Redesigning an Intelligent Virtual Assistant

Role: Lead UX Strategist

Collaborations: Copy, Content, CX, Medical, Legal, Development

Outcomes

Streamlined navigation and improved user efficiency: Combined two original user journeys to simplify navigation and reduce the time needed for representatives to follow the IVA, enabling quicker, more efficient responses to doctors' needs.

Reduced content on main slides: To meet legal requirements, content irrelevant to doctors was removed from main slides. We used modals, buttons, and alternative navigation options to ensure only the most relevant information was presented, while keeping legal details accessible but not unobtrusive.

Introduction

An Intelligent Virtual Assistant (IVA) is a pivotal tool for pharmaceutical representatives (reps) and healthcare professionals (HCPs), facilitating informed discussions about various drugs and their indications. Reps are equipped with iPads and are required to be trained on each IVA they use.

Our client's IVA had a low adoption rate of only 7%, meaning 93% of reps preferred using printed documents and brochures over this digital tool. Our primary objective was to redesign the IVA to provide the same comprehensive information into a more efficient, user-friendly, and accessible manner.

Key Issues

As the lead UXer, I collaborated closely with cross-functional teams to understand user needs and pain points. Through user research and feedback analysis, we identified key issues and opportunities for improvement, aiming to enhance usability and increase adoption rates.

Lengthy Content

The original IVA had over 170 pages of content, making it overwhelming and in dire need of streamlining. The excessive page count also caused noticeable delays in user interactions.

Clunky Interface

Because the IVA's interface was designed after the desktop website, reps had to take extra steps to reach the content HCPs wanted to see most. The design wasn't optimized for quick and easy use on an iPad.

Inefficient Navigation

Reps reported that the navigation was neither swift nor intuitive, hindering their ability to quickly find specific information during brief consultations with HCPs.

Overall Negative User Experience

Despite mandatory training, an overwhelming 93% of reps preferred using paper materials over the IVA for this drug. This indicated significant confusion and frustration with the tool, which our internal research and competitive analysis confirmed.

Redesign

The original IVA, modeled after the desktop website, created challenges for reps and HCPs by forcing them to select an indication upfront. This forced indication selection was the initial step in the navigation and significantly disrupted the natural flow of conversation in these already short meetings. The IVA's user flows and interface being directly adapted from the desktop site led to inefficient navigation and a clunky user experience.

Recognizing that the forced indication selection was a key barrier, I knew we had to remove it entirely. Eliminating this initial step meant completely overhauling the navigation system and redesigning the user flows to make the tool more intuitive and flexible.

Redesigning the User Flows

To achieve our goal of enabling quick navigation and providing holistic information, we removed the upfront indication selection, allowing immediate access to comprehensive drug overviews. This change meant that reps were no longer confined to a rigid path and could adapt the IVA to the natural flow of conversations with HCPs.

In redesigning the user flows, we collaborated with the content and medical teams to determine the best way to combine and streamline information for the two separate indications. Ultimately, we identified a navigation structure that condensed highly requested information, while still showcasing individual indication details within the necessary medical and legal constraints.

Original User Flow: Forced Decision, Rigid Path, Inefficient Navigation

New User Flow: Vertical Structure, Flexible Navigation

Designing Levels of Navigation

With the new user flows, we developed new levels of navigation in tandem. Recongnizing that IVAs have required training and are only used by professionals, we made the informed decision of moving away from website and mobile app best practices, making our navigation deep instead of broad and shallow.

Primary Navigation: Direct access to main sections without upfront filters or forced choices.
Secondary Navigation: Easy access to subsections within each main section, enabling reps to jump around the IVA's content.
Contextual Navigation: Interactive elements within pages, such as flip cards and expandable sections, providing additional details without overwhelming the user or requiring excessive navigation.

Developing New Wireframes

To effectively communicate the redesigned user flows and navigation system, we developed low and high-fidelity detailed wireframes that visualized the new interface and interactions. We also optimized the interface to leverage the iPad's capabilities. Due to too much identifying information, I am unable to show you the high-fidelity wireframes that are currently used in the IVA.

These wireframes were essential for:

Collaboration: Facilitating discussions with the creative team, content team, legal team, and development team about the new interactions to ensure alignment on the new design.
Feedback and Iteration: Allowing stakeholders to provide input and offer their own medical experts, enabling us to refine the design based on collective insights.
Client Buy-In: Providing the client with a clear visual representation of the proposed changes in comparison to live IVA, which gave them better understanding than the user flows presented.

Key Low Fidelity Wires

Collaborating closely with the creative team, we identified essential wires to illustrate complex user flows and communicate them effectively within the team. The following key wires depict the evolution of clinical trial data presentation, changing from isolated sections to a tailored array of information customized for doctors.

Original Trial A Data Set Wires:

New Trial A Data Set Wire:

Outcome

Feedback from reps and doctors highlighted the need for a more streamlined user experience aligned with their workflow. Key wires were identified to showcase complex user flows, focusing on transforming the presentation of clinical trial data to better suit doctors' needs. The result was a more efficient and tailored IVA interface, providing reps and doctors with improved access to relevant information and enhancing overall usability.

Bella Brache