About the project
Primary Research Insights
Understanding the target audience, in general
These users have lower incomes, come from a rural background and have lesser or no formal education.
Their exposure to technology is very new and limited, however they’re experts at finding loopholes in the existing system and are known for getting their work done.
They are eager for learn, but are looking for easier systems and applications to work with.
Their reasons for using internet or a device - information, entertainment, empowerment, convenience, connection.
It’s easier for them to learn visually, as they are used to the feature phones with red and green buttons symbolizing agreement and decline respectively.
Everyone knows everybody and their work in a small town. There’s an aspect of human connect, which is losing slowly with these devices and applications.
They buy smart phones or open UPI accounts because they’re expected to. Otherwise, they’re better off with cash and feature phones.
For them the meaning of communication is WhatsApp and entertainment is YouTube.
Understanding our users
Understanding in terms of the topic
Use Cases: Our defined consumers often visit the hospital for two reasons: (1) to meet with a doctor about their health concerns (either for themselves or a family member), and (2) to get a review on the test results they received from a high-end hospital in the main city.
They typically go to the hospital for themselves or to accompany their wife or children.
A small town has the advantage of knowing everyone around you, what they do, when they do it, and how. As a result, they generally communicate with the hospital via phone calls to check on the availability of the doctor.
Because the users are from the working class, it is inconvenient for them to travel to the hospital and sit for an extended period of time while waiting for their turn. They cannot afford to lose their daily pay as a result of this.
They believe in referrals when it comes to health.
Our users tend to book an appointment with the ‘doctor’ and not the ‘hospital’/’clinic’
Our users look to book an appointment/search for a doctor or a clinic according to their symptoms.
Connecting with people from rural area - Hingna and understanding their perspective
Approach
Next Billion Users
Google Research refers to the defined users as the "next billion users." They are the ones in their families who are using smartphones for the first time.
instead of putting something new on them that we would have designed for advanced users, the chosen approach focuses on utilising users' familiarity and existing knowledge of technology and devices. As a result, they get to bypass the learning curve!
They don't need something revolutionary; they only require something as easy as to know how to use YouTube and WhatsApp.
They want to be'smart' with technology, yet rapid advances don't give them the gratification of knowing everything. Unfortunately, as soon as they understand something, there is an advanced version of it to make them feel stupid again.
"I want to do and learn more things on the phone by myself. It feels good to not depend on other people, but right now it’s too complicated to figure out." - New User, India
User Journey Map
This journey map focuses on a user’s way of getting in touch with a hospital/clinic, in a rural area.
Factors like, human connect and references matter a lot here.
It states how we need to focus on -
(A) giving our user the entire details of his/her visit to the clinic beforehand.
(B) making the process less time consuming.
(C) Being able to filter out according to distance, affordance, etc.
Gaps
Convenience
Currently, our users have to wait in the hospital queue or call up and ask for the doctor’s availability.
As our users are also working under or for someone as house workers, farmers, factory workers etc, they can’t afford to spend the entire day or half a day waiting for their appointment at the clinic.
These users are used to the human connect, and knowing everything about the service via people or calls.
They are also used to going to their same trusted doctor/hospital/clinic or believe in referrals.
Booking with the doctor and not the clinic.
Human Connect
User Scenario
User Flow for booking an appointment
Low Fidelity Screens
Future Scoping
How to move ahead?
Connect with the clinics and the receptionists, understand how they function internally.
We can monetize by promoting government schemes like - Ayushmaan Bharat
Addition of referrals, once the platform takes a hit. So that more users will trust the platform easily
How do we accommodate government hospitals? They are definitely less pricey so we’ll have to be very thoughtful about keeping the private ones and government ones on the same platform and adhering to both their needs.