United Vein Centers
Project
Web Application Component
Areas
Research, UX, Design
Role
Product Designer
Project Overview
Refreshed web experience to enhance patient access to vein disease screenings
United Vein & Vascular Centers is a leading provider of vein and vascular care with clinics spread across the United States. This project was focused on revitalizing their existing web experience, to enable patients to easily find clinics and schedule screenings.
Problem
Over the last few years, internal analytics within UVC suggested a downward trend of patients accessing vein screenings from their online site. Many users were calling in to the clinic hotline number to inquire about location information and how to sign up for screenings. They reported a number of difficulties in navigating the website and locating the important clinic information sections.
Solution
After a comprehensive review of UVC’s existing online experience, multiple solution areas were developed. First, the site was extremely inaccessible for the predominant user demographic (50+). The site’s entire design system was flawed and highly user unfriendly. This required an entirely revamped and refreshed design system which passed comprehensive AA & AAA accessibility standards. Second, the most important module of the site (Find A Clinic) was not only difficult to find, but challenging to use. The entire module was reconsidered and reworked in both structure and flow.
My Role / Responsibilities
I was brought on to Wonderful Collective as a freelance Design Lead. In this role, I was responsible for all research, design decisions and final executions.
User Research
Older user demographic hindered by poor structure & limited accessibility
Initial research was conducted to understand the various pain points of UVC’s specific patient demographic. Limited accessibility considerations for advanced age and device variance arose as main focus areas.
1 / Customer Age Demographics
One of the major considerations for UVC’s user demographic was their advanced age. Since vein disease often presents later in life, >75% of site visitors and potential future customers were over the age of 50. Given this user base’s declining vision as well as “low tech savviness.” the entire design system needed to be recreated and reimagined. Modules required critical simplification and deepened color contrasts to bring them up to AA & AAA accessibility standards.
2 / Device Usage
Alongside accessibility considerations, Google Analytics was used to better understand the device usage for visitors of the UVC site. Based on collected data as well as general research, it was found that as age increases, prevalence of desktop usage increases. Additionally, older demographics tend to use outdated devices with smaller screens and lower resolutions. Given this range of devices, screen sizes and variety of potential operating systems, a solution was required which was highly dynamic and flexible.
1 / Customer Age Demographics
2 / Device Usage
Updated Design System
Building a refreshed design system, focused on ease of use & accessibility .
A robust component library was developed & tested with strict adherence to core design principles. This approach sets up UVC for success within this project and for others moving forward.
3 / Visual Accessibility Refresh
One of the predominant areas of improvement for the UVC interface was updating the color palette to reflect a stronger adherence to online accessibility standards. Previous button styles, input fields and global navigation did not even pass at a AA level. Given the target demographic’s declining eyesight as well as questionable quality of devices/screens, the designs needed to be updated to adhere to the highest levels of visual accessibility.
4 / Component Library
In order to enable the UVC team for continued success, a comprehensive and complete Figma component library was built, which focused on updates to both aesthetics and usability. All visual elements were given proper notations and variants to reflect all possible states and uses. This component library was then utilized to build out the refreshed UVC web experience.
3 / Visual Accessibility Refresh
4 / Component Library
“Find A Clinic” Rework
Bringing strategic design thinking to the site’s most important module.
Through conversations with UVC’s internal team, it was made clear that the “Find A Clinic” module was the most important on the site. They noted that a successful user journey would involve a patient using the site to find and initiate contact with their local UVC clinic.
5 / Current Painpoints
In order to better understand the flaws contained within the current structure of this module, a comprehensive analysis was done to uncover specific painpoints. All functions were tested including searching, browsing as well as mapping user flows to understand the various click journeys for different types of users.
6 / Updated Browse Flow
Given the target demographics hesitancy to share or enter specific location information, the browse function was brought to greater prominence on the page. This was accomplished by restructuring the layout of the module and moving into a horizontal stacking of design elements. Additional functions were added including browse filters, dynamic hover states and increased information on clinic cards.
7 / Updated Search Flow
Although other functions of the page were brought to greater prominence, the ability to search for specific locations based on where a user lives remained of top importance. As with the ability to browse, the horizontal rework of the design structure gave space for searching to be easy to see and effective to use. Multiple entry points, enhanced search result information and clinic specific pages were added to enhance the search experience and make it even easier for users to find their local UVC center.
8 / New Homepage Module
Although this module was noted as the most important for the entire site, there existed only a single point of entry for users to access this section from the homepage. In case this button was not seen or not used, an entirely separate “Find A Clinic” module was added to the homepage to drive users forward in the desired UX journey.
