“How do we let a 70-year-old book a trusted doctor to their living-room in three taps—without feeling rushed, lost, or worried about scams?”
“I spent two weeks living the seniors’ reality—no lab coats, just a notebook and genuine curiosity.”
| Activity | Why I did it | What jumped out at me |
|---|---|---|
| Contextual home visits (10 seniors, ages 67–82) | To see how elders really hold and tap phones | Buttons smaller than their fingertips. Banking apps crashed them; they switched to voice search as soon as it appeared. |
| Care-giver calls (7 adult children, remote via WhatsApp) | To hear the stress of booking on behalf of loved ones | “Mom’s home alone—how do I know the doctor showed up?” became the rallying cry for live-tracking and PDF summaries. |
| Competitor teardown (Practo, Apollo 24/7, Medintu) | To map out every tap and hidden fee | Six to eight screens before showing cost. One retiree said, “By the time I see the fee, I’ve forgotten why I opened the app.” |
| Regulation review (Tele-medicine Guidelines, Drugs Act) | To understand “must-haves” vs. “nice-to-haves” | We can’t skip licence verification or OTP at the doorstep—these are non-negotiable trust signals. |
Primary insight:
Trust must shine before we talk price or speed. Seniors—or the adult children booking for them—won’t tap “Confirm” until they feel safe. Every design choice from here on had to build confidence first, then deliver simplicity.
| Persona & Emoji | Background | Tech Comfort | Goals | Frustrations | Quote |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 👵 Maryamma (72) | Retired teacher living alone in Secunderabad; widowed, children live elsewhere. | Low | • Hands-on knee-pain check• Avoid hospital trips | • Tiny fonts & jargon• Fear of fake doctors or surprise charges | “I just want someone reliable to come to my home—my kids worry too much.” |
| 🧑‍🦽 Shankar (69) | Stroke survivor living with daughter’s family; needs weekly physiotherapy. | Medium | • Schedule consistent physio• Know exact arrival time | • Too many steps each week• Anxiety if therapist is late | “I need my exercises on time—if I miss them, I feel weaker.” |
| 🌏 Praveen & Leela (42/39) | NRI siblings in Dubai booking care for their mother in Hyderabad. | High | • Book & track Mum’s visits remotely• Receive PDF visit summaries | • Lack of live updates• No easy profile switching | “Live tracking and a PDF summary give me real peace of mind when I’m thousands of miles away.” |
| 👨‍⚕️ Dr. Sagar (34) | GP splitting time between clinic and home visits; joined Doctome pilot recently. | High | • Optimize daily route• Show verified credentials | • Manual address entry• Last-minute cancellations | “I need an app that shows I’m a legit doctor and helps me plan my day.” |
| 🧪 Nirmala (28) | Lab technician collecting 10–12 home samples daily for partner diagnostics lab. | Medium | • Get accurate address & patient profile• Minimise sample-collection delays | • Wrong/incomplete addresses• Calling back patients for details | “I need clear directions and patient details up front—no extra calls, please.” |
| ⚙️ Arjun (30) | Operations lead managing schedules, escalations, and quality metrics. | High | • Maintain ≥95 % on-time visits• Resolve issues fast with clear audit trails | • Poor visibility on late visits• Data-error escalations | “I need reliable logs and automated backups so I can fix problems before they become big headaches.” |
(voice of the UX-researcher who led the discovery sprint)
“Before drawing a single wireframe, I wanted to understand how seniors in Hyderabad actually seek care, what frustrates them, and which legal walls we can’t climb.”
| Method | What I looked for | What I learned (in plain English) |
|---|---|---|
| Desk research – FICCI/EY elder-care reports, Tele-medicine Practice Guidelines (2020) | Population trends, rules for home visits, data-privacy must-dos | Seniors are the fastest-growing segment; every house-visit doctor must show an MCI licence, and medical data must stay on Indian servers. |
| Competitor teardown – Practo, Apollo 24/7, Medintu, Dr-At-Doorstep | Step count, fee transparency, trust cues | Rival apps hide price until the last screen and force 6–8 taps; none surface a clear licence badge. |
| Contextual home visits (10 seniors, age 67-82) | How elders handle their own phones | Small buttons + jargon = instant dropout. Most seniors happily used voice search when offered. |
| Informal caregiver calls (7 adult children abroad) | Remote worries & day-to-day hacks | They just want live status and a PDF visit summary—no one has time for phone follow-ups. |
| Stakeholder chats (8 GPs, lab techs, ops lead) | Operational friction & non-negotiables | Doctor onboarding is slower than patient sign-ups; ops team needs an auto-reassign safety net for late doctors. |
| WhatsApp micro-survey (84 responses) | Price comfort zone, biggest pain | 71 % OK with a ₹500-₹700 flat fee; “trust” ranked higher than “discounts.” |
