PROJECT OVERVIEW
Community Dental connects low income individuals and families to dental providers across the nation for reduced cost dental services. The organization needed a tool that could connect individuals to generous providers in their area. Community Dental’s primary users include college students and adults with children who are in need of reduced cost dental services.
THE PROBLEM
About 74 million Americans have no dental coverage—that's almost one-quarter (23%) of the population. The strategy team at Community Dental has identified that there are many individuals and families who cannot afford basic dental care.
THE GOAL
Design an app that will help connect individuals and families to charitable dental care providers for reduced cost dental services.
ROLE
UX Designer
PROJECT DURATION
August 2022 to November 2022
RESPONSIBILTIES
•Conducting interviews
•Paper and digital wire-framing
•Low and high-fidelity prototyping
•Conducting usability studies
•Accounting for accessibility
•Iterating on designs
•Determining Information Architecture
•Responsive Design
UNDERSTANDING THE USER
USER RESEARCH: SUMMARY
I used Community Dental’s data on affordability of dental care to develop interview questions, which were then used to conduct user interviews. Most interview participants reported having times in their life or currently having troubles with accessing affordable dental care. A few of the participants went through long periods of time of missing out on dental care leading to accelerated dental problems later in life. The feedback received through research made it very clear that low income users would find it useful to have an app that could connect them to reduced cost dental services.
USER RESEARCH: PERSONAS
PERSONA 1: PROBLEM STATEMENT
Tess is a working college student who needs access to affordable dental care because she wants peace of mind knowing her health needs are being met.
PERSONA 2: PROBLEM STATEMENT
Maria is a working, single mom of 3 kids who needs access to affordable dental care because she wants peace of mind knowing her family’s dental health has been prioritized.
STARTING THE DESGIN
PAPER WIREFRAMES
I did a quick ideation exercise to come up with ideas for how to address gaps identified in my research. My focus was specifically on a simple form that users could fill out quickly to find their best dental provider match.
DIGITAL WIREFRAMES
After ideating and creating some basic paper wireframes, I created the initial designs for the Community Dental App. These designs focused on guiding users through a short questionnaire to best match them with a provider in their area.
LOW FIDELITY PROTOTYPE
To prepare for usability testing, I created a low-fidelity prototype that connected the user flow of finding the best dental provider in the user’s area.
View the Community Dental Low-Fidelity Prototype:
USABILITY STUDY: FINDINGS
These were the main findings uncovered by the usability study.
USABILITY STUDY FINDINGS
USABILITY STUDY CHANGES: PART 1
Based on the insights from the usability study, I applied design changes like providing improved language at the top about the purpose of the app. I added a short “about” paragraph so users could more easily identify Community Dental’s mission.
USABILITY STUDY CHANGES: PART 2
Additional design changes included adding confirmation language at the end of the flow to let users know they reached the final step.
HIGH FIDELITY PROTOTYPE
The high-fidelity prototype allowed for the same user flow as the low-fidelity prototype, including design changes made after the usability study.
View The Community Dental High Fidelity Prototype:
RESPONSIVE DESIGN
SITEMAP
With the app designs completed, I started work on the responsive website. I used the Community Dental sitemap to guide the organizational structure of each screen’s design to ensure a cohesive and consistent design experience across all devices.
RESPONSIVE DESIGNS
The designs for screen size variation included mobile and desktop. I optimized the designs to fit specific user needs of each device and screen size.
GOING FORWARD
TAKEAWAYS
Impact: Users shared that they were really moved by the mission of Community Dental to provide accessible dental care to those in need. One user said, “I wish I had this when I was struggling in college. I’m glad it can help people now.”
What I learned: I learned that good user experience can change the world especially when it’s providing aid to those in need.
NEXT STEPS
Next steps would be to conduct research on how successful the app is in connecting individuals and families with dental providers. I would also want to add a “schedule appointment” feature to help add to the functionality of the app.