Introduction:

In this case study, I’ll walk you through the comprehensive design process behind the Payment Plan solution I developed for Curve Dental. My objective was to create a user-friendly, efficient, and scalable solution that aligns with the needs of both dental professionals and their patients.

Project Overview:

• Objective: To streamline the payment process for Curve Dental’s clients, making it easier for dental practices to manage payment plans for their patients.
• Timeline: 6 month
• Tools Used: Figma (primary design tool), collaborative tools (Miro, FigJam Boards)
• Team: UX Designer (Me), Developers, Product Owner.

User Research & Discovery:

Due to limited direct access to the final users (dental professionals and their patients), our research phase required a creative approach to gather valuable insights. To overcome this challenge, we relied heavily on feedback from the Customer Services team and key stakeholders within Curve Dental. These internal teams provided crucial insights into the pain points and needs of the end-users based on their interactions and experiences.

Their input significantly shaped the design process, allowing us to develop a solution that effectively addressed user needs, even without direct user interviews. By leveraging this feedback, we ensured the design was aligned with real-world scenarios and user expectations, leading to a more user-centric Payment Plan solution.

Competitor Analysis Insights: Payment Plan Features

1. Dentrix:
   • Strengths: Dentrix offers features for managing payment plans, including customizable plan options and automated payment scheduling. Their user-friendly interface makes it easy for practices to set up and manage plans.
   • Opportunities: Dentrix’s payment plan features are well-integrated with other financial management tools, but there could be room for enhancing flexibility in plan customization to meet diverse patient needs.
2. Eaglesoft:
   • Strengths: Eaglesoft provides comprehensive financial management capabilities, including various payment plan options and integration with billing systems. Their system includes features for automated reminders and easy tracking of payment histories.
   • Opportunities: While Eaglesoft’s payment plans are versatile, there may be opportunities to improve user engagement through more interactive features, such as real-time payment plan adjustments and enhanced visual reporting tools.
3. Open Dental:
   • Strengths: Open Dental supports a high degree of customization for payment plans, allowing practices to tailor plans to individual patient needs. Opportunities: Open Dental’s flexibility is a key advantage, but integrating more advanced security features and streamlined automation for payment processing could enhance the overall user experience.

General Insights:

• Customization: All competitors offer customizable payment plans, but there is a trend towards providing more flexible options to cater to diverse financial situations. 
• Automation: Competitors are leveraging automation to streamline payment processes and reduce manual management. Implementing automated features for payment scheduling and reminders can improve efficiency and user satisfaction.
• Integration: Effective integration with existing financial and billing systems is a common strength among competitors. Ensuring seamless integration with Curve Dental’s current system will be crucial for a smooth user experience.
• User Engagement: Enhancing user engagement through interactive features and clear communication about payment plans can set Curve Dental apart. Competitors are making strides in this area, suggesting an opportunity for Curve Dental to differentiate itself with improved user interface and support features.

Key Insights:

Unmet Need for Payment Plans: Before this project, Curve Dental did not offer payment plans, which was a significant gap in meeting the needs of its clients. Customer feedback indicated a strong demand for flexible payment options, suggesting that the payment plan feature could enhance user satisfaction and engagement.

Stakeholder Goals: Stakeholders were focused on creating a solution that would fill this gap effectively while aligning with the business’s goals of improving client retention and increasing overall revenue. They emphasized the need for a system that would be easy to implement and manage, ensuring that the new feature would be a valuable addition to the existing services.

Need for User-Friendly Design: Given the absence of payment plans, users were unfamiliar with how such systems should work. The design needed to be intuitive and straightforward to ensure that users could easily understand and utilize the new payment options without confusion.

Seamless Integration: Integrating the new payment plan feature into the existing system required careful consideration to ensure that it complemented the overall user experience. Feedback from stakeholders highlighted the importance of making the new feature seamlessly fit within the current system architecture, maintaining consistency in design and functionality.

Communication and Education: Given that the payment plan feature was new, it was essential to focus on an intuitive design that facilitates user understanding. The design needed to incorporate straightforward, informative elements to effectively guide users through the payment plan options. By making the interface user-friendly and providing clear explanations of how the feature works and its benefits, we ensured that users could easily navigate and utilize the new feature with confidence.

Design Process

In presenting the design process for the payment plan feature developed for Curve Dental, please note that due to confidentiality agreements, actual designs and documentation cannot be shared. Instead, illustrative examples are provided to offer insight into the process and the type of work delivered.

Understanding Requirements: We began by collaborating with stakeholders and customer service teams to understand their needs and define the essential features of the payment plan functionality. This involved identifying key requirements, such as the need to display how payment calculations are derived, including initial payments and any applicable interest rates.

Wireframing: The initial stage involved creating wireframes that outlined the layout and functionality of the payment plan feature. This included designing sections to clearly present how payment calculations are made, including breakdowns of initial payments and interest charges. To maintain confidentiality, illustrative examples of similar wireframes are provided to demonstrate the approach taken.

Prototyping: We developed interactive prototypes based on the wireframes. These prototypes were crucial for visualizing how users would interact with the payment plan feature and understanding how payment calculations, including interest rates and payment breakdowns, would be displayed. The prototypes helped us ensure that users could easily comprehend the payment process and see how numbers were derived. Prototypes used are confidential.

Testing and Feedback: User testing was conducted to gather feedback on the prototypes. It was essential to confirm that users could easily understand how payment calculations were made, including the impact of initial payments and interest rates. The feedback was used to refine the design, ensuring clarity and usability. While specific feedback results are confidential, examples of similar testing outcomes are provided.

Final Thoughts and Outcomes:

Designing the payment plan feature for Curve Dental was a journey that combined empathy, usability, and precision. The goal was to create a solution that was not only functional but also intuitive for dental practices and their patients. Through rigorous prototyping, user testing, and iteration, we developed a feature that simplifies payment management and improves the overall user experience.

The outcome was a payment plan feature that is both user-friendly and flexible, offering clear communication of costs, easy setup of payment schedules, and transparent interest calculations. Dental practices can now offer more accessible payment options to their patients, ultimately enhancing patient satisfaction and retention.

This project reinforced the importance of user-centered design in creating solutions that address real-world challenges. By focusing on the needs and behaviors of both dental professionals and patients, we delivered a feature that is as valuable to the business as it is to the end user.