Freedose was an attempt to create a platform that connects people in low income Indian households with individuals willing to fund their Covid-19 vaccine .The cost of vaccines ranging from ₹ 950 - ₹ 1,200 per dose was far from affordable for many in the working class, which led to this initiative. Image 1 outlines how Freedose functions.

All state governments in India soon declared free-of-cost vaccinations for all, dissolving the requirement of such a platform before development was complete.

We were targeting a group of users that were extremely non-tech savvy. The platform had to ensure the process had as little friction as possible meanwhile handling delicate data such as bank account details and vaccination certificates. The entire process had to be secure, yet reliable, simple and welcoming.

I worked on this project in a team of two. I overlooked the design while my colleague worked on the development of the platform.

My role involved UX design, research, illustrations, and writing.

This study will focus on the participant's experience of the platform and analyze the problem statements faced in that persona. The project also involved a supporter and admin experience which is outside the scope of this study.

In an attempt to have the platform ready by the date of vaccination rollout (within 10 days), I was unable to conduct tests for any of the designs. I also avoided certain solutions that would result in greater cost through reliance on third party services such as SMS due to monetary limitations.

Freedose has two user roles; the participant who wants to get vaccinated, and the supporter who wants to sponsor the vaccination. A brief of the user personas are shown in Image 2

The problem statement at hand focuses on the role of the participant and their experience on the platform.

Initial research led me to define the following UX principles:

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  Visual feedback for every interaction and status update
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  Visibility of necessary items only, stay minimal
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  Offload cognitive effort to the platform
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  Reduce options and guide user at the cost of control
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  Overexplain where necessary and use words over images

One of the goals was to ensure participants don't get locked out of their account due to forgotten credentials or a difficult login process. Abstract details like a login password would prove to be difficult to retain when forgotten. A common solution of a forgot password process would be adding far too much friction.

The decision to use phone number as the primary login ID came naturally since many of our targeted users would not have access to an email address. Also, the integration of an email service would rely on a third party email client which would add to the complication of the system.

To avoid forgotten passwords, I decided to use a derivable password, a password one could work out. Since we weren't hosting sensitive personal information in the account, the login measure didn't need to be very secure. After going through the data being collected as part of the registration process, the PIN Code stood out to have the perfect qualities to serve as a password.

Properties of a PIN making it suitable as a password: 🧠 derivable, 📏 has a fixed length, 🔢 fixed input type (numbers).

Other decisions to ensure smooth login:

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  Language selection as primary focus on landing
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  Auto detection of login vs. new user to offload decision making

Status visibility being one of the key UX principles defined, I wanted to ensure participants are constantly aware of where they stand in reaching their goal of getting free vaccination. Since the users had one goal, and a pre defined set of steps to reach there, I was able to avoid complexity in the interface.

The platform was structured to show the current state and set expectations at a glance, on the home screen itself. This would mimic the functionality of a notice board without distractions and requirements of parallel processes.

The current status card was designed to give a quick summary of the status. The card would reflect the current state with a button for further details. Clear and concise content was an integral aspect of making the card effective.

All the status card designs can be seen below in Image 7.

The entire process was designed to be repetitive around a single dose. The status cards once cycled through for the first dose, would repeat again for the second, as the process remains the same. This allowed participants to gain familiarity with recalling the experience from dose 1 going onwards to dose 2.

Achieving the goal at hand will require the participants to follow steps and complete tasks. There's two aspects of this: brief overview of all steps, and detailed information for current step.

The brief overview is provided on the home screen in the form of a non-actionable list. The list updates to show only the upcoming steps and hides steps that have been completed. This goes in accordance with our defined UX principles of visibility of necessary.

As to not overwhelm the interface and the participant, the process has been divided into two sections, one for each dose. The steps will reflect for the current dose only.

The vaccination process is new and constantly changing with new government regulations and guidelines being released frequently. The participants would require assistance in completing tasks that are dependent on third party interfaces, such as the national vaccination registration portal. Freedose had to not only provide details of the steps, but also serve as a source of information to help participants in successfully getting their vaccine.

The details page, accessed through the CTA on home page was the solution. Designed to provide relevant and detailed information and avoid distractions and any branching actions.

Although a repetitive summary section from the home screen, it was evaluated to be a small cost in comparison to the value being added for users. It would also provide quick context upon returning to the screen. The illustrations help build context and provide clarity faster as well, being an important aspect that was carefully designed.

The layout proved to be effective across quick short steps as well as larger multi steps processes. A few examples are shown in Image 11

There are steps that involve the user taking an action in order to proceed further towards their goal. Actions can be scary as they open vulnerabilities to errors (both slips and mistakes) and can add a certain level of complexity. A common structure was established to minimize the problems.

Primarily, the main action for each step was highlighted on the home screen, as well as the summary section of the details screen. This ensured users wouldn't delay or miss taking actions, some of which are time sensitive.

All subsequent actions were provided as secondary buttons within the instruction with details pertaining to it. Actions in Freedose were of 3 types:

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  Immediate: Simple 1-click actions
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  External:Opens link in browser or download file
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  New page: Opens new page/activity

Vaccination proof submission is a crucial part of the process. The process has been split into two section that are accessed sequentially. This distributes cognitive load, groups similar sections for easier operation and secures the process as account details must be accompanied with valid vaccination proof that will be verified digitally.

There were many smaller decisions woven into the experience to ensure the platform could virtually bring a sense of care and community to the users. Freedose relies on the community to step up and hopes to enable people to support each other, small bits of thoughtful positive decisions would help the platform grow naturally. A brief mention of the points are listed below:

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  User names: Refrain from using sponsor and beneficiary to avoid a transactional relationship. Instead using 'participant' and 'supporter'.
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  Content: The content throughout has been written to provide positive encouragement
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  Thank you note: Creating a space to allow exchange of a thank you note
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  Support: Providing documentation and video guidance for handling vaccine registration (third party)

This project never came out of the development phase due to an early stop as state government intervention made vaccinations free for all eligible citizens. It was an incredible learning experience designing under the sprint-like time constraints for a cause important to me. Freedose may never have seen the day of light, but learnings from it will live in all the experiences I design onwards. 💜

🎨 Storyset for illustrations

👨 Pablo Stanley for Avataaars

💻 Fang-Pen Lin for web editor of Avataaars

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