UX Research in Healthcare: Top Methods Improving Patient Outcomes
While UX research emerged in the 1990s specifically to address complex human interactions with digital solutions, only 27% of pharma digital teams consistently conduct user research when developing their products today. This gap represents a significant missed opportunity to improve patient outcomes through better design decisions.
Healthcare UX design, when implemented effectively, can reduce medical errors, boost patient engagement, and improve treatment adherence rates. The healthcare sector presents unique design challenges that set it apart from other industries – accuracy isn't just preferred, it's life-critical. Privacy regulations demand strict compliance, and accessibility requirements must accommodate users during their most vulnerable moments.
User research provides the foundation for understanding these complex needs. It reveals insights into patient perspectives and healthcare professional workflows that assumptions alone cannot uncover. These insights ultimately enable teams to design more impactful experiences across the entire healthcare ecosystem.
This guide presents practical UX research methods that work within the unique constraints of healthcare. You'll learn how to navigate common obstacles, such as ethics procedures and limited participant access. We'll also examine real-world case studies that show how thoughtful user experience design can engage users in lasting behavioral changes that improve their health outcomes.
Why UX Research Matters in Healthcare
Healthcare user experience occupies a unique position where design decisions carry life-or-death consequences. Telehealth usage has surged 38x since the pandemic, making digital interaction quality inseparable from care quality itself. This isn't hyperbole—it's the reality of modern healthcare delivery.
Understanding the complexity of the healthcare user experience
Healthcare UX complexity stems from its diverse stakeholder ecosystem. Patients, doctors, caregivers, and administrators each bring distinct needs and expectations to every interaction. A frustrating e-commerce checkout is annoying; a confusing healthcare app can lead to misdiagnoses, delayed treatments, or life-threatening mistakes.
Regulatory requirements add another layer of complexity. Every healthcare digital product must navigate:
- HIPAA ensures patient data confidentiality,
- GDPR controls how user data is stored,
- FDA regulations governing medical software,
- WCAG accessibility guidelines.
The stakes become clear when we examine user behavior. Research shows that 30% of patients abandon telehealth platforms due to poor usability, while clinicians report that inadequate EHR design contributes directly to medical errors. These aren't just statistics—they represent real people whose health outcomes depend on thoughtful design decisions.
Why is user research important for patient outcomes?
User research provides crucial insights into behaviors and preferences that directly impact health outcomes. A systematic review found that well-designed patient portals led to better health status monitoring, improved patient-doctor interaction, and enhanced quality of care.
The business case is equally compelling. A 2020 survey revealed that more than 25% of patients switched medical providers because of poor digital experiences—a 40% increase from the previous year. Conversely, 65% indicated they would leave positive online reviews for providers offering excellent digital experiences.
Consider Netguru's work with an innovative health tech startup. Through focused UX research on the app's check-in process and onboarding flow, they delivered recommendations that improved engagement and communication between patients and doctors. This wasn't just interface optimization—it was care improvement through better design.
The role of empathy in healthcare UX design
Empathy forms the cornerstone of effective healthcare UX design. Patients often interact with healthcare interfaces while experiencing anxiety, confusion, or physical discomfort. What seems like a simple form field to a designer might feel overwhelming to someone managing a chronic condition.
Empathetic design considers these emotional states alongside cognitive needs. Elderly patients might struggle with small fonts and complex menus, while visually impaired users require sufficient contrast to make critical choices. These aren't edge cases—they're fundamental design considerations in healthcare.
Netguru's collaboration with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) exemplifies this approach. Their work on the Patent Opposition Database required designing for diverse user profiles—from civil society organizations to lawyers and health professionals. Through analyzing user behavior and creating inclusive design patterns, they built a platform that increased user engagement and retention.
Healthcare UX design ultimately isn't about creating pleasant interfaces. It's about understanding the profound human experiences behind each interaction and designing solutions that respect their complexity and significance. When we get this right, we don't just improve usability—we improve lives.
Simple UX Research Methods That Work
Healthcare research requires methods that work within strict regulatory frameworks while still uncovering actionable insights. These six approaches have proven effective for understanding both patient needs and clinical workflows, each offering unique advantages for different research scenarios.
1. User interviews
Patient interviews require a fundamentally different approach than typical user research. Trust becomes the foundation of meaningful conversations, especially when discussing sensitive health information. Wendy Johansson of MiSalud discovered that approaching Hispanic participants with cultural sensitivity dramatically improved engagement: "One of the things that worked for me... was to start with talking to folks about 'Hey, so I used to work in this company in Mexico'".
The key lies in asking questions that invite storytelling rather than simple responses. Instead of "Does alarm fatigue affect your productivity?" try "How does alarm fatigue affect your productivity?". The "five whys" technique works particularly well in healthcare settings, where surface-level answers often mask deeper systemic issues.
2. Usability testing
Healthcare interfaces hide their complexity until users attempt real tasks under pressure. Usability testing exposes these hidden friction points by observing participants navigate realistic scenarios. Research has shown that human-computer interaction deficiencies create potential paths to system failures, such as allergy lists not directly visible on screens.
Scenario-based testing works best in healthcare environments. The process typically includes a written introduction, scenario setup (like listening to a shift change report), complete simulation with thinking-aloud protocols, and a debrief interview with a satisfaction questionnaire. This approach reveals problems that might only surface during actual patient care situations.
3. Surveys and questionnaires
Quantitative feedback through surveys provides a broad perspective that interviews cannot capture at scale. The American College of Cardiology emphasizes that UX surveys enable trend analysis and continuous improvement through systematic feedback collection.
Three survey types deliver particularly valuable insights in healthcare contexts. Customer Effort Score (CES) measures how simple patients find healthcare tasks. Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) focuses on individual interactions, while Net Promoter Score (NPS) gauges the likelihood of recommending services. Each serves different purposes in understanding the patient experience journey.
4. A/B testing
Rapid-cycle randomized tests allow healthcare organizations to optimize interfaces based on actual behavior rather than assumptions. An inpatient influenza alert study tested different alert versions to determine which led to higher vaccination order rates.
Cost-effective optimization becomes possible through incremental improvements that compound over time. HIPAA-compliant A/B testing tools do exist, including VWO, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, and Kameleoon, addressing the common concern about patient data protection during testing phases.
5. Field observations
Healthcare environments reveal user behaviors that laboratory settings cannot replicate. Non-participant observers accompany healthcare providers during their actual work, documenting real-world interactions without interfering.
The 3Cs approach structures these observations effectively: Context captures setting details, Content documents what happened, and Concepts identify emerging themes and insights. This method can be structured using templates for specific behaviors, unstructured for rich descriptions, or combined for comprehensive understanding.
6. Diary studies
Patient experiences unfold over weeks and months, not minutes. Diary studies capture this longitudinal dimension by having participants log experiences as they occur, providing insights about real-world usage patterns.
Netguru's collaboration with a health tech startup demonstrates this method's value. Research focused on the app's check-in process and onboarding flow revealed how user needs evolved over time. The resulting recommendations improved engagement and communication between patients and doctors, showing how longitudinal research uncovers insights that point-in-time studies miss.
Real-World Examples: UX Research in Action
Case studies demonstrate how strategic UX research translates into measurable healthcare improvements. These examples illustrate user-centered design principles working across different medical contexts and user groups.
Innovative Healthcare App
A health tech startup approached Netguru to develop a patient-centric mobile app for health information management. The research team concentrated on two critical areas: the check-in process and onboarding flow. They examined how interactive forms could facilitate smoother doctor-patient communication and benchmarked essential elements throughout the user journey. The resulting recommendations enhanced user engagement and significantly improved form usability, particularly during the onboarding experience.
App Enabling Health Data Tracking
Two physicians had built an initial app for collecting medical data through smart questionnaires but wanted to expand its capabilities. Netguru conducted interviews with doctors during the first development stage to establish requirements for additional features. This user-focused approach yielded a successful MVP within seven months. Four large health institutions subsequently adopted the beta version, with doctors recognizing substantial potential benefits for their practice.
Patent Opposition Database for MSF
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) engaged Netguru to enhance their Patent Opposition Database, a platform that challenges medicine patents driving up drug prices. The primary design challenge centered on creating an interface accessible to vastly different user groups—from civil society organizations to legal professionals. Netguru analyzed user behavior patterns and implemented Google Analytics tracking to measure engagement metrics. This user-oriented approach produced a scalable platform with measurably improved traffic and retention rates.
Other industry examples: Fitbit, Teladoc, Cerner
Fitbit has relied on UX research to drive health-tracking innovation since 2013. A recent survey revealed that 94% of respondents ranked "understanding heart health" among their top five feature preferences. Their research-driven development has produced features including:
- Heart rate variability monitoring
- SpO2 and breathing rate tracking
- Core temperature measurement
Teladoc Health focused its UX research on personalized health nudges, achieving a 3X increase in engagement and an additional 0.4 reduction in A1c levels (from 8.2% to 7.8%). This research-backed approach improved clinical outcomes through integrated care delivery.
Cerner emphasizes that "even the smallest design detail on a graph of patient data can have a dramatic impact on patient safety". Their user-centered design process for a new iPad app included extensive usability testing with iterative improvements based on clinician feedback, demonstrating how continuous research refinement enhances medical software safety.
Challenges in Conducting UX Research in Healthcare
Healthcare UX research delivers clear value, but several significant obstacles can derail even well-intentioned efforts. Understanding these challenges upfront allows researchers to plan more effectively and avoid common pitfalls.
Navigating ethics and regulatory approvals
Historical medical research misconduct, particularly studies like the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, established stringent ethical frameworks that now govern all healthcare research. Research protocols must adhere to fundamental principles from the Belmont Report: respect for persons, justice, and beneficence. The fragmentation of regulatory and ethics reviews across different countries often creates unwarranted delays in obtaining necessary approvals. Digital health tools face particular complexity, as both ethical and regulatory dimensions intersect at every development stage.
Recruiting patients and healthcare professionals
Healthcare participants require specialized recruitment approaches that differ significantly from other industries. Key participant groups include patients with specific medical conditions, healthcare professionals managing demanding schedules, and caregivers juggling multiple responsibilities. Successful recruitment requires careful consideration of several factors:
- Disease incidence statistics when targeting patients with specific conditions
- Schedule flexibility, since healthcare professionals frequently cancel due to emergencies
- Remote research options that minimize participant travel requirements
- Privacy protections to avoid receiving personally identifiable information
Healthcare professionals present particular recruitment challenges—scheduling longer sessions (75 minutes versus 60) can accommodate their tendency to arrive exactly at start times rather than early.
Balancing emotional demands and researcher well-being
Healthcare research frequently involves sensitive discussions that can trigger trauma responses in both participants and researchers. Research with medical students shows that 53% are unwilling to seek help due to confidentiality concerns. Addressing these emotional challenges requires transparency during recruitment, informed consent processes that clearly explain participant rights, and preparation to provide support resources when needed.
Working with diverse user groups and accessibility needs
More than 61 million Americans (nearly 1 in 4) have disabilities, including 46% of people ages 60 and older. Many healthcare websites violate accessibility requirements—the most common ADA lawsuit in healthcare settings now involves inaccessible communication rather than physical access issues. Accessible research must address digital literacy gaps, visual impairments affecting 2.2 billion people globally, and various physical limitations. Beyond meeting legal compliance requirements, accessible research produces more representative insights that improve outcomes for all users.
Getting Started with Healthcare UX Research
UX research has proven its worth in healthcare through measurable improvements in patient outcomes and provider satisfaction. The evidence speaks clearly: organizations that invest in understanding user needs create digital experiences that work better for everyone involved.
What makes these research methods particularly powerful is their adaptability to healthcare's unique constraints. Whether you're working within strict regulatory frameworks or dealing with limited participant access, the six approaches outlined here provide practical starting points. The key lies in choosing methods that match your specific context and user needs.
Healthcare professionals often ask whether these research efforts justify the time investment. The answer becomes clear when you consider the costs of poor design decisions. A confusing interface doesn't just frustrate users—it can delay treatments, increase medical errors, and drive patients away from essential care. The research investment pays dividends in reduced support costs, improved user satisfaction, and better health outcomes.
Empathy remains the foundation of effective healthcare UX design. Patients interact with these systems during some of their most vulnerable moments. Healthcare providers work under intense pressure with life-critical decisions hanging in the balance. Understanding these human realities through research enables teams to design solutions that truly serve their users' needs.
The challenges are real—ethics approvals take time, recruiting participants requires specialized approaches, and accessibility requirements demand careful attention. Yet these obstacles should inform your research strategy rather than prevent it. Each constraint offers an opportunity to create more inclusive, ethical, and effective solutions.
For teams ready to begin, start small and build momentum. Choose one method that fits your current project constraints. Test it with a limited scope, learn from the process, and gradually expand your research capabilities. The case studies presented here demonstrate that even focused research efforts can yield significant improvements in user engagement and clinical outcomes.
Healthcare UX research doesn't just improve interfaces—it can genuinely impact lives. The simple methods presented in this guide offer practical ways to make that impact real for your users and your organization.
