We explored several lo-fi wireframe iterations to incorporate insights from stakeholder interviews into INZ’s existing user flow. Key additions included giving users clear feedback after completing actions and allowing them to indicate the urgency of their issue—both crucial for improving communication and making the booking process more effective.
PROJECT IN
collaboration with
Interpreting NZ
Proof of Concept
Icon-based Interface
User Research
Refugee Support
Medispeak
Simplifying GP Appointment Booking for Non-English Speakers
Team–Based Project / 4 Members
This project was a team effort, with all of us contributing to various stages of the process. Tasks were divided equally, and each team member focused on specific aspects at every step of the process.
My Role
Research & Analysis | Interviews | User testing & Guerilla Testing | Wireframe Ideation | Prototyping
About
Interpreting NZ
BREAKING DOWN THE LANGUAGE BARRIERS
Interpreting New Zealand, established in 1993, was the country's first comprehensive interpreting service. Initially offering on-site interpreters, they expanded to telephone interpreting in 1997. INZ provides as well as trains community interpreters and advocates for language accessibility.
Project Overview
Understanding the Problem and Defining the Project Scope
Non-English speakers face significant challenges in accessing primary healthcare due to language barriers. At the same time, GP practices struggle to understand patient needs and coordinate doctors and interpreters effectively. This often results in miscommunication, delays, and frustrating back-and-forth interactions, wasting time and effort for both patients and healthcare providers.
Project goal & Requirements
- To help non-English speakers successfully make an appointment, and to ensure they turn up at the right time, along with an interpreter.
- Streamline appointment booking for service providers to accommodate such patients.
How Might We .......empower Non-English speakers to independently book GP appointments & overcome language barriers?
Design Process
The project followed a human-centered design approach. Through stakeholder interviews, usability testing, and iterative prototyping, each round of feedback highlighted new pain points or misunderstandings, allowing the solution to evolve into a more inclusive and intuitive experience.
Existing Brief & User Flow Analysis
INZ provided us with a user flow centered around a hypothetical user named “Asha”, navigating a mobile application with a fully icon-based interface that helps her send appointment requests to their GP without needing to write or speak. The GP then forwards the interpreter requirements to Interpreting NZ, who organise a three-way call between the receptionist, interpreter, and Asha.
This flow outlines the key steps and interactions, for which we conducted a brief analysis to understand the existing approach and identify potential gaps.
The Challenge
As our discussions with the INZ team clarified the project scope, our challenges also became more defined. We learned that since most non-English speakers we aimed to support were refugees from diverse backgrounds, assessing their digital literacy was difficult, as perceptions of information vary across cultures.
Design an appointment booking app for non-English speakers, which heavily relies on visual elements like Iconography and Pictograms with minimum use of text.
Stakeholder Interviews
Qualitative Research
To better understand the pain points of our target users, our first step was to conduct qualitative research through interviews. However, given their vulnerability and language barriers, direct interviews were not feasible.
Instead, we gathered the required information through our interviews with healthcare and support workers who assist with refugee onboarding, ensuring ethical considerations in our design process.
I participated in three out of the four interviews we conducted—two with the Red Cross and one with a receptionist from Newtown Union Health.
Objective
We sought insights from support workers and healthcare professionals on:
Language barriers affect healthcare navigation and appointment booking.
Current processes used to assist non-English speakers and their limitations.
Preferences for support, including face-to-face, phone, or digital solutions.
Technology adoption, identifying potential barriers, and training needs.
Opportunities for improvement, feasibility of a visual, icon-based booking system.
What We Found
“The biggest challenges are #1 communication #2 I would say maybe that they're preliterate even in their language, so they have no idea how to read or write at all.”
“ They sometimes feel like we are not listening and are being told they are hypochondriacs because they can overreact and be demanding.”
“The main priority is their health, but it's also to determine and explain what the urgency is.”
“What is it for? How urgent is it? Who’s going to explain to them that it’s not going to be for 2–3 weeks?”
Overwhelming System & Language Barriers
Newcomers struggle to navigate the unfamiliar healthcare system due to language barriers and a lack of understanding of medical urgency. Missed appointments lead to frustration between patients and medical staff, especially when face-to-face interaction is limited.
Vulnerable Groups Face Greater Challenges
Women with children and pre-literate individuals face significant difficulties during medical enrolment and appointment booking due to cultural, economic, and linguistic barriers, making communication especially challenging.
Limited Tech Literacy & Need for Support
Many patients, particularly older adults, have little to no understanding of technology and rely on family for assistance, which can be problematic for handling medical information. Despite available support, they struggle with independent healthcare access.
Walk-ins & Misaligned Expectations
Patients often walk in without appointments, expecting immediate care due to norms from their home countries. Some refuse to leave until seen, creating challenges for clinics. Many don’t understand triaging, leading to conflicts over urgency-based prioritization.
Interpreter & Resource Constraints
Caseworkers and interpreters play a crucial role; however, they often struggle with scheduling conflicts & limited availability, especially for specific languages and genders, restricting patients’ ability to communicate independently.
Visual Tools for Simpler Communication
Interviewees emphasize that visual tools using icons, colors and minimal wording could simplify the booking process, reducing reliance on English literacy and improving patient-provider communication.
Considerations
Use of Visual Tools
Visual tools such as pictograms, icons, and symbols must be universally recognisable to ensure comprehension. Include culturally neutral designs.
Technical Literacy
Simplify navigation with uncluttered interfaces, ensuring the app functions on basic smartphones, considering data limitations and slower devices.
Urgency-Based Prioritization
Highlighting urgent appointment slots for serious symptoms to prioritise care needs effectively, and including appointment reminders with clear date and time notifications to prevent missed appointments.
Confirmation Screen & Feedback
Use confirmation screens to validate actions like booking appointments, ensuring users clearly see the outcome. Progress indicators or breadcrumbs to show users their position within the process.
Lo-fi Wireframe Ideation
Early Stage Iterations
Icon Development
Explorations for Guerrilla Testing
Multiple sets of icons were created for guerrilla testing to determine which were most easily recognizable and effective for the majority of testers. A total of 23 participants took part, while I conducted tests with 6 of them.
Wireframe Ideation
Mid-Fi Prototype
Our mid-fi prototype evolved from lo-fi sketches focusing on core functionality and user flow based on key interview insights, leading to several crucial additions.
All screens were divided equally amongst the group. My Contribution was towards the Opening Screen, Pain Scale, Loading Screens & Prototyping.
Labels:
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Addition to Existing Flow
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My Contribution
Mid-Fi Prototype
Opening Screen
The opening screen sets the tone for the app, providing a clear start.
Home Screen
The central hub provides users with a clear and intuitive starting point.
Emergency Call Option
Implemented to align with standard medical app practices, ensuring quick access to urgent care.
Symptom Screen
Helps users communicate their health concerns visually, reducing reliance on language.
Emergency Call 111
If a serious symptom like Chest pain is selected, it directs the user to Call 111 immediately.
Pain/Urgency Scale
Allows users to indicate the severity of their condition, ensuring appropriate prioritization.
Loading/Waiting Screen 1 & 2
Includes clearer visuals to indicate the next steps, minimizing uncertainty during processing.
Appointment Confirmation Pop-Up
Provides immediate feedback to assure users that their appointment has been booked for specified date & time.
Message for Assistance
In case the user needs more assistance or clarity after an appointment has been booked.
After-Appointment Home Screen
Features a booked appointment card that users can expand for details or cancel if needed, giving them more control over their bookings.
User Profile
The user profile screen allows users to view their basic details that are shared with the GP service.
Prototype
Usability Testing & Iterations
Feedback Implementation
User testing sessions revealed key pain points across several screens. The following shows how feedback directly informed our design iterations, improving clarity, navigation, and overall usability.
Before
User Feedback
After
Home Screen V1
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Users were confused about the color of the button, whether the state of the button is active or inactive, leading to hesitation before pressing it.
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Having a pre-booked appointment on the home screen also gave more context to the user, helping them understand the purpose behind it.
Home Screen V2
Symptoms Page V1
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There was a clear need for visual feedback throughout the app, as there was uncertainty with how far along they were in the booking process.
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In addition to feedback, others desired more direct navigation cues, as a green button with a tick icon gave the impression of concluding the process.
Symptoms Page V2
Urgency Scale V1
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While many users appreciated the ability to indicate the severity of their selected symptoms, others found it confusing, mainly due to difficulty with the slider bar.
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These challenges resulted in users clicking the faces and questioning the imagery used. Simplifying the interaction to a single click could improve user experience.
Urgency Scale V2
Message Sent V1
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There was uncertainty about whether an action could be/had been completed due to the ambiguity of certain elements. Users were unsure if their message to the GP had been sent/received.
Message Sent V2
Loading Page 1 & 2 V1
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Due to the nature of the heart animation, some were confused by its intended purpose.
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The second loading screen, featuring the doctor icon and hourglass animation, was more effective in signalling the need to wait.
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Central icons were refined to make them more gender neutral and consistent with the rest of the icons.
Loading Page 2 V2
Appointment Confirmation V1
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These pop-ups required further clarity in their layout and hierarchy, placing the most important information first, like the date and time of the appointment, supported by appropriate icons.
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Additional information, like doctors' and clinic name could make the pop-up more information-oriented.
Appointment Confirmation V2
Other Iterations
Emergency Pop-up
Before
After
Appointment Pop-up - Home
Before
After
User Profile
Before
After
Embedded Figma Prototype
If the prototype below fails to load, please click the Figma prototype button below to view it in a separate window.
Future Considerations
Expansion & Personalisation
Expand beyond GP appointments to include dentists and optometrists, and explore additional services.
Add customization options, like dark mode, for a more tailored user experience.
Broaden the range of symptoms icons to cover more health issues.
Onboarding Process
Simplify the patient setup with a clear, minimal onboarding process to reduce the burden on support workers. Include instructional videos from INZ for support worker training to ensure patient independence.
Account Settings
Allow future editing of user information through account settings, protected by a pin to prevent accidental changes. Provide a recovery option for the PIN.
Key Learnings
To say the least, this project definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone in terms of design thinking as well as team collaboration with an external organization.
Handling Complexity and Simplicity
This project reinforced my ability to manage complexity in a design while maintaining simplicity in execution.
We had to find ways to ensure that the app's design didn't sacrifice essential functionality while keeping the interface clean and simple.
Collaboration with an External Organization
This was a very new experience, which came with its own challenges but also major learnings when it came to building upon the provided flow, being mindful of how the final design integrates with their existing processes.
This also made me realise that collaborating with an external team often involves pushback on design and functionality, making it essential to base every decision on data and solid reasoning.
Group Work and Defining Responsibility
This was my first time where I was faced with the challenge of dividing work amongst a group. The project emphasized the need for defining roles with others in a team to keep the communication smoother.
