Dialogue is a healthcare startup that aims to improve the healthcare experience for Canadian patients by making it easier to access healthcare in a convenient, efficient way.
Canadians have free healthcare that covers essential medical services, but getting a diagnosis and treatment is not efficient or wholistic:
A patient first visits their family doctor, which can take a week and requires them to take time away from work. If a patient doesn't have a family doctor (which is common) they wait hours at a walk-in clinic.
The doctor then decides if they need a referral to a specialist, where there's usually a several month wait list.
Health records are scattered between clinics, tools, paper, and are not accessible by the patient or shared amongst medical professionals. Patients are asked about their medical history at every visit and they're expected to remember everything
Our goal was to compliment and enhance the existing healthcare system by making the experience easier, more efficient, and more convenient for patients. Practically this meant:
Better, easier, convenient access to healthcare professionals that substitutes in-person visits (eg. renewing a prescription, follow-ups, consultations with nutritionists, psychologists, etc.).
Giving the patient control over their health by having access to their healthcare information.
Compliance with regulations across Canada, which differ from province to province (each is responsible for the healthcare of its residents).
My role
I was the Design Lead at Dialogue and the first full-time employee. During my time there I was in charge of all design work, making sure I had a thorough understanding of the complex systems we were working in, and ensuring we provided our customers with the best experience.
Design leadership
Worked with our Engineering, Product, Business, and Medical teams, as well as top level executives, to shape the future vision of our products and driving strategic design work.
Advocated for our patients and medical staff during design discussions and product planning to prioritize features and experiences that best serve our customers, while maintaining their privacy and safety.
Maintained a consistent brand experience across all parts of the company, from our products, to our business and sales collateral.
Created a visual library and component system to streamline our design. It was implemented in collaboration with our engineering team and maintained by me. This allowed for quick iteration and experimentation (we could go from a sketch on paper to a working screen in a couple hours).
Product design
I designed our products from scratch and was responsible for everything from research, ideation, and problem solving, to the visual design, animations, and implementing UI changes.
The entire patient experience (iOS and Android apps, and initial web app); I was also heavily involved in our long term product planning and sprint planning.
A web dashboard for employers to provide access to their employees.
Created a visual library to streamline our design, which was implemented in collaboration with our development team and maintained by me (I generally did a lot of the pixel pushing in the codebase myself).
Designed 2 versions of our main website (for our initial quiet launch, and after our loud launch).
Most of marketing and sales collateral including materials for conferences and events (we had a design intern that helped for a few months), and illustrations across all platforms.
The patient experience
There were quite a few moving pieces at Dialogue, not to mention having to interface with the larger Canadian healthcare system. The diagram below shows the process of a patient using Dialogue to get medical help for a concern they have. This process is not linear since each concern and patient is unique and may require several different methods diagnose the concern. There also isn't a clear "end" state since a patient can continue to ask questions or may have the issue come up again.
The process for a patient using Dialogue to get medical help.
