March- May 2023 | Contract

Contextual Inquiry Into The Patient Journey At Anti Fragility Health

A qualitative user study of the patient journey and design recommendations for AFH- a non-traditional clinic located in Anaheim, California.

User Research

Journey Mapping UX Recommendations Mockups

Role

1/5 User Researchers
Led Affinity Mapping
Participated in every stage of the research process

Anti Fragility Health (AFH) operates as a clinic that is grounded in research and tailors its services to individual lifestyles. Its unique model combines naturopathic and holistic treatments with the precision of traditional western medical practices, all while leveraging advanced biomarker diagnostics to guide its approaches. By adopting a mission focused on delivering care that is personalized, predictive, preventive, and participatory, AFH aims to serve a broad spectrum of individuals with its innovative health solutions.

Goal

AFH was exploring ways to enhance the patient experience by mapping the care journey and integrating insights from clinicians, patients, and lifestyle coaches.

AFH launched this initiative to explore barriers and opportunities to improve patient experience.

Research Question

Given AFH's non-traditional approach, we wanted to better understand where this journey begins and their motivations.

How do customers' motivations for choosing AFH differ across various contexts, and how do their experiences with AFH contrast with those of traditional healthcare options?

User Interviews

We conducted 5 semi-structured interviews remotely with patients across different ages, ethnicities and medical histories. Our questions were focussed on understanding these key areas:

Their introduction and initial impressions of AFH
The process of recognizing their symptoms and beginning their journey with AFH
Their ongoing experience with AFH

Affinity Mapping

Key findings from the affinity map

View full affinity map here

Sensation Board

It was evident from the affinity map that it was important to capture the emotions and feeling of patients.

Sensation board

Patient Journey

We created a persona to guide the journey map.

Patient persona

Diana's journey and touch points with AFH

View full customer journey

Wall Walk

We had a wall walk with our client and other stakeholders to present our findings and get feedback.

Walk walk

Design Recommendations

We had a visioning and ideating session following the wall walk based on which we recommended these design changes and additions to their website and also prototyped a concept for a mobile application to bridge the gap that patients experienced during their outpatient care-

Key Takeaways

Working on this research project with a diverse team from different academic backgrounds brought a wide range of ideas, which was especially helpful in recognizing and navigating our own biases.
Affinity mapping took time since we all saw the data differently, but by trusting the process and listening to each other, we made sense of it together.
This project also offered valuable insights into healthcare. Understanding patients' lived experiences allowed us to design concepts that truly prioritized their needs.

Credits

Ben, Fatema, Shaunak, and Umisha for being amazing teammates and getting each other through all the all-nighters we pulled.
Charles Sine and the entire team at AFH, for helping us better understand the organization and for facilitating the user interviews.