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Adding a Vaccination Reporting Feature to the COVID Alert NY App
Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with the NYS Department of Health, nor was I contracted for this project. This project is conducted solely for my own learning purposes to improve my UX skills.
Tools Used: Figma, Zoom
Role: UX Researcher, UX Designer
Timeline: 1 week (May 2021)
Overview
NY State currently has a COVID Alert App that allows for COVID-19 Contact Tracing by allowing individuals to alert others in the case where they test positive. As more and more people are becoming vaccinated, it’s important that states are putting in the effort to gather data surrounding vaccination rates. Adding a feature that allows people to self-report their vaccination status could be useful in helping to track our progress towards herd immunity so that we can get things back to normal as soon as possible.
Problem
The app is currently limited in its features. As of now, the app allows users to look at NY COVID Data, log in COVID symptoms, and receive COVID alerts. There is no feature allowing New Yorkers to report vaccination data which is crucial data that will allow New Yorkers to see the progress of the state’s vaccination.
How Might We
How might we allow users to input vaccination status into this app in an easy and intuitive way?
How might we give users the incentive to use this feature?
Goal
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Design an easy-to-use feature allowing all New Yorkers to input their vaccination status while providing the least information possible to protect their privacy.
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Provide a reward system to encourage New Yorkers to utilize the feature.
Research Phase
App Store Reviews
A useful way to gain insights into an existing app would be to look through recent reviews of the app itself. After looking through reviews dating back to January, I found that some users shared similar views regarding the benefits of a vaccination feature in the app.
Some app store reviews of the app
Important Things to Consider:
I decided to take a look at the NYS COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker Website to see what important aspects might need to be translated into the app. I gathered the following insights. While keeping into account HIPAA, the app will need to require the users to at least input:
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County of Residence
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Which Dose was Received
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Date Vaccination was Received
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Age at which Vaccination was Received
New York State COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker Website
Inclusivity:
The users of this app will also likely be very diverse with everyone being affected by this pandemic. Therefore, the process should be as intuitive and easy as one can make it so that it is catered to people of all educational backgrounds, ages, and technological proficiency. This allows for greater inclusiveness.
Design Phase
The COVID ALERT NY APP
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After looking over the app, I decided that for the most part, the app appeared intuitive & simple to use. Many app store reviews also suggested that many users felt the same way.
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The only thing I wanted to change was putting the settings button on the upper left so that I could incorporate the vaccination feature on the bottom bar without resulting in a crowded interface.
NYS Covid Alert NY App Interface
Low Fidelity Sketches
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I sketched out my vision of the vaccination data input process with pen and paper.
Vaccination Tracking Feature Low Fidelity Sketches
Task Flow
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I created a task flow for a user who would be inputting their vaccination data. There was a total of 7 steps. Each step was designed to be as easy as possible taking into consideration the user population.
Vaccination Tracking Task Flow
Medium Fidelity Wireframes
Using Figma, medium-fidelity wireframe models were created to get a general sense of where all the components should go.
Medium Fidelity Wireframes created on Figma
Building Phase
Using Figma, I built out the feature I envisioned.
The entire vaccination reporting spans 6 pages with 4 questions. A progress tracker system was added so that users would be aware that the process is an easy and quick one that only consists of 4 steps.
The wording of the questions was created with users in mind. I avoided using overly complicated medical terminologies.
The final step of the process allows users to input their data to get their compensation.
Testing Phase
User Interviews:
I performed one on one remote usability tests through Zoom with 3 users.
WHAT USERS LIKED:
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The questions were easy to understand.
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They believed that the idea of receiving compensation was nice.
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They liked the progress bar because they knew when they would be finished with the whole process.
USERS SUGGESTIONS:
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More transparency regarding the compensation so they know exactly what they will receive.
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A way to see the collective data collected regarding vaccinations that people can view in the app.
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A way to skip the final step should the user not want the compensation.
Screenshot of one of the usability test sessions!
Next Steps:
For the next iteration, I would like to focus on the following problems:
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Considering whether this feature is actually feasible in the real world - will the information inputted be enough to track vaccination statuses?
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Will people be wary of giving information away to get the gift card? How may this be resolved?
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Including more compensation details or rewording the compensation portion to reflect greater transparency.
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Brainstorming ways to allow users to view collected vaccination data.
Takeaway:
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This project reminded me that apps should be designed for a wider audience. It’s important to keep in mind that apps should be designed with all kinds of users in mind. Inclusive design is crucial.
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Iteration is crucial in UX Design. Products should be iterative despite being good so that they can exceed consumer expectations.