Context: Ghana is often held up as a model of stability in West Africa, and in many ways, it is. But like most places (including the US) prosperity isn’t evenly distributed, and the gap in healthcare access between those who can and can’t afford it is stark. BIMA Mobile, best known for microinsurance, wanted to move into a new space: a simple teledoctor service, BIMA Doctor, that could reach people who’d otherwise have a difficult time getting access to a real doctor’s visit.

Year: 2016

What I Did: In 2016, I was the creative lead for this project through Dalberg Design, alongside a small team that included BIMA’s own staff who learned the design process in real time as we worked. Over eight weeks, we conducted more than 100 interviews across Ghana, speaking with community members, clinic patients, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, druggists, and healthcare administrators. We moved through research, synthesis, and service design to generate a service blueprint and clear set of strategic recommendations for how BIMA Doctor should take shape.

What We Made: Our final design guide included an expanded pharmacy service model and additionally covered interactive mobile options for customers through an app. We also gave the BIMA team a set of design principles and UX research to guide their development of an Android application, which was work that outlasted our engagement. Two years later, BIMA Doctor was recognized by the West Africa Clinical Alliance as the best teledoctor service in West Africa.

This was also my first pure service design project; we weren’t building the call center technology, we were designing the experience around it. That distinction ended up shaping how I think about service design work to this day.