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Stella Health Assessment: Improving engagement

Redesigning Vira Health's menopause assessment, focusing on drop off points

Role

UX/UI Designer

Industry

Healthtech, Femtech

Duration

3 months

What is the Stella Assessment?

Vira Health is a femtech offering menopause care in a world with limited access to it. Stella+, a digital health assessment, provides menopause insights, medication, and clinician appointments.

The health assessment identifies an individual’s menopause symptoms and risks , generating a personalised treatment options which can include medication, clinician appointments and access to the Stella lifestyle app

20,000 assessment completions within the first year
Piloted in 5 NHS trusts and 3 large employers
Available in the UK, the US and South Africa

Context & Research

The challenge

The Stella product moved from a a subscription model that included both medication and clinician appointments to an itemised model where medication or clinician appointments were purchased. Increasing conversion to paying users was the priority for the new UK and US Stella model.

The treatment page was a long page of information with medication options to choose from straight away for those that were eligible. The page felt overwhelming and was a source of drop-off during check out.

Persona

Defining the user flow

Ideation & Options

Identifying key improvement areas

As 87% of Stella users complete the assessment on mobile, I designed with mobile-first in mind throughout all features, including when prototyping and presenting work back to engineers, product managers and founders

Redesigning the product cards

Option analysis

Ideas for product card	Pros	Cons
Drop down for choosing form of medication	Gives user control	Not feasible as each product card will link to pharmacy stock Difficult for mobile users
Pricing as chips	Green chip draws eye to pricing immediately	Green chip is used in the context of a symptom scale in the design system so may lead to confusion
Changing the imagery	The imagery is dated and providing visuals of where the HRT is places is helpful	Not feasible with the current scope of work

The new flow

Usability testing
Our in house user researcher tested the flow on more than 7 menopausal women;

The checkout experience was seamless for them, stating that their medication options as well as risks, appeared clear
The product cards had all of the information they were looking for
The next steps were clear

What is the Stella Assessment?

20,000 assessment completions within the first year
Piloted in 5 NHS trusts and 3 large employers
Available in the UK, the US and South Africa

Context & Research

The challenge

Persona

Defining the user flow

Ideation & Options

Identifying key improvement areas

As 87% of Stella users complete the assessment on mobile, I designed with mobile-first in mind throughout all features, including when prototyping and presenting work back to engineers, product managers and founders

Redesigning the product cards

Option analysis

Ideas for product card	Pros	Cons
Drop down for choosing form of medication	Gives user control	Not feasible as each product card will link to pharmacy stock Difficult for mobile users
Pricing as chips	Green chip draws eye to pricing immediately	Green chip is used in the context of a symptom scale in the design system so may lead to confusion
Changing the imagery	The imagery is dated and providing visuals of where the HRT is places is helpful	Not feasible with the current scope of work

The new flow

Usability testing
Our in house user researcher tested the flow on more than 7 menopausal women;

The checkout experience was seamless for them, stating that their medication options as well as risks, appeared clear
The product cards had all of the information they were looking for
The next steps were clear

Launching in the US

Research shows that although over 2 million women in the US enter menopause each year, only 20–30% receive treatment, highlighting a critical need for accessible, trustworthy care — a gap Stella+ aimed to address

For the Stella menopause assessment to flourish in the US market, we needed to understand the needs of American menopausal women as well as the unique business goals for Stella in the US

Research

We conducted multiple user interviews with American women who are experiencing menopause, learning more about their pain points and expectations when seeking care

There is a need for comprehensive menopause care in the US, many women have annual reviews but not regular care
Expertise in subject matter and follow-up care were important in when paying for a potential menopause provider
Up to 80% of women say they would prefer personalized menopause care but find access difficult or confusing.

Usability testing of the current digital product

21 women within our target age group were invited to test the existing US menopause assessment flow over 2.5 weeks. The usability tests taught us the following:

Page	Usability findings
Results page	Testers valued visualising their menopause stage and the reasons for this from the assessment. However there were a few confusing elements, such as the coach chat mentioned as a part of the app - testers assumed this meant they could ask medical questions without the need for a doctor. Also, some testers felt medication was not something they wanted to explore or be offered
The Stella offering page	Some users assumed they could access clinical care through the app, while most wanted clearer options to speak with a clinician before receiving prescriptions.
ID verification page	Lack of clarity on why ID was required caused hesitation, testers were were confused by the immediacy of the ID review. Users felt the term "selfie" was too informal for a serious medical process

Customer journey map

I created a journey map to visualize the entire user experience in collaboration with the UX Researcher, helping to identify key points of drop-off. Working closely with the clinical and marketing teams, we looked at enhancing the overall user experience.

Snippet of the Stella customer journey map, March 2024

What will success look like?

High assessment completion rate and purchasing of clinician appointments with minimal assessment drop-off.

Final solution

Solution One: Designing a results page with visualisation of menopause stages and supplementary education. This was the evolution of the results page, collaborating with clinicians and the content team.

Solution Two: Increasing trust on the ID verification page

a black cellphone with a white letter on it

Impact of the work across locations

ID verification completion increased from 12 to 19%
60% conversion rate from customers creating accounts to paying for medication or clinician appointments

Key Learnings

Collaboration is key to complex problem-solving and collective ideation. The US assessment flow encompassed many clinical and business constraints, putting our minds together allows us to provide better solutions.
Further user testing and iteration for continual improvement is important as drop-off post-assessment could still be lower. Keeping up to date with metrics here was crucial.

Impact of the work across locations

ID verification completion increased from 12 to 19%
60% conversion rate from customers creating accounts to paying for medication or clinician appointments

Key Learnings

Collaboration is key to complex problem-solving and collective ideation. The US assessment flow encompassed many clinical and business constraints, putting our minds together allows us to provide better solutions.
Further user testing and iteration for continual improvement is important as drop-off post-assessment could still be lower. Keeping up to date with metrics here was crucial.

Other projects

Stella Lifestyle App: Providing clinical care

Creating a streamlined app experience and online menopause assessment

Improving the international recruitment process

A full re-design and new user experience for the Borderless website.

Shaimaa Osman

Shaimaa Osman

Shaimaa Osman