Telehealth, simply put, is some type of delivery. It helps to provide health care services when patients and health professionals are separated by distance via remote technologies. Telehealth uses technologies for the exchange of information for the diagnosis and treatment of diseases and injuries for the patients. Live video conferencing, mobile health apps and remote patient monitoring (RPM) are examples of technologies used in telehealth.
It’s Healthtech time
Telehealth is improving the healthcare industry in many ways, the first of which is increasing its accessibility. Telehealth allows specialists to visit patients virtually from any place in the world by improving access as well as making a wider range of healthcare services available via telemedicine.
Today’s Telehealth environment consists of a global ecosystem of myriad digital solutions. There are two alarming end-users trends that you should pay attention to when considering Telehealth design and solutions.
What doctors struggle the most with
What people looking for when they choose the healthcare providers
Providing virtualized healthcare to any place in the world is one of the best-known applications of telehealth. But the medical industry is using it in several other ways, including:
Urgent help in distance. It can be a headache or sore throat. There are many medical complaints that aren’t life-threatening, but they need some professional attention. Virtual care services allow skilled health personnel to treat minor complaints, including providing appropriate prescriptions.
Stay in contact. Qualified medical personnel can use messages, phone and video calls to follow up the patients after they are discharged from the hospital. This way, improves worker productivity from not having to take time off and travel to appointments and ensures each patient understands the importance and carries out recovery and treatment plans. Also, telehealth platforms can automate much of the communication process, including sending reminders to the patients.
Updating online prescription. Telehealth provides the possibility to update online prescriptions even If you’ve been unable to get to your own doctor to refill a current prescription.
Monitoring of patients with chronic conditions. For these patients, it is one of the best benefits of telehealth. Virtual care helps those who have mobility issues, mental illness, and other conditions that may prevent them from going to in person medical appointments.
Facilitating care to rural areas. Telehealth is a great way to provide patients in places that are outside the current health delivery system with access to quality care. In the event of a medical emergency, telemedicine makes it possible to coordinate with specialists in other regions without wasting time to provide patients with effective treatment.
Increased patient satisfaction. In addition to referrals, many patients assess and choose healthcare providers through online reviews. As such, you must have positive reviews that will attract new patients. Telemedicine helps improve patient satisfaction scores by providing convenience of care and reducing wait time. The providers have the opportunity to offer remote services to the patients and make it convenient for them to receive medical attention. Also, this process reduces in-hospital visits.
All right, let’s move on to the design
Telehealth platforms require a unique approach to service design. As you can imagine, it isn’t the same way, say, for a food delivery service.
Telehealth is not about technology, it’s about people
That’s a good reminder that you need to create space for telehealth that provides human connections and assistance. The healthcare industry is unique and complex, and it can be challenging to set up. Establishing fundamental principles to guide telehealth design will help us keep sight of the user experience and user journey throughout different healthcare systems.
In this article, we’ll highlight the important and unique challenges in the design faced by digital health companies and startups.
Research. To begin, you need a shared understanding of how you usually provide face to face care. You will need a solid understanding of the patient’s journey through your service.
Construction. Based on our research findings, you need to discuss them with your client. There is the moment when you draft innovative solutions and delve into user journeys. We identify the most promising ideas based on jointly developed options. Service design can be quite abstract. The main idea is to find key service touchpoints.
Strategize and develop Next, it is necessary to work with your clients to co-create a product roadmap and business strategy. Together with medical professionals, you develop an extensive plan of the envisioned telehealth design, listing interactions between users, new processes, and workflows. Also, don’t forget to define the physical and digital things that will be used. By the end of this step, you’ve created visual content and material to start the development process.
Taking it live. From our experience, we recommend turning digital and physical artifacts into minimum viable products (MVP). MVP is essential to clinical trials. There is a product that has basic features and can be used to get feedback from the users.
After the main last modifications, it’s time for launch! At this stage, it’s important to provide testing to ensure that the envisioned workflow and interactions are happening as intended.
That’s it
To sum up, telemedicine is full of benefits for patients and healthcare providers. When people have had a taste of telehealth, they’re willing to continue using this convenient care option.
Telehealth’s future looks very bright, doesn’t it?
Also, it’s obvious to see continued strong growth and upgrade around devices, communication channels, telemedicine services, and telehealth platforms. Look for them to become increasingly user-friendly and convenient. As this happens, we can expect to see a resulting increase in users. After all, good design is the right way to improve engagement.
Designers will need to imagine themselves in both the patients’ and providers’ roles during the preparation for the start to create the design for telehealth. Every detail of a visit, from the method of scheduling appointments to the distribution of follow-up procedures, should be carefully planned to ensure the best outcomes and clear understanding.
We can expect to see digital pharmacies, virtual appointments, online triage tools, and remote monitoring gain in popularity. It may well become the new normal in healthcare.
Telehealth is a way to provide healthcare services remotely using technology. It allows doctors and patients to connect from different locations through video calls, mobile apps, and other digital tools. This is especially helpful for diagnoses, treatments, and monitoring patients without needing to be in the same room.
What are the key technologies used in telehealth?
The main technologies used in telehealth include live video conferencing, mobile health apps, and remote patient monitoring (RPM). These tools allow doctors to see patients, track health conditions, and provide treatments from a distance.
How does telehealth help in rural areas?
Telehealth bridges the gap for patients in rural or underserved areas by connecting them with specialists who may be located far away. This ensures that people in these areas can still receive high-quality medical care without long travel times.
How does telehealth improve patient satisfaction?
Patients appreciate the convenience of telehealth because it reduces wait times and the need for travel. It also allows for faster follow-ups and easier access to care, which leads to higher satisfaction with their healthcare experience.
Imagine your website as a guide for people looking for healthcare answers. But, too much text, complex navigation, and poor mobile layout can stop them from getting the help they need. Who are these visitors about to pick your services, and how do we ensure they find what they're looking for?
77% initiate their healthcare journey via search engines.
60% of these explorers click through to websites brimming with the healthcare insights they're after.
71% feel disappointed with healthcare websites that fall short on information.
These figures send a clear message to healthcare providers: A strong online presence is vital. To engage and keep potential patients' trust, your website should be accessible and filled with the information they need.
What is a Good Healthcare Landing Page?
A landing page has two key goals: promoting and advertising. Here, we put together a short guide to share our insights, knowledge, and everything else you need to create a high-converting healthcare landing page.
Mobile-Friendliness
Studies show that the average American checks their phone every 12 minutes. Nowadays, a mobile-friendly website is a must-have for every business.
Responsive Web Design (RWD) makes your website attractive for users with any screen, device, or browser. It automatically adjusts the layout and content based on the screen size, ensuring a user-friendly experience on phones and tablets, without the need for zooming or extensive scrolling.
Clear Content
Ensure your content is focused and minimalistic, directly conveying your business's offerings. A healthcare landing page must be clean, emphasizing key points.
Include a prominent Call-to-Action (CTA) - a brief, compelling phrase that encourages visitors to take the next step. This CTA must stand out, guiding users clearly on what to do.
Remember, visitors quickly form opinions; make those initial moments count with straightforward information, ensuring they find what they need swiftly.
Direct Navigation
To enhance your landing page's navigation, focus on a seamless user experience. Use an active voice to directly guide visitors to their desired information through simple, intuitive steps.
Incorporate clear labels, a straightforward layout, and visual cues to ensure easy navigation.
Regularly test your navigation with real users to identify and fix any hurdles, ensuring your landing page is as direct and user-friendly as possible.
Top 5 CMS Platforms to Create a Landing Page
Building an effective landing page is key to a successful marketing strategy, and selecting the right CMS platform can greatly enhance your ability to connect with your audience. Here's a top list of CMS platforms ideal for crafting landing pages, each providing distinct features to meet different requirements:
1. WordPress
The most popular CMS in the world, known for its flexibility and extensive plugin ecosystem. WordPress offers both simple functionalities for beginners and advanced solutions for experienced developers and complex products.
With over 58,000 plugins and thousands of themes, WordPress offers rich opportunities for customization. You can use SEO and analytic tools, social media integration, and contact forms — everything you need for a healthcare landing page.
2. Wix
Wix is renowned for its simplicity, featuring a drag-and-drop interface and stylish templates. It offers an intuitive platform that requires no prior coding or design knowledge.
Ideal for small business owners and web development & design newbies. Wix’s simple platform will enable even a private healthcare practitioner to create a professional-looking landing page.
3. Velo by Wix
For more experienced users, Wix offers an advanced Velo development platform. It provides rich customization options, allowing direct editing of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, giving full control over the website's look and feel.
Velo also allows for the integration of APIs and external databases, making it possible to build dynamic, data-driven healthcare landing pages.
4. HubSpot CMS
HubSpot CMS shines by integrating powerful marketing tools directly with website management. This includes email marketing, SEO strategies, and other inbound marketing techniques, all within one platform.
It's ideal for marketers and businesses looking for a single platform to manage their website creation and ongoing marketing activities.
5. Webflow
Webflow offers complete control over website design and interactive features through an easy-to-use visual editor, so you don't need to know how to code. It's great for designers and developers who want the freedom to create without complexity.
With Webflow, you can design unique healthcare landing pages that stand out and communicate effectively, thanks to its detailed design capabilities and responsive design options.
Conclusion
The landing page is the connecting bridge between the online, digital marketing message, and the visitors’ next step. The landing page must look good on a smartphone, have informative content, and clear navigation.
For medical businesses and practitioners, it’s essential to have a landing page for each service they’re offering. Are you a doctor, a medical center, or a big healthcare corporation? Contact us for a consultation on attracting more patients.
The future of healthcare is digital. In 2022 alone, the global patient portal market reached $2.9B, as the Grand View Research reports. By 2030, it’s projected to grow even higher — at a CAGR of 19.44%. This trend reflects how public and private healthcare organizations strive to digitize paper documentation and automate everyday business operations.
Indeed, the stakes in healthcare are high. Even minor errors can lead to incorrect diagnoses and worsen patients’ conditions. This is where patient portal software greatly minimizes errors, particularly those caused by human factors.
Below, read on how to create a patient portal. We’ll analyze the target audience’s needs, dive into the most successful examples of its implementation, and examine the nature of the target audience's requirements.
What is a patient portal system?
An online patient portal is a web or mobile solution (usually for Android and iOS platforms) that gives patients access to medical records, helps schedule appointments in a few clicks, and easily communicate with healthcare providers at any time.
By automating the interaction between the parties via the patient portal, organizations can improve the quality of care while making their services more accessible and convenient for patients.
In particular, modern patient portal requirements are:
Fast and secure access to their medical data and records with guaranteed privacy protection.
High-quality medical services without the need to wait in long queues.
A clear understanding of the treatment plan and progress.
Healthcare organizations instead aim to:
Reduce their administrative costs – in particular, for maintaining paper documentation.
Maximize personnel efficiency without the risk of burnout.
Increase patient satisfaction through transparent interaction and remote patient monitoring.
Comply with the healthcare regulations.
Reach a new level of income by reducing expenses and attracting new patients.
That is why the patient portal system is the one-stop solution that, if implemented correctly, covers all the above-mentioned needs. This is typically achieved through the following features:
Access to medical records (including medical history and test results).
Appointment booking (with the option to select the date, time, and doctor).
Online consultations (for example, via video calls and chats with doctors).
Repeat prescription orders (automatic issuance of electronic prescriptions and reminders for refills).
Online bill payment.
Personal data management (including patient contact information).
Push notifications (reminders for upcoming visits, tests, vaccinations, etc.).
Educational materials.
Feedback tools (surveys for patient satisfaction and forms for submitting complaints, etc.).
Types of patient portals: Which fits your healthcare needs?
Generally, there are two global types of patient portals: integrated and standalone. The former is presented as a component of electronic health records (EMR/EHR) and is fully tied to the infrastructure of a healthcare facility. Integrated portals ensure uninterrupted data exchange between doctors and patients but, in the case of ready-made solutions, are limited by the functionality offered by the specific healthcare provider.
Standalone portals, however, come in two forms: SaaS and on-premise. The former are hosted in the cloud and are available by subscription, which is especially convenient for healthcare providers within small organizations. Their advantage is quick deployment and configuration. At the same time, their customization options are often limited.
As for the second category, these are software solutions installed on local servers of a specific healthcare organization. They provide comprehensive control over data but require significant infrastructure and support costs. They can also be difficult to scale and integrate with third-party solutions.
It is worth noting that every medical organization has its own regular processes and specific business tasks distributed among different departments. In particular:
The reception desk keeps track of patient records.
Laboratories collect, process, and store test results.
The finance department is responsible for payments and insurance processes.
Doctors and medical personnel work with medical records and appointments.
All the above processes can rarely be integrated into a single system, which makes it difficult to automate them using only one off-the-shelf patient portal. Moreover, medical institutions vary greatly in specialization (including clinics, dentistry, laboratories, hospitals, etc.), and ready-made products do not always meet their needs.
If we add to this the need to comply with regional security standards for patient data, it becomes clear that out-of-the-box solutions may not be viable. This is the main reason why healthcare organizations are increasingly resorting to custom healthcare portal development.
Patient portal requirements: Key features and functionalities
Now, let's check the main functionalities and features that should be integrated into a patient portal.
User authentication and access management system
This portal component uses OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect for secure login. It protects users' credentials and enables multi-factor authentication. Usually, developers provide multi-level access with restrictions based on user roles (including patients, doctors, administrators, etc.).
At the same time, when implementing role-based access, it is important to adhere to widely recognized patient data security policies, such as HIPAA and GDPR. Specifically, doctors and administrators should have full access to all patient data. In contrast, individual patients should only be able to view, edit, and delete their info.
Medical data storage
The storage is located on local or cloud servers using AES-256 and TLS 1.3 for data encryption. By the way, many cloud vendors have ready-made solutions for healthcare organizations that meet the standards of patient data privacy (including AWS HealthLake, Azure Healthcare, and others). It is also crucial to ensure that such storage is protected against data misuse and unauthorized access.
Integration with EHR systems
This integration is necessary for consolidating patient data. Thus, developers must adhere to FHIR and HL7 standards to ensure compatibility and data exchange. As for the integration itself, if we are not talking about legacy solutions, it is carried out through an API.
Finally, to ensure that the patient portal system complies with the requirements of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (particularly, the ONC's Cures Act), it is essential that the platform could get full access to the patient, with all the ability to edit and delete.
Appointment schedules, doctors’ cards, and telemedicine tools
The first two components involve creating a catalog with therapists’ information and a scheduling system where patients can book visits. This can be achieved through RESTful API to synchronize with hospital calendars. Also, integrating with trusted video communication platforms like Zoom Healthcare can facilitate direct communication between patients and doctors.
Automation of bill calculations and online payments
Online payments are processed through integrations with payment gateways like Stripe or PayPal. In general, they must support PCI DSS standards. As for the automated billing system, this is essentially a regular calculator that “pulls up” data on the cost of services selected by the patient and sums them up (minus insurance and benefits, if any).
Integration with wearable devices
This is necessary so that doctors can monitor the condition of patients in real time. To do this, developers use APIs to collect data from devices (for example, from Apple HealthKit or Google Fit, as well as more specialized IoT equipment). At the same time, they must also implement a mechanism for obtaining prior patient consent to collect personal data.
Messaging
It also makes sense to integrate a chat (with the ability to attach media files) for interaction with doctors, supporting end-to-end encryption (E2E) and using WebSockets protocols that provide real-time messaging.
User dashboards
The patient portal needs an interface for each user role. Basically, it should adapt the data and tools for doctors, admins, and patients. Among other things, it can also be enriched with advanced analytical tools. For example, Power BI or Tableau can be used to generate reports and visualize data (assessing attendance dynamics, treatment results, patient satisfaction, etc.).
How to develop a patient portal software: From concept to launch
When it comes to custom solutions, our telehealth website development services are provided in several subsequent stages. Let’s consider them in detail.
Ideation and requirements analysis
At this stage, our team consolidates the portal concept of custom healthcare portal development, according to your business goals, unique aspects of your internal business processes and IT infrastructure, the needs of the target audience, and an analysis of competitors’ strengths and weaknesses. Based on this blueprint, we create documentation indicating functional and non-functional requirements.
Architecture design
From now on, our patient portal development team has everything ready to define the project's technological stack (for the frontend, backend, and database) and choose a specific architectural approach. We also approve the necessary third-party Integrations (including EHR, payment gateways, telemedicine solutions, etc.).
Finally, we select tools and protocols to ensure our portal has a proper security level, including data encryption, user authentication/authorization methods, diagrams of interaction between components, etc.
UI/UX design
This stage involves building interface prototypes and gradually transforming them into a full-fledged design after usability testing. At the same time, our patient portal app development experts always take into account the requirements for the accessibility of the user interface. Basically, they are most accurately outlined in the WCAG 2.1 and ADA guidelines.
Development
Now, we can start working on the frontend and backend of the patient portal. Once individual functional modules are ready, we conduct unit testing to prevent hard-to-fix bugs at later stages of the project. This stage also involves the implementation of security mechanisms and integration with third-party solutions.
Testing and quality control
When the code base is ready, our patient portal development experts conduct rigorous testing, including functional, load, security, usability, etc. This stage ensures that the solution meets the best specs and software quality standards in healthcare.
Deployment and launch
Before launching the portal, we prepare all the necessary infrastructure, build a CI/CD pipeline, and set up a monitoring system. If needed, we can train your staff on how to use the portal. After all the previous stages are checked — we usually start deployment.
Post-release support and updates
To better understand its further optimization, our patient portal development experts regularly check the portal’s logs and metrics, collecting feedback. In addition, as post-release bugs are discovered, we fix them and, if necessary, implement new features.
Understanding the needs of your patients
A patient portal and medical website design should fully adapt to the target audience's problems. That is why it is essential to define them in advance. Based on our experience, we would like to highlight the following ones:
Long wait time when making an appointment. Patients often encounter long wait times in phone and in-person queues. A patient portal can help. It lets users book online appointments 24/7 and choose a specialist. In addition, it sends SMS or push notifications to remind patients about upcoming visits.
Lack of full access to medical data. Many patients are forced to visit clinics because healthcare organizations still document their test results manually. The patient portal gives access to electronic medical records, test results, and doctor recommendations, which can be easily downloaded or saved (for offline access).
Lack of understanding of the treatment plans. Patients may find it difficult to track their treatments' progress, which may result in forgotten, delayed, or canceled visits and procedures. To prevent this, portals display the treatment plan and the current status of therapy. In addition, patients get notifications about upcoming procedures, calendars, and recommendations, which is very smart.
Difficulties in paying for medical services. The need for patients to be physically present makes offline payments resource-intensive. Patient portals eliminate this headache with integrated payment systems, allowing users to view their payment history and current bills in just a few clicks.
Insufficient communication with the attending physician. In-person appointments to explain test results and treatment plans can be time-consuming for both patients and healthcare providers. Patient portals streamline this process with online chat and video calling capabilities.
Weak control over the treatment of chronic conditions. Patients with chronic conditions often lack convenient tools for regular monitoring. Portals can address this with real-time health data visualization, medication reminders, and appointment scheduling, as well as integrating with wearable devices for continuous data collection.
Low involvement in the treatment process.
Since some patients find it difficult to understand how their actions affect treatment results, the patient portal development team can also add interactive tools to the portal to track patients' treatment progress or provide educational materials. Gamification elements can enhance the effect.
Patient portal development challenges and solutions
In this section, we will analyze the most typical challenges of patient portal software development and the most effective ways to overcome them.
Ensuring compliance with regulations. Telemedicine hugely relies on strong data protection, first — to comply with laws like HIPAA and GDPR, and second — obviously, it is for patient trust. End-to-end encryption, role-based access control (RBAC), and multi-factor authentication are key practices, along with regular system audits and penetration testing to ensure security.
Integration with existing solutions in the organization's IT infrastructure. Many healthcare providers still use older systems that don't easily connect with modern software. To solve this, developers can build 'middleware' — software that acts as a bridge — to automate data transfer between patient portals and other systems, ensuring everything works smoothly.
Ensuring high performance and scalability. Many portals frequently freeze when user traffic exceeds the original design capacity. To solve this, developers can host the portal in a cloud environment that scales as users grow and use a microservice architecture to balance the workload across the portal's services. Additionally, they can optimize a database through indexing and caching.
Ensuring intuitiveness.
Since the target audience of patient portals is diverse (including the elderly, people with disabilities, and people with no technical literacy), there should be universal access to the full use of all portal functionality.To solve this, during the development of the patient portal software, the team should conduct user research and surveys to guide and optimize the software effectively. They should also adhere to the compliance of this software with the WCAG 2.1 guidelines.
Accessibility on mobile OSes. As patients increasingly manage their healthcare on digital devices, patient portals must offer a seamless mobile experience. Poor mobile optimization can lead to slow loading times and display issues. Developers can address this by building progressive web apps (PWAs) or cross-platform solutions, implementing offline access for key features, and optimizing content loading with techniques like lazy loading and data compression.
Patient portal software cost: What to expect
The cost of telemedicine app development depends on project complexity, the team involved in the patient portal software development process, geographic location, development timeline, and the scope of features. Let's examine each of the points that influenced the cost in detail:
1. Project complexity
Basic consultation apps with user registration, appointment scheduling, video calls, and messaging: $30K — $100K.
Advanced telehealth platforms with multi-user portals, integrated EHR, and health analytics: $100K — $300K+.
Telemedicine platforms with IoT/AI integration: $250K — $500K.
2. Team composition
A typical team for creating a basic patient portal usually includes:
2-3 developers: Where 1-2 are front-end developers, and 1 back-end developer.
The project manager: Tracks the project goals and wins.
QA specialist: Tests the app to make sure it works correctly.
3. Development timeline
The time it takes for patient portal software development also affects costs. Most telemedicine apps take between 2 to 6 months to develop:
Simple apps usually take about 2-3 months.
More complex apps may take up to 6-12 months.
4. Geographic location
American tech experts can be expensive. For example, a front-end developer might earn over $100K annually, about $8K monthly. He might charge between $70K — $80K for a three-month project.
Hiring remote developers can save you money. For instance, Eastern European developers or other regions often charge between $2,500 and $3,500 monthly. You can easily hire a similar team for about $30K to $40K for the same project.
If you want to find out the patient portal software cost in your case, please fill out this contact form.
Improving patient outcomes with data management: A case by Darly Solutions
From theory to practice — let's examine our relevant Darly Solutions experience through a top case from our portfolio.
In particular, we were approached by a HealthTech company specializing in consolidating unstructured medical data for organizations in the healthcare sector. They needed a custom digital solution to monitor clinical data.
Faced with a tight deadline and the need for high precision, we meticulously planned and assigned all the UX/UI design, web development, QA, and project management tasks. We also reviewed the team's work schedule, as some members had to work overtime. Finally, we carefully chose the technology stack. We settled on Angular, HTML, CSS, Docker, ngRx, TailwindCSS, NGX Pagination, and JSON.
Finally, our efforts paid off. We launched the product on time and met all design, functionality, and quality standards. As a result, the client has a competitive product with all the chances to thrive in the innovative telemedicine sector.
In general, the future of patient portal software development is closely connected with the fast development of modern technologies, such as:
Artificial intelligence and machine learning.
These technologies will personalize the portal and related healthcare services. AI-powered chatbots, including ones with recognition of human voice commands, will assist with scheduling appointments and answering FAQs. In advance, machine learning can also analyze patient data and symptoms to provide preliminary diagnoses. Blockchain. The introduction of blockchain technologies in patient portals can be aimed at more secure storage of their medical records and ensuring access to them only to authorized users. In addition, with its help, each interaction with data (adding, editing, and deleting) will be recorded, increasing the system's transparency.
Virtual and augmented reality. These technologies can form the basis of next-generation telemedicine solutions. In particular, in the future, patients will be able to interact with doctors at a distance without reducing the quality of service. AR interfaces will also help inform patients about upcoming treatment plans.
Internet of Things and integration with wearable devices. IoT solutions can provide end-to-end RPM in real-time (for example, portals will be able to collect and analyze data on the patient's pulse, blood pressure, oxygen level, and activity). Based on this data, doctors can receive instant notifications of critical changes regardless of patients' locations.
Big data and business intelligence. Examples of patient portals use big data to identify trends, such as tracking the rise in the incidence of a particular virus or assessing the effectiveness of treatments. Also, end-to-end medical data analysis ensures timely prediction of exacerbation of chronic diseases. Finally, doctors and administrators of healthcare institutions will be able to monitor departments' workloads and optimize appointment scheduling.
Biometric identification. Biometric mechanisms can give users access to the portal through fingerprint, face, or voice scanning, making the authorization process more secure and easier.
Conclusion
Now you know everything about patient portal development and can safely choose an off-the-shelf solution or search for a team to implement a custom one. If the second option is closer to you but you would not like to turn the search process into a real headache, you can contact us, and we will be happy to discuss the details of our future cooperation to implement your idea.
In terms of IT, design means much more than just creating visuals for a digital solution. Specifically, while the concepts of UX and UI design have long been familiar to anyone who is at least a little involved in software product development, the "product design" term is a relatively new one. Based on its name, we can already make a preliminary conclusion that the work of product designers involves something more than creating a visual for a product, but what exactly? Let's figure it out right now.
What Is UX Design?
UX design is everything that is aimed at the end user getting a certain experience/impression from interacting with the interface of your solution. Its quality can be measured by whether the user manages to achieve the specific goal, and how easy and pleasant it is for him/her.
Usually, the UX design process includes the following stages:
End-user research;
Building information architecture;
User flow creation;
Creating visuals;
Ensuring the convenience and accessibility of the created solution.
Let's dwell on these stages in more detail.
Key Elements of UX Design
So, below we will consider the above stages (elements).
End-user research. It all starts with a survey of the target audience representatives to understand their needs, desires, and pain points. Then they are provided with raw prototypes for testing so that specialists can identify typical problems and imperfections in their concepts.
Building information architecture. The next step of UX product development is to build low-fidelity wireframes that demonstrate the hierarchy of the product’s elements and functions. After that, designers build an information architecture, which implies dividing the content into categories that simplify the search for information.
User flow creation. Now, everything is ready to recreate the sequence of steps that the user must take to achieve the goal with the help of a specific product. After the main steps are reproduced, microinteractions have to be implemented – we mean system feedback that improves the quality of the user experience. Additionally, the product is analyzed in accordance with the WCAG 2.0 guidelines – this is necessary for its accessibility for people with disabilities.
Creating visuals. At this stage, specialists create the visual part of the user interface including the color palette, icons, typography, etc., and also ensure consistency with the previously created templates.
Ensuring the convenience and accessibility of the created solution. To assess the convenience of the created solution, designers usually use a heuristic approach. Also, they check compliance with the required WCAF 2.0 level. If significant deficiencies are detected, the product is returned for optimization.
Why Is UX Design Important?
UX design services are primarily focused on ensuring end-user satisfaction with the product – that is, it means that the product is comfortable to use and intuitive, and, in general, allows users to quickly complete the tasks assigned to it. In the long term, a properly created UX design can provide a boost in business revenue, an expansion of its consumer base, an increase in competitive advantage, a reduction in the expenses on regular business operations, and many other things. Ultimately, it is important to understand that all this is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the product success.
UX vs. UI Design
Many people don’t understand the user experience vs design difference. However, while UX product design is aimed at creating a positive user experience when interacting with a product, the UI design is about creating a certain, aesthetically attractive appearance and conveying specific feelings to the end user through it.
What Is Product Design?
Now, let's talk about product design: it is a much more comprehensive term than UX and UI design. It ensures that users do not just enjoy dealing with a specific software solution – instead, they should help the owner of this solution achieve specific business goals through this interaction.
Key Elements of Product Design
To better understand the product design vs UX design difference, we suggest, as in the previous case, to consider the key stages of the first term.
Planning. It starts with comprehensive market research: analyzing its trends, identifying competitors’ advantages and disadvantages, defining the target audience, etc. After that, specialists must align the client's business goals with the collected information and develop a product roadmap (this is performed in collaboration with other project team members).
Ensuring end-user focus. Now, having information about the target audience at hand, specialists can create user personas by using their demographics, behavioral patterns, pain points, needs, etc. After that, they begin to build user flows and optimize them through testing.
Interface design. This stage of the product design process involves creating medium-fidelity prototypes that not only describe user interactions with individual interface components but also contain microinteractions and visual detailing.
Interaction with the project team. Typically, product designers work in teams that work according to the cross-functional methodology – here, they are encouraged to work closely with specialists from other areas. This allows them to reach alignment on goals and their achievement. At this stage, they use prototypes, which, as their details are agreed upon, specialists optimize into a full-fledged product design.
User feedback analysis and optimization. Finally, the completed solution is presented to end users (depending on the stage of development, these can be representatives of a focus group or real users) to obtain and process their feedback. After that, the obtained insights are gradually implemented through optimization of the presented version.
Why Is Product Design Important?
Its importance is hard to overestimate: product designers collaborate with other members of the project team throughout its life cycle, thereby ensuring the joint achievement of the goals set by its owner. Even though, as in UX design, the convenience of the user’s interaction with the product also plays an important role, it is perceived as something more global – something that is aimed at solving specific problems within one business.
UX Design vs. Product Design: the Differences
From all of the above, we can conclude that the main goal of product design services is to create a comprehensively successful product: that is, one that surpasses its competitors in some way and satisfies the client's business needs, the specifics of their business niche, the needs of the target audience, market trends, etc. This, in turn, imposes on product designers the need to participate in all stages of product development.
As for UX design, its task is to make the product user-oriented, without covering or only partially covering the business aspects declared by the product owner. Thus, without thinking about the need for product design and implementing the UX design stage only, you can lose sight of the factors that hinder the long-term product’s viability on the market (in particular, this often happens with startups and projects with a non-standard approach to solving ordinary problems).
Conclusion
Now, knowing the difference between the two above concepts, you can understand who exactly your team needs – a UX/UI service provider or a product designer. Whichever option is closer to you, you can always contact us, and we will select a specialist according to your project requirements or assemble a team that will accompany you from collecting project requirements to its launch and optimization.
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