By reimagining Zocdoc’s experience from the patient’s perspective, we’re helping them design the future of healthcare.

Some founders would be satisfied with helping millions of people with easier access to doctors. But Zocdoc founder and CEO Oliver Kharraz and his team have bolder ambitions; their sights are on transforming the relationship we have with healthcare forever.

At the center of that transformation is the patient – who the eight-year-old company has been putting first since Day 1.

Today, Zocdoc helps millions of Americans find in-network, neighborhood specialists, book appointments instantly and cut the form-filling. It’s also loved by doctors – enabling them to spend less on administration and more resources on giving care and bringing on new patients.

But the Zocdoc team has a bigger vision…how can they use their scale to do more? What if Zocdoc helps patients connect across the fragmented landscape and becomes a trusted center of care? The digital heart of the patient experience.

 

“The new face of Zocdoc looks the way healthcare should – friendly, simple, and most of all, reflective of patients and real life.”

– Richard Fine, VP of Marketing, Zocdoc

 

 

Fit for the future

We love their ambition. But we knew their current brand experience was not up to this new task.

Zocdoc’s promise is to, “give power to the patient.” To help Zocdoc deliver on that promise we would have to design from the patient’s perspective. This would be fundamentally different than a healthcare world beset by complexity, bureaucracy and analog legacy systems. At a very simple level, we needed to design a system that had empathy for the patient and that would respond to their needs and emotions.

Seriously lovable.

Out went an old desktop-focused experience led by cartoon-like characters and a user flow only focused on efficient bookings. In its place: a responsive mobile-first experience.

Graphically the design is a world away from healthcare norms. The omnipresent blues and green are replaced by an optimistic and warm yellow-led colour palette. Beyond the familiar corporate shields and crosses, meet Zee – a line drawing of a dynamic letter Z with eyes that evokes an ever-changing face. By subtly responding to situations in a human way, Zee helps patients feel like their journey is understood. True-to-life photographic style mirrors patients’ day-to-day lives. Taken together, the visual elements create a strong impression that Zocdoc is fundamentally designed around patient needs – something very different to a typical healthcare experience.

Operating as one

By working in an agile way with Zocdoc’s head of marketing and design, we’ve helped Zocdoc create a new brand experience that is caring, smart and simple. It was a collaborative and iterative process with frequent sessions between Wolff Olins’ and Zocdoc’s UX and marketing teams. Everyone played with the system and tested it out in different use cases. Critically, it was put in the hands of real patients early on – and it was they who ultimately chose the most radical solution. Quick feedback loops between Wolff Olins, Zocdoc and end users made for swift improvements.

With an experience designed to match their bold human vision, Zocdoc is now a better partner to millions of patients – people like us – putting them in control of their own health.

Original article can be found HERE