ question is too vague. As a young student, I don’t know much about what matters when it comes to medical history. Is it just asking about me? My parents?
I don’t get it, and I’m scared of missing something important.
In our interviews learned that users love Nurx's simple and straightforwrad design. This helped us when creating our prototypes.
I liked that it looked clean, which is a really big thing for me. When you're coming into a new platform you don't want to be bombarded by things you don't know and feel dumb. There’s friendly phrasing throughout the app, like saying ‘we don’t mean to be rude’.
The whole experience felt well-paced, simple, and organized.
Given the sensitive nature of birth control, both socially and as a body-altering medication, users' emotions are at the forefront of this process. The digitalization of this sensitive process can feel detached – we want to prevent this by recognizing, defining, and supporting users' emotions.
When I used NURX it felt very computerized and not human at all. It could have been the algorithm choosing my medication for all I know. I would have liked a 5 minute phone call after prescription selection to get that confirmation.
They didn’t even ask why I want to take birth control, which is very important to me.
Now understanding what was preventing users from checking out, we hypothesized that...
If we guide new users through the funnel, educate them on birth control, and build their trust in Nurx, more will feel confident enough to complete the checkout stage.
Nurx currently feels too detached and inaccessible, and overwhelms prospective users.
Thus, we focused our design on being more approachable and human.
From our initial research and interviews, we noticed trends in users' attitudes and pain points in obtaining birth control depending on the their background and prior experience.
In order to better understand how to get new users to want to use NURX, we crafted three user personas through categorizing these trends and findings across research methods, allowing us to focus our efforts on and better tailor our new Nurx experience.
After discussing within our team and with the Nurx team, we decided to focus our design efforts on addressing Layla's needs.
We felt that Layla is representative of new users and those who face the most pain points throughout the intake process.
From this, we mapped out Layla's current user journey as she went through the process of finding NURX, going through the birth control survey for prescription, then the checkout and delivery process.
With Crazy-8 brainstorming sessions, we had thought of several concepts that were combined and integrated into our ideal onboarding process. At the mid-fi stage, our team chose to include a “What to Expect” screen right before the survey to preface the entire prescription process. We also added transition screens between each phase of the questionnaire to allow the user time to breath.
The new onboarding process guides the user through the prescription process and justifies why specific information is being asked. With increased educational & emotional support, we had hoped that users felt more informed and confident when choosing NURX.
Creating a more personable + direct experience by adding check-in questions.
Showcasing experts' name, credentials, & specialization, putting a face to the service
Tooltips and info boxes to inform users about question purposes + medical terms
Given that our design challenge centered around getting more new users through checkout, it would be counterintuitive to increase the time it takes to reach checkout. Thus, we had to figure out how to incorcorporate our ideas into the existing funner without significantly lengthening the process.
Following ideation, our team went through three iterations of our high-fidelity prototype.
Throughout these iterations, we also conducted 3 user tests with previous interviewees, including a previous Nurx user. Our goal was to see how our revised flow and features addressed their needs.
We conducted our user tests remotely through Zoom using Figma Mirror. This tool allowed participants full control over their experience with the comprehensive prototype I created.
With each test, we affinity mapped our findings and made adjustments to the prototype. General feedback included maintaining transparency, purpose, and simplicity.
Keeping in mind our clients' need to keep the onboarding flow as short as possible, we used our user flow map to create our initial idea of a user's journey. Akin to a story, we added transition screens where appropriate to ease the flow.
We tested this iteration on fellow Berkeley Innovation consultants.
After receiving valuable feedback from our fellow consultants, we decided to reduce complexity for users by simplifying the language in action buttons and minimizing the number of answer choices where possible. This reduced complexity would also get users through the flow faster with eased cognitive load.
We tested this second iteration on 4 of our original interviewees.
In our last iteration before the final design, we used feedback from users and our clients to adjust the flow. For instance, we tucked away non-essential information, removed info-heavy flashcards, and added an additional screen - thus reducing friction in the onboarding process.
Layla discovers Nurx on social media and lands on the Home Screen. Excited to see what NURX has to offer, she clicks “Let's get started”, taking her to a simple screen where she can easily see all the services offered by Nurx.
Unsure of what birth control she needs, she quickly selects “Help me find what’s right”. While initially she was a bit anxious about how would be expected to already know, she feels at ease seeing that it’s ok not to know, as she’ll be guided.
From the get-go, Layla is shown a step-by-step explanation of what will happen next, and what she should prepare.
Knowing exactly where the process is going, she feels more confident and reassured.
Before delving in further, Layla is informed that her info will be shared will a Nurx medical provider, in order to best prescribe her treatment. She’ll be taken to a screen showcasing Nurx's medical team & privacy policy.
Now knowing exactly who will be reviewing her medical history, she feels at ease with more trust in the app.
Layla is presented with the initial screening stage. She is asked about her current birth control knowledge.
She selects the okay option and writes down more details about what she knows about birth control. Layla likes how she could share what she knows with her prospective provider.
Layla is taken to a screen where she can tag any emotional or physical symptoms she has felt in the past 3 months.
She selects a few emotional and physical symptoms from the screens. Layla enjoys that she can provide additional context and details that can help keep her provider informed of her emotional and physical health.
Layla is asked to indicate the severity of each of her symptoms that she has selected on her previous screens.
This different user interaction also keeps Layla engaged, as it deviated from the usual tapping back and forth. Layla feels more content knowing that not only will her doctor know of what symptoms she has, but can also adjust to the severity of the symptoms, thus creating a more tailored experience & treatment for her.
Layla then begins filling out the questionnaire about her medical history. She initially felt unprepared to answer these, given her parents usually fill out her medical information for her.
However, with the helpful definitions for less clear medical terms, she feels reassured and informed.
Layla is then asked about any conditions she may have, and indicates that she experiences migraines.
Unsure about why she’s being asked this, she consults the handy tooltip button, which explains and justifies the question to give her peace of mind.
Layla has completed the questionaire and is ready to become a NURX user.
She is then taken to a checkout transition screen, where she is told exactly what she needs before starting the checkout process.
When testing our final prototype with our user research group, we received overwhelmingly positive feedback that our designs effectively addressed our initial key insights.
Through our research and designs, Nurx will be able to establish a better method of onboarding new patients with less friction, successfully getting them through the Nurx funnel to checkout. In particular, both user testers and the Nurx team found our transition screens to be especially helpful in reducing friction in the process.
Thanks to this, more patients will have access birth control, which is particularly meaningful with the limitations of COVID-19 shelter-in-place.
Having invested as much time as we did into user testing, we were fortunate to hear many emotional stories from young women about their struggles surrounding birth control. Ultimately, this not only allowed us to better empathize with the users, but also craft a story for our persona Layla on her new journey, communicating the impact of our designs.
Through this project, I learnt a lot about the importance of iteration in design. Through my coursework, I had already learnt this in theory, but in practice it's quite different. I'm grateful for the guidance from the Nurx team as we iterated – receiving their feedback as we added, changed, and removed elements from our designs was vital to the process.
The team and I are very proud of what we were able to accomplish in these short months. However, there is always room for growth! Given more time, I would have liked to spend longer on our final solution. Due to the amount of time research took, my time to lead the design and prototyping phase was cut short. More time would have allowed for more polished visual design, as well improved functionality and flow.
I also wish we could have done more user testing. While our research and the expertise of the Nurx team gave us a lot of insight already, more user testing would have allowed us to create an even better final solution that further addressed the user needs we identified.
