COVID-19 App
In April of 2020, Tempus decided to launch a COVID-19 PCR testing business and accompanying app to deliver results to patients directly... as quickly as possible. We designed and pitched an initial concept in a matter of days, and launched a fully-functioning result delivery app to thousands of patients a few months later.
My Role:
I was pulled in with another senior designer to pioneer a patient experience in our budding Infectious Disease business. We collaborated closely on the whole user experience, but I led the UI design of the app itself while she focused on the product development and business strategy. This included rapid competitive analysis and war-room style coordination with our lab teams who were tasked with launching the actual PCR testing system.
Rapid concept pitch to executives
April 2020
L A U N C H 2 0 2 0
Why an app?
An app allows a patient access to their results as soon as possible, without having to wait for a call from their doctor. With COVID, a few hours makes a big difference.
If patients consent, we can collect and de-identify their clinical data to support research efforts inside and outside of Tempus.
An app gets our foot in the door with a new user group. It starts with a one-time transactional relationship, but enables us to expand our offering later.
This is a great way to test the waters on how to work with patients directly, so we used it as a learning opportunity for other disease areas.
User Profiles:
University students whose administrators partner with Tempus to test their student population (young, tech-savvy)
Patients of major state-led healthcare systems and pharmacies (broader demographic)
U I S P O T L I G H T
Account activation | a simplified text and email activation flow for every scenario
Result delivery | real-time delivery of results and next steps, as outlined by the FDA and CDC
Order tracking timeline | high-level sample tracking and support for multiple orders over time
Result passport | easily exportable and shareable receipt of results
Infectious disease panel | support for new result delivery types
Consent | optional consent flow allowing Tempus to access and de-identify clinical history and results data
Identity verification | multi-factor identity verification to ensure confident and secure result delivery to the right patient, with no room for mistakes
Failure states | password reset options and lockout flows to ensure secure entry to the app
Customer support | rapid creation of a new Customer Success team to support our first direct-to-patient offering
P R O C E S S
There was one primary goal for our first launch - do it fast. We dropped everything and focused on getting a simple, secure option out the door so we could quickly iterate after release and learn more from active users. We followed a true design sprint format, starting with goal and problem definition, followed by ideation and alignment with leadership on which direction to take based on user needs.
C O M P E T I T I V E A N A L Y S I S
Since we only had a few days to compile our first design concept, we focused on competitive analysis over direct user research. We were able to do a quick but thorough scan of existing products in the app store, and some guerilla research within Tempus to poll employees about COVID apps they were using. We identified three themes of related offerings.
Consent Flows | apps with an extensive flow for educating users about consenting to share data
Data Dashboards | complex dashboards that display and compare trends over time
COVID Apps | existing COVID apps offering result delivery and trend viewing
S C O P E & B U I L D
To build the app quickly, we had to limit the initial release to only the most basic functions. A good chunk of our time went towards designing a simple experience for users to enter the app, despite a slew of technical and legal requirements.
Account creation and secure authentication
Consent flow for collecting clinical data
Result delivery and baseline order tracking
FDA-required patient resources
P H A S E 2
Our most pressing business goal after launch was to get consent to collect clinical data from as many users as possible. To do that, we needed to incentivize downloads and encourage more habitual use of the app past the one-time result delivery for which it was originally designed.
We had a lot of ideas for how to provide more meaningful value to users, but the challenge was identifying where Tempus had unique value in an already over-crowded COVID product space. We started by pitching a few strategic options that would encourage more retention and regular usage, and getting stakeholders on board with a few high-fidelity mocks.
V 2 O P T I O N S
We narrowed down our pitch to 3 ideas focused around delivering and collecting data. We explored other options like contact tracing, patient ordering, and symptom tracking, but ultimately decided to focus on Tempus’s most unique offering - our own data.
Tutorial-Style Consent Flow | reframe the way we ask for consent to increase transparency
Aggregate Public Data | connect to vast publicly-available datasets
Deliver Tempus Data | highlight findings from our own dataset in real time
P H A S E 2 E X P L O R A T I O N
Home base | dashboard view of COVID case trends, fueled by a combination of aggregate and Tempus data
Interactive locations | options menu allowing users to manage a list of locations they care about most
Restrictions | aggregated live information about COVID restrictions, subscribable and filterable by location
Compare locations | designed for gauging the risk of travel, this feature would allow users to look at trends over time between multiple locations
Custom units | Laundry list of interesting metrics accessible through public databases
Tempus positivity rate | Option for embedding Tempus data into the broader offering
MVP option | Tempus-centric dashboard highlighting the positivity rate over time within our own data for a limited set of locations
O U T C O M E
Tempus has been delivering COVID-19 results directly to patients since August of 2020, with a weekly reach of around 2,000 users at our peak. After launch, we adjusted our onboarding flow to drastically reduce interventions from Customer Support and increase activation and consent rate. We also added a mobile-friendly web flow that doesn’t require an app download. When I left Tempus, we were still in the pilot phase of surfacing data trends and insights to users directly, but hoped it would turn into a highly-differentiated offering that grows with the database.