Timbl

A client management application for therapists

The product: A one-stop mobile app solution for therapists to manage their clients and schedule sessions.

Project duration: Six weeks

The problem: As the number of clients increases, entering appointment details into a diary manually, becomes cumbersome. Although there are other scheduling apps, therapists often find themselves using multiple apps to organize everything.

The goal: A one-stop solution that addresses the scalability issue and one app for all stages of the scheduling process.

My role: Lead UX Designer, UX researcher, UI Designer

Responsibilities: User research, pattern identification, insight recognition, wireframing, create low fidelity mockups and prototypes, conduct usability studies, create high-fidelity mockups and prototypes

User research summary

Quantitative and qualitative online survey

The research involved developing a questionnaire based on the pain points that were arrived at from primary research.

This was used in a survey that was shared with multiple therapists with a functioning practice and their response was recorded. Based on their response, key action items for the first iteration of the design were identified, along with some workflows which could later be used in the usability study as well.

Pain Points

Scalability
Oftentimes, the therapists with a flourishing practice and several clients, find it cumbersome to enter each detail into their personal diaries.

Remembering dates
Many thought that having to remember important dates was a waste of memory. Marking calendars and timetables only show what you write on them.

Multiple apps
The fact that sometimes 2 or 3 apps were being used to track one session wasn’t a feasible solution. Integrated solution Lack of an integrated, automated solution meant a lot of time is wasted on clerical work instead of actual therapy and analysis.

The Process

A rough layout of the app was captured on paper.

The paper wireframes were then converted to digital wireframes in which the features were a little more elaborately conveyed.

Placeholder texts and images were used.

The low fidelity prototype connected the primary user flows like:

navigating between dates,
adding a new appointment,
deleting an existing appointment, rescheduling an existing appointment
editing an appointment

so the prototype could be used in a usability study with users.

Usability study: findings

Users found the app useful
The workflows were fairly simple to execute
Users found the steps to be consistent for each workflow
Users want a scalable solution
Users want a simple scheduling app
Users want options to create, delete and reschedule appointments

Refining the design

The usability study yielded insights which were prioritized and incorporated into the existing design.

Eg: Earlier designs didn’t let the user select a random date by clicking the current date.

This was identified to be a high-priority action item after the usability study and was addressed thereafter

Another action item with a high priority was to address the confusion surrounding the icons in the Client tile for appointment-related operations.

The icons were replaced with text as it was more intuitive.

Additional operations were moved to a later stage in the workflow.

This turned out to be much more effective than the initial design.

Before

After

Version 1 High Fidelity Mockups

Accessibility considerations

The date selector button color was changed to meet the WCAG contrast requirements

Contrast between text and background meets WCAG standards

Accent Color: #2B5394

The individual elements can have alt text provision as well as sequence numbering, which will enable the app to be used by a screen reader.

contrast ratio: 7.58:1

Primary Color: #FFFFFF

Takeaways

From the usability studies, it was clear that the app was successful in its quest to aid therapists with scheduling and client management.

All the participants involved in the usability studies were able to identify its feasibility as a solution for the given problem.

What I Learnt

The significance of following through with the design process and empathising with users goes a long way in coming up with a solution to any problem. At the center of it all, is the user.

"Very simple in terms of its features. But does what it sets out to do. Guess this makes more sense than using something more sophisticated, that is if you only want to create and maintain schedules. Surely better than using a diary.“

- Participant E

"This is very helpful. And pretty easy to use."

- Participant C

Version Two

Version two incorporated minor changes to the client tile, where the round edges were replaced with simple dividers for simplicity.

This change also tested well when users were asked to rate the two in terms of familiarity and aesthetic apeal.

Next Steps

Work on the mockups for the dark theme while also accounting for accessibility.

Customize the material design components to create a sticker sheet for Timbl specific designs.
i.e Create a design system for consistency in future designs.