Designing an Innovative Solution for Online COVID-19 Self-Testing

Designing an Innovative Solution for Online COVID-19 Self-Testing

Industry: Healthcare
Client since: 2021
Services used
Application Development Experience Design
Technologies used
Healthcare

Background

In 2020 Symphony Solutions entered successful cooperation with SpoedtestCorona, a chain of testing centers offering rapid screening tests for COVID-19 to individuals and companies in the Netherlands. When the project proved to be a success on the market, the company decided to branch out and start offering at home self-testing kits. A new product, Easly, was launched. Its main goal was to reduce the cost of testing centers and consequently make self-testing more affordable for people that need it.

Client

Easily is the rapid antigen self-testing service in the Netherlands. It is a part of Virusspeedcheck BV, an ambitious group of entrepreneurs and doctors who have joined forces. Inspired by the great social need for professional rapid testing and motivated by the many parties who, in their view, charge very high rates for this, it has started affordable rapid tests.

Challenge

When Symphony Solutions Design Team began work on the project, there were similar self-testing services across Europe. However, none of the systems could guarantee the identity of the person taking the test.

So, the primary concern was to ensure that the process of taking a sample material for the test, and anti-cheating actions were taken into account when developing the application.

Another thing to reckon with – the whole process from buying the kit to receiving the results had be as fast as possible. As we were offering rapid COVID-19 testing, the speed of service was of vital importance and company’s competitive advantage.

Solution

The Symphony Solutions team provided a comprehensive solution for both digital and non-digital parts. This includes experience design services, branding, application development services, and more. 

The team built a Progressive Web Application (PWA) for desktop and mobile adaptive devices where people can buy a test in a pack, schedule testing and receive an email with results in 15 minutes after the test is done.

Some of the problems the design team was facing when building the solution were:

  • Make comfortable interface for a user to interact with while taking into account the specifics of taking antigen COVID-19 test;
  • Design an admin panel for the medical staff to control the process of taking the test;
  • Go over various user flows to find the best options for the application.

Symphony Solutions Design Team started with client meetings to identify and flesh out the client’s vision of the application.

Service blueprint

Service blueprint

The next step was to understand how the product was supposed to work, what features were required, and define user flows.

User flows

Designing Solution for COVID

User testing with potential users helped collect feedback on the app features and functionalities and improve the application by:

  • Aligning the application features and functionality with user needs;
  • Making the application more user-friendly and enhancing user experience;
  • Simplifying the process for users of both the app and admin panel.

To meet the requirements, the team was engaged in the development of a comprehensive solution. It was very important to understand how the whole process – from delivering a test to a potential user to developing an admin panel for a medical expert to monitor online whether a user is taking a test correctly.

Designing Solution for COVID

The innovative solution that the team presented was – user data couldn’t be stored and therefore the usual registration form was not an option. At the same time, the team had to work out how a user could return to the application under these conditions while taking the minimum number of steps. As a solution, the connecting element was the packaging of the product itself. When scanning the QR-code, users could continue their flow.

Creating an admin panel for a doctor was another challenge. The interface had to be as minimal as possible, but at the same time allow for interaction when passing checkpoints in the user-physician relationship. After all, the doctor is the key link that confirms user data. The designers’ task was to simplify this process as much as possible so that the number of errors was minimal.

Result

The Design team completed the first iteration of the project within an extremely tight 2-week timeframe and achieved the following:

  • Developed a Progressive Web Application (PWA) for desktop and mobile adaptive devices, where people can register for testing;
  • Created the promo website to present the app features and benefits;
  • Easly won the tender from the Dutch government as a secure solution.
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