RP Medbot

Overview

RP Medbot is Singapore’s first fully autonomous medical booth that enables basic health screenings and doctor teleconsultations for the general public. The product was first presented to the public at Medical Fair Asia 2022 (31 Aug – 2 Sep) with great success.

This case study will focus on the redesign process of the whole suite of user experience. The team consisted of myself, one project manager, and 5 software engineers. The timeline for the redesign and development was 2 months.

Speaking to the business & product owners

Despite having a pre-existing prototype of RP Medbot, the company wanted a full redesign that would enable them to achieve a few major business goals before the product’s official unveiling at Medical Fair Asia 2022.

The Problem

The first step was to understand the major issues within the current prototype products, and see how they would fit in with the company’s business needs. I did up heuristics analyses to get a clearer picture.

The Booth

Mobile App

Exploration and Research

Market Research

I had a week to explore different directions for RP Medbot. I started with market research, to get a better sense of what is on the market and what works. I looked at medical booths from Higi, H4D and Ping An Good Doctor.

These were the key findings from my research:

Qualitative User Research

Due to the short time frame, I was unable to dedicate time to quantitative research. Fortunately, the team had already done several rounds of user testing with the first iteration of RP Medbot.

With that data, I compiled a list of key comments that users had:

“Sign Up process is tedious.”
“Confused when needing to make a booking, too many things on the screen.”
“Don’t like how the mobile app looks.”
“Difficult to read the booth screen with all the blue.”
“Instructions on screen are not clear enough, I am confused on what to do during the health tests”

The Solution

At this point, to establish the exact pain points to work on for the redesign, I looked at the intersection between user needs and business needs.

Onto the re-design

Then, I tackled redesigning a new user experience.

For the overall aesthetics, I decided to go with these colours. A softer blue and white palette reflected the professional yet approachable aspect of the brand.

The fonts that I went with also conveyed the same sense. Both Inter and Nunito sans were not only easy to read on digital screens, they were also inviting fonts that instilled a sense of warmness.

The Booth

Experience #1: Onboarding

The welcome screens were very text-heavy, and jarring on the eyes. Given the large real estate, the buttons were also small. I decided to reduce the amount of text, and also increase the button size. I also used slide up pop-ups to ensure a more dynamic user experience.

Experience #2: Breadcrumbs

The breadcrumbs design was not only unpolished, the corresponding text was also too small to read. I decided to incorporate icons into the design, making it more visual and thus more accessible.

Experience #3: Buttons

The buttons in the old design were too small and narrow, which may make it harder for users to press. Buttons also didn’t remain as buttons — sometimes they turned into a timer, which may confuse users.

*Before — The buttons could change states 3 times* *in the old design*

I redesigned the buttons to be bigger, and I kept the design of the buttons consistent across all screens, so that users could easily identify that those were buttons.

Experience #4: Understanding the results

The current test results were not easy to understand. Additionally, the results summary looked cramped and also required scrolling. I redesigned the results to look less cluttered, and presented the results summary without scroll.

Experience #5: Increased accessibility

The older prototype only utilised text instructions for users during the health assessment. As self-assessing can be daunting to many, I included both demo videos and audio voice-overs to guide users through their health assessments.

Furthermore, the booth was only available in English. Upon discussion with the business owners, I managed to advocate for a Chinese language option in this iteration, with plans to include more languages in the future.

Mobile App

Experience #1: Onboarding

The old onboarding process required users to complete a sign-up form with their details even before landing on the home screen. The lengthy process would deter users from wanting to use the app.

I changed the flow to allow users to at least browse what the app offered, only getting them to fill in their details when they wanted to book a health assessment.

Experience #2: Home screen

The homescreen was not only visually unappealing, it did not offer much useful content at first glance. I redesigned the home screen to clearly identify where users could go if they wanted to book an appointment, and also added a few useful features like their upcoming appointment schedule and recent health results.

Experience #3: Booking Process

The booking process was complicated for users – the booking package came at the end of the booking flow, and there were many decisions users needed to make on one single screen (location, date, time).

I changed the whole booking flow, from making the booking package the first decision users had to make, and ensured that the booking process was broken up to smaller steps for easy comprehension.

Validating the designs

I conducted usability testing sessions with our primary users to validate whether the new designs would solve their problems. I started the sessions by asking the users to book a health assessment with the mobile app, before undergoing a health assessment in the booth.

During the session I observed how they interacted with the products. The usability session revealed that:

Results

RP Medbot was successfully developed and unveiled at Medical Fair Asia 2022. The product drew media attention, with Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong dropping by the booth for a demo session.

Following the fair, the company aims to launch up to 10 of the booths in areas such as Jurong and Tampines in partnership with a multinational company, and it is also in talks to introduce them in Malaysia and Indonesia.

The product was also featured in newspapers such as Straits Times and Zao Bao.