Accelerate was built as a social network & beyond for the healthcare industry. It allows every corner of the industry to network, learn, and teach with each other.
The Problem
HIMSS holds a global conference every year where healthcare workers come together to collaborate. When their March 2020 conference was cancelled due to covid, they wanted to create a platform where users could continue to collaborate virtually.
Through research and brainstorming, it was found that users need more than just a social network to chat on. They need a centralized platform to find information and take courses to keep their licenses active. Current social networks could do some of this, but they needed something more.
The process
When I joined HIMSS in 2021, there were visionary designs created for what Accelerate could ultimately be. I was able to instantly jump into the research process to test those ideas with users while also learning about other features users needed. We learned many things are were able to continue with ideas that tested positively and pivot from ideas that were not as well received.
Concept testing was one of the activities we did with users. We asked them to pick their top three ideas (many ranked farther than three!) and then elaborate on why they chose those ideas. We were able to get both qualitative data with their reasonings, but also quantitative data with the rankings and finding trends among the users.
As we completed each interview, we built a board to bring all of the feedback together. Over several months we would switch out some features and ideas so we could get feedback on as much of the platform as possible. Sometimes users would bring up ideas that we tested in the past so it was great to have all of this data in one place!
Each week, we would have a check-in with the rest of the Accelerate team. We were able to give them insight on what features and ideas we tested, what kind of feedback we received, and how we can use that information to move forward.
Launch (& iterations!)
In October 2021 we were ready to launch Accelerate to the public! But we all know that launches are not the end of the road. We continues to test and design and test and design. We were able to have more interviews with users as they discovered the platform live as well as look at data on our end. Users will tell us what they think and do, but it’s amazing to put that together with the data to see what is actually happening.
Accelerate is a device-independent platform. Users can access it on iOS, Android, and in any browser. Having all of these formats allowed me to focus on responsive design to make sure it worked for all devices.
