Solis Health
UX
Case study
A consulting service that offer non-clinical support to cancer patients and their families
We learned from the founders that the idea of Solis was born out of need. Having been cancer caregivers themselves, they had realized that although India did have some of the finest clinicians and advanced technology,
there was still a profound lack of empathetic support and an absence of clear information in the existing healthcare ecosystem.
Therefore, Solis was aiming to fill this existing gap in the cancer care industry, hoping to provide support to all the people affected by cancer.
Role
Product Designer
Team
2 people
Research Objectives
Identifying the major pain points of cancer patients and caregivers.
Understanding the behaviors and decision-making patterns of cancer caregivers.
Arriving at insights, User Personas, and scenarios that would inform the branding, Identity, and website design strategy.
User Interviews
90 - 150
Minutes
6
People
Caregivers
Demographic
These sets of interviews were especially tricky. My sense of empathy as a UX designer was put to test as we discussed the sensitive subject of cancer.
Affinity mapping & Identifying themes
We didn't know what was happening
Dealing with other friends/family
Lack of cancer awareness
people to connect with
Wondering why cancer happens
Lack of empathy in hospitals
Finances
Persona
Archetype : clueless caregiver
ABHAY, 32
Home town : Indore
Occupation : Accountant
"We didn't have the right guidance. We just chose the nearest hospital without any research because we needed to act fast"
When Abhay's father was diagnosed with stomach cancer he was devastated by this news and was very confused about the next steps. They were informed that his father would need a surgery and chemotherapy after the surgery at a different hospital. Nischal has been frantically reaching out to friends and relatives trying to find some guidance on which hospital or doctor to consult for the treatment and what would be the best way forward.
Goals
To find a good cancer hospital/ doctor that will suit their needs
To find people who will tell him what he needs to do next and what is to be expected.
Frustrations
It's a race against time, he needs to make decisions soon.
The doctors do not have enough time to explain things in detail and Nischal does not know who else to ask for guidance.
Does not know whom to trust
Problem Statements
Based on the user personas we crafted 3 problem statements that would help us build a strategy for the branding as well as the website.
Abhay is a primary cancer caregiver
who needs expert guidance on the next steps to be taken in their treatement journey
because there are so many options to choose from and he is confused.
Navya is a primary cancer caregiver
who needs a community of cancer patients and caregivers
because having people to relate with would make living with cancer easier.
Prajwal is a primary cancer caregiver
who needs access to credible sources of information on cancer
because there arent many ways to validate all the information online
Some Important insights
Cancer is percieved as a death sentance
There isn't much information online about treatment costs because every case is different.
Cancer hospitals seem to invoke feelings of dread and hopelessnes. Administrative convinience is placed above patient convlnlence.
Most hospital websites are generally for marketing but caregivers expect them to be a credible source of information.
The physical needs of cancer patients are so overwhelming that their mental health often gets ignored.
The caregiver does not get enough support from the hospital/doctors
during the end stages of the patient's life.
Brainstorming and prioritizing potential solutions to the problem statements.
After an internal brainstorming and several discussions with the client, we arrived at solutions to various user pain points as well as a few themes that would guide the service and design decisions going forward.
Non-Clinical : From the research and user interviews we learned that most hospitals were perceived as grim places with not so much as even a glimmer of hope. Considering the fact that people who would be visiting Solis would already be frequenting hospitals it would not make sense for Solis to remind them of another hospital. Solis had to be a place that was a refreshing break from all the seriousness that hospitals would bring. They had to be non-hospital/non-clinical in terms of their environment. They had to be warm, homey, and comfortable.
Holistic Wellness : Based on the user needs that emerged after the research we decided that the service should be designed to cater physiological, emotional, and social wellbeing of both the patient as well as the caregiver.
Solutions
Credible Sources of Information
On discussing this issue with the Solis team they decided to have another site called ‘Solis Knowledge portal’ which would act as an encyclopedia for cancer with all the information coming from verified sources. The Solis knowledge portal would be linked to the main site.
How do we make a healthcare website non-hospital-like?
Use illustrations in most places. The style chosen for the illustrations was more organic, unlike the vector-style web illustration. This was done to create a mood of comfort and lightheartedness.
Meeting different needs
We broadly categorized patient needs and Solis service offerings into - Practical Support ( financial assistance, legal assistance, nutrition counseling, etc) Emotional Support ( Group counseling, Therapy, etc), and Social Support (Support groups, wellness programs, etc)
An explanatory video
In a world where attention spans last 3 seconds it was safe to assume that people who were literally in a race against time might not have the time or patience to read. So, in order to communicate what Solis does in the quickest way possible, we decided to also include a video on the homepage.
Expert Guidance
Something that every caregiver desired was expert guidance and personalized attention. In order to make expert medical guidance accessible to everyone, The Solis team decide to launch ‘The Solis Second Opinion’ which would be a site to consult global medical experts online. This site was to be linked with the main site as well.
Establishing trust
In a situation like cancer trusting a service would mean trusting them with your life. How do we establish ‘Solis’ as a trustworthy source? That is when we realized telling the founder’s story on the website would be necessary. Solis was being positioned as a service ‘from one caregiver to another’ and that aspect needed to be emphasized in the ‘about us’ section of the site.
Learning
The most challenging bit of this project was the user interviews. Talking about cancer is never easy. I learnt that getting the users to narrate a story first might be a good strategy in most instances.
The End…
