VillageHub is a centralized, two-sided web and iOS Health and Wellness Marketplace contracted by Medavie Blue Cross to promote the preventative and secondary care side of their business. There were two central goals of the VillageHub project. The first goal was to simplify the end-to-end user access process. The second goal was to bring that same simplicity to the provider's ability to manage their day-to-day operations.
As the Principal Product Designer on Villagehub, I worked closely with our CEO and Project Manager to define goals and understand what the client was looking to accomplish with this project. Our initial contract was two years with a one-month, two-sided MVP (Minimal Viable Product) to begin. The timeline lead to us adopting a Lean UX approach to begin, with a later transition to a more Agile cycle as soon as the team grew and the project evolved. During both of these cycles, I collaborated with Teacup Tech System’s growing development team to implement my designs, provide design QA support, and provide any supporting graphics and creative for VillageHub.
Roles
UI/UX Design
User Research
Journey Mapping
Wireframing
Information Architecture
Interaction Design
Design QA
Graphic Design
Social Media
Partners
VIjay Thomas - CEO/CTO
Sasang Balachandran - Lead Engineer
Client
Medavie Blue Cross
Agency
Teacup Tech Systems
Completed
2021
Medavie has an extensive list of providers that offer secondary care, wellness, and additional services that do not fall under the guise of primary care or traditional medicine. These services could lead to improved quality of life for their users and will also increase the profitability and visibility of their providers.
Medavie had no means for their users to simply browse and book appointments with in-network secondary care and wellness professionals. The providers were missing out of valuable clients and users currently weren't able to take full advantage of their health plans to achieve optimal wellness especially if they weren't even aware of the offerings.
There were two primary goals for Villagehub...
The first was to build a user-facing application that allows Medavie users to browse, compare, book, and pay for secondary care and wellness providers all in one place.
The second was to design a provider-facing application that allows in-network providers to manage their schedules, service offerings, and payouts in that very same place!
Initially, VillageHub was launched as an MVP and built to be utilized immediately by providers to attract and retain new business and by users to simply browse and book the best care in their area. Following the successful launch of the MVP, VillageHub's scope was broadened to create admin users to allow for offices to be organized and managed under a single main account. Additionally, wellness features were added to increase general user engagement that goes beyond the booking process (ie. mood tracker, neighborhood support, videos, and classes.)
Working with our current product team at Teacup, we devised a four-part repeating cycle that would work with both Lean UX and Agile development approaches to optimize our efficiency. This also helped to ensure that key milestones and deliverable dates could be met without fail.
With a short timeline to complete the initial MVP, working in a Pairing-based Lean UX structure helped to expedite the functional exploration process. This in turn to get a working prototype in the hands of the client as fast as possible while simultaneously preparing us to shift into a more traditional Agile approach as the team grew and the project expanded.
Interteam Workshop
User Interviews
Whiteboarding
Workflow Evaluation
Persona Development
User Journeys
Business Flows
MVP Prioritization
Wireframing
Atomic Design Development
High Fidelity Iteration
Client Feedback
High Fidelity Designs
Web App & iOS App
Style & Component Guides
Recommendations
Kicking off the discovery and analysis process was an interesting one with VillageHub as the true demographic was for the first time in my career EVERYONE above the age of 18 who is trying to take control of their physical and mental well-being. I took this brief time to learn as much about their current operation and also used this time as a way to set project goals, define the roadmap, and create as many whiteboard concepts as possible. Once completed with the internal survey I moved on to interviews with various user types across Toronto and other parts of Canada to understand what each group was currently was experiencing difficulties with on their path to health and wellness.
Based on all the information I gathered I because develop persona profiles that highlighted each user's unique tasks, goals, and specific application use case! Once I had documented these goals I began creating various journey maps to understand how these vastly differing users might similarly use VillageHub.
Following the discovery period I began to wireframe iteratively to help determine the flow and define the information architecture for each screen. This process became a fixture of each element or new feature that we added to VillageHub from browsing & book all the way to mood tracking.
After each sprint(1-2 w) the team met to note our achievements and identify any areas that could use improvement in the weeks to come. Additionally, this time was used to help prepare for where we would be shifting our attention in weeks to come.
Our process was to write on cards in Figma, then collaboratively categorize them and discuss thoughts before creating appropriate action plans or JIRA tickets. Retros were especially important because my lead engineer truly enjoyed working nights.
The MVP solution (featured just above) is a secure, 2-sided web and iOS native-based Healthcare Marketplace, with two primary dashboards which have allowed VillageHub to function end-to-end from release. In the MVP state, a USER would find this application valuable to browse, compare, and book appointments. Meanwhile, a PROVIDER would use VillageHub to manage schedules+prices, confirm or deny appointments, and GET PAID! This stage was just the beginning of VillageHub as we continued to add more providers & categories, new features, and more!!
Give the VillageHub site a visit below if you would like to learn more!