• App not working as per clinical workflows:

For patient outcomes equivalent to an in-person visit, the telemedicine app must work according to clinical workflows of appointment booking, referral, billing, follow-up, etc.

For instance, during an in-person visit, the patient must fill up a self-declaration form before having a consultation with the doctor. So, you must also onboard patients on your app by asking them to fill out a full self-declaration form.

• Duplication of workflows:

Each clinical workflow must be treated individually. If some portion of a clinical workflow is reflected in another clinical workflow, it severely limits the clinical value of the telemedicine app.

For example, appointment booking workflows for new users, existing users, and follow-up visits must be different.

• Poorly optimized workflows:

The challenge here is to optimize clinical workflows about the online nature of care. Because workflows that are working perfectly fine in in-person care may not be suitable in the same form for virtual care.

• Wrong app theme and color:

Users using telemedicine apps have different user persona. To target the exact user persona and influence their thoughts and interests, the app theme must be defined scientifically, considering how patients facing healthcare and wellness issues react to different colors.

• Very extensive user journeys:

The excellent purpose of a nice UI/UX is driving user journeys forward while making sure that users can reach the endpoint of each user journey in minimum time.

But many times, by not properly aligning UI/UX with user journeys, you unknowingly extend the user journeys.

For example, signing up with Google and Apple is a much shorter user onboarding journey than entering email and password details manually.

• Confusing placement of features:

Where designers struggle the most is placing the right buttons at the right place which all together make a feature.

If any of the buttons that together make a feature are placed wrong, users struggle to utilize it and end up getting annoyed interacting with that feature.

For example, on the payment page, you must put the ‘Payment’ button at the bottom of the center, rather than putting it in the top-most corner.

• Sluggish navigation:

App navigation is the most underrated part of UI/UX. People think it is just the transition effect between two screens. However, the reality is that app navigation drives the user journey and keeps users engaged while they are moving from one app page to another.

• Improper visual hierarchy:

The art of visual hierarchy demands you to see each app’s screen from the perspective of users and their real-life scenarios. Visual hierarchy generally deals with how easily you can gain the attention of users on each screen.

If UI elements aren’t placed well, users cannot identify what each screen is all about because each screen serves a purpose and users don’t know about it.

The following example will help you understand more.

• A lot of functional bugs:

Imagine you fill up the form by spending your crucial 3 minutes and when you click on the submit button, the app shows you an error message. Or in a worst-case scenario, the app neither submits the form nor shows you any error message. This is called a functional bug!

• Poor app performance:

Poor app performance costs brands more than their reputations. Users generally don’t prefer to stay on the app if it takes more than 3 seconds to respond.

• Unattended hidden bugs:

The worst you can do with your mobile app is make it live with unattended hidden bugs that you’ve never come across.

It is like launching a Titanic into the sea with a hole in the ship’s hull! It will surely sink!

• Device compatibility issues:

The basic nature of a mobile app is that it does not work the same way on all devices. What makes device compatibility issues even more common nowadays is the inception of different screen sizes.

• Security and privacy vulnerabilities:

Users have developed an awareness of data privacy and security. Thus, to win their trust, you must eliminate all vulnerabilities and achieve the status of a compliant app!

• No fresh compliance audit:

Over the period, new privacy and security issues emerge as the app is regularly maintained and upgraded. To ensure there are no newly emerged vulnerabilities, you must carry out a compliance audit annually and share the report with the users to easily win trust.

• Security issues with APIs:

While choosing 3rd party APIs, don’t fall into the trap. Affordable APIs might not be secure and many times infect the entire app. Also, not all APIs deliver the same functionality you are looking for. So, reconsider the API you are using in your telemedicine app.

For example, you must use Twilio or some similar communication API for telemedicine video calls, voice calls, and chat.

• Lack of compliance strategy:

There must be a compliance strategy in place that facilitates you to gain clarity of where you are lacking, what to do in any incident, and what you have achieved so far in terms of compliance. Because you can make users believe in your app’s privacy and security when you have ultimate awareness of every compliance thing involved in your app.

For example, if you don’t have a post-breach strategy on the table, how would you assure the users that their data is safe even after a data breach?

• Poorly planned feature set:

A feature set is something that does not only affect the overall budget but also the user experience and your market position. An ideal feature set has the perfect balance of common features, advanced features, and good-to-have features.

In the case of telemedicine apps, appointment booking is a basic feature, remote patient monitoring is an advanced feature, and a weight tracker is a good-to-have feature.

• Features missing purpose:

Many times to just extend the feature set with the hope that it will help you gain a competitive edge, you end up adding those features that do not serve any purpose.

You should avoid this practice as it increases your cost unnecessarily and confuses the users with lots of useless features.

• Lack of advanced features:

There is cutthroat competition in the telemedicine app market. The tested way you can gain a competitive edge and easily dominate the market is by adding advanced features that people not only find useful but futuristic while using it.