Case Study Espaço Ativa.Mente

Espaço Ativa.Mente is an integrated care clinic* that offers humanized care and seeks to provide a better quality of life for its patients.

The company started in 2020 and since then has offered affordable services to children and adolescents in different treatments. It also offers services for other companies, as well as a system of partnerships with plans and discounts.

In summary, by creating the website, the company will be able to create a digital presence, allow users to book appointments online, meet professionals, and have access to a support platform.

Integrated care is an organising principle for care delivery with the aim of achieving improved patient care through better coordination of services provided.

The company requires a website and a visual identity as well, as it is really difficult to find them on social networks and digital search engines, making it difficult to access and analyze company data.

Secondly, the clinic has problems with the booking system, due to the fact that it is difficult to organize the bookings that arrive by phone, WhatsApp and through direct contact with the specialist social networks.

Desk research, user flow, wireframes, visual design, prototype and testing.

October 2021 – February 2022

Understand how users hire the service of an integrated care clinic, in order to improve their experience and explore new business opportunities.

Bring digital visibility to the clinic, its services, and how to hire it.

As the company did not have much data, therefore we couldn’t have a full understanding of the business. Consequently, it was necessary to do an accurate research and moreover, it was required, a consultancy for the structuring of the business.

During the first part of the research, it was sought to understand more about the business, market positioning and analyze competitors.

Initially, desk research was conducted in order to analyze the market and adjacent trends, particularly, it focus to understand how other companies and competitors were positioning themselves and interacting with their users.

As a result, it was noted how the digital presence has strengthened in recent months, part of this presence is aligned with the effects of the pandemic on mental health and child development.

Overall, an increase in demand for online services was also observed, since many users still face difficulties to be present in person consultation.

A preliminary analysis of the business was carried out using the Plus/Delta analysis. For instance, products, processes and services were examined.

The result of this process identified some problems in business strategies. The company does not have a channel where its audience can access information about the clinic and its services.

It was clarified the importance of investing in branding through a visual identity and marketing plan for the growth of the company.

Further, a competitor analysis was conducted to determine how the business is performing compared with other companies.

Five direct and indirect competitors were selected, where several business topics were analyzed, among the main ones:
website, online consultations, multidisciplinary services offered, social media and branding.

The SWOT analysis was used in order to identify the main pain points, indicating them as topics of attention as well as strengths that could be used as insights into opportunities to be explored.

The biggest pains raised were:

• Lack of partnerships, membership system and discounts.
• Many patients are loyal to the practitioner, not the clinic.
• Absence of its own booking system and patients management.
• Difficulty in frequent activity on the clinic’s social networks.

The biggest advantages we have seen:

• The opportunity to explore online services.
• Qualified practitioners.
• Creation of a supportive community between parents and experts.

After collecting information during the research, it was important to organize and structure the data found. Consequently, it was proposed to present a workshop using the User Centered Design Canvas, thus it would help to understand the target audience, its value proposition, its main activities, strategic partnerships.

This activity aims to innovate, enable debate and create understanding between the user and the business.

To move further on the user stage, we create a hypotheses that guide our user discovery. They are:

• Users hire the clinic through referrals from others.
• Users know the clinic through friends and relatives.
• Creating a website will assist the users to find a specialist and book a consultation, that could help in their problems.

Secondly, a Survey was conceived, which focused to understand why people seek treatment in a integrated clinic and how they seek these services.

As a result, many users share that they got to know the company through specialist who work at the company or through referrals from family and friends. Moreover, users claim to like humanized care and practitioners.

In addition, the respondent users confirmed that booking management could be improved, accordingly with the overcrowded reception.

Here are some of the questions we asked:

1. How did you find out about Ativa.Mente?
2. How long have you been an Ativa.Mente patient?
3. What reasons led you to choose Ativa.Mente?
4. For any reason, have you ever had to stop or thought about stopping your treatment at the clinic? And if you feel comfortable, could you tell us why?
5. Do you have any suggestions for improvement for the clinic? Or some service that you find interesting to have? Or some change in the clinic environment?

In the course of our in-depth study, we interviewed three users in order to better understand their routines, their backgrounds, their problems, and their needs.

Scope of the interview:

USER BEHAVIOR | USER FEEDBACK | COMPETITOR

1. What is your day-to-day context like?
2. Why did you start treatment at Espaço Ativa.Mente?
3. Have you (or your child) been treated at another clinic or privately?
4. What is most important for you to hire a service?
5. How did you feel when you used Ativa.Mente’s services?
6. What is the most difficult part about treatment?
7. Tell me what you like and one thing you don’t like in the Ativa.Mente.
8. Describe any issues with the company during your treatment (your child’s treatment)? If yes, how did the company support you?
9. Tell me what you think of the structure, of the environment and of the time of consultations in Ativa.Mente.
10. If today you needed to stop therapy, for any emotional, physical, psychological or economic issue. What would be the reason?

It was noted that users in general are busy, middle-class women who are dedicated to helping their children’s development.

Some interesting points:

• Users pointed out the clinic consultation flexibility and easy access to the customer service (via whatsapp) were positive points that were often mentioned during the interviews.
• The users stated that “reviews” are extremely important for hiring a service.
• Users report that the most difficult part of the treatment is the financial, however the positive result in the treatment make them continue.

To show that, the information below was collected during interviews, survey and google review:

After the research phase, two personas were created in order to illustrate the needs, frustrations and goals of users within the product.

It was decided to use the Customer Journey tool to understand the user’s problems from the search stage to contracting the service. In order to, find opportunities to address customer pain points, alleviate and ultimately create a better experience for users.

Opportunities found:

• Invest in marketing, partnerships with schools;
• Create a website that gives visibility to the services.
• Online Booking; Give visibility to the contact channels.
• Give visibility to the plans, membership and discounts.
• Add users testimonials;
• Referral system discounts;
• Support community.

In order to organize the content of the product, a site map was required. A card sorting activity was conducted to help in this process. In this stage, we observed that the user felt confused due to ambiguity with some of the terms used in the navigation.

During the initial meetings, the business outlined the desire to redesign its visual identity, since it was not satisfied with the current one. In addition to, several versions of the logo were also used, which hindered the consolidation of the brand.

Thereby, attributes such as contrast, alignment, typography, colors, harmony and legibility were considered for the creation of this new identity.

In brief some of the client’s requirements:

• Keep the colors that made up the first version of the identity: Blue, pink, purple.
• Keep the brain symbol.
• Keep the name.

In the following step, low/medium fidelity wireframes were produced and a test was conducted with users to validate the designs.

Here some of the users feedbacks:

As a result of the data collected in the usability test, some features and layout have been improved.

Users found the booking form too long, due to the number of items and poor distribution of information. In addition, they commented on the colors used in the calendar, that they did not understand which days were available.

The booking form was reformulated, leaving personal data and calendar first, followed by professional selection and consultation information.

In addition, different system statuses were created for the calendar, differentiating the available dates and times from the unavailable ones.

On the contact page, users did not find the button that linked to WhatsApp, as a consequence, some adjustments to the page layout such as left alignment and increasing the visibility of the WhatsApp button.

Dynamics of UX writing were also used to contribute to the user experience and assist in the understanding and reception of these users.

In conclusion, it was observed how users reacted positively to the website and the features present in it. Furthermore, it was possible to perceive a great impact of the research on new business strategies, as well as another look at its brand and its effects.

Through the UX process, many users discovered other services offered by the clinic. Moreover, the audience were unaware of other practitioners and payment methods, such as discounts and memberships.

For instance, some users expressed interest in Portal Ativa.Mente and indicated that they would access the portal and that they wanted to be part of a parent’s community.

Much was possible to learn in this project. I had the opportunity to work with a company that, even though small, is really concerned about its users. Therefore, they opened the doors for me to contribute in some way, which I am totally grateful.

Besides, I learned that companies have their limitations, which affect a project/product as a whole. Thus, the prioritization process helps to understand which functionality matches the user needs.