The problem
Navigating health information online is overwhelming and unreliable. There are 1 billion health-related searches on Google every day, which means 70,000 searches per minute.
Introducing MedExplain (PALS)
MedExplain’s Patient Activated Learning System is a web platform, backed by Weill Cornell Medicine, that enables individuals to obtain health-related information sourced from real medical research.
MedExplain’s Patient Activated Learning System is a web platform, backed by Weill Cornell Medicine, that enables individuals to obtain health-related information sourced from real medical research.
How could we add value? We looked at 5 competitors and found:
How could we add value? We looked at 4 competitors and found:
Strengths
✅ Diverse articles
✅ Professional sources
✅ Simple yet functional
✅ Clean interfaces
Weaknesses
❌ Distracting ads
❌ Cluttered layout
❌ Complicated terminology
❌ Overly broad search results
Strengths
✅ Diverse articles
✅ Professional sources
✅ Simple yet functional
✅ Clean interfaces
Weaknesses
❌ Distracting advertisements
❌ Cluttered layout
❌ Complicated terminology
❌ Overly broad search results
Weaknesses
❌ Distracting ads
❌ Cluttered layout
❌ Complicated terminology
❌ Overly broad search results
How do others feel about navigating online medical information?
We prioritized organization the product feel credible and navigable.
How do others feel about navigating online medical information?
We prioritized making the product feel credible and navigable.
✅ Establishes trust with sponsors
❌ Site functionality is vague
✅ Establishes trust
❌ Vague functionality
✅ Purpose explained immediately
✅ Search by category is accessible
✅ Immediate purpose
✅ Search by category
✅ Filtering options, clear clickability
❌ Card layout takes up more space
✅ Concise and compact
✅ Conforms with common search engines
✅ Concise and compact
✅ Common search engines
✅ Convenient side bar navigation
✅ Authors and credentials = reliability
✅ Convenient side bar navigation
✅ Authors and credentials
✅ Quick facts for easily digestible info
❌ Less organization
✅ Quick facts / summary
❌ Less organization
✅ Convenient side bar navigation
✅ Authors and credentials = reliability
✅ Quick facts for easily digestible info
❌ Less organization
Balancing clean and welcoming visuals to create consistent branding.
Balancing clean and welcoming visuals to create consistent branding.
We combined the strongest aspects of each iteration to create a strong, collective vision.
We combined the strongest aspects of each iteration to create a strong, collective vision.
Clear and immediate purpose and a strong CTA in the search bar.
Concise summary verified by a reliable doctor, accessible filter options.
Easy navigation bar, option to view authors’ credentials.
States MedExplain’s purpose directly and immediately, backed by statistics and testimonials.
User Testing
Confusion about searching by symptoms functionality
Added explanation of the symptoms search, created more accessible and visible search bar
Request for better visual branding cohesion
Changed color scheme and added a line of direct purpose
Prototypes
Looking forward
Documented designs for developers
Second round of testing on 25 individuals
Measured increased usability and satisfaction
On average, participants rated MedExplain’s new platform based on helpfulness and trustworthiness 4.02 out of 5, which is 37.8% higher than existing competitors and 44.8% higher than the original MedExplain platform.
Tackling this real-world problem was challenging yet rewarding.
Despite being confronted with the challenge of designing for an ambiguous target user group, we aligned our team through a singular persona that enabled us to leverage storytelling to empathize with our users.
This project was an invaluable experience for us to learn about challenges in the healthcare space and how to design for accessibility. In just 4 months, we took on the challenge of evaluating the online medical information space, learning what users value in their search experience, and crafting visuals and interactions that solve a real-world problem!
✅ Establishes trust
❌ Vague functionality
✅ Immediate purpose
✅ Search by category
✅ Filtering options, clear clickability
❌ Card layout takes up more space
✅ Concise and compact
✅ Common search engines
