Providence Healthcare

Patient Portal, Toronto, Canada

In 1857, the Sisters of St. Joseph opened the doors to the House of Providence on Power Street in downtown Toronto at what is now the Don Valley Parkway exit to Adelaide and Richmond Streets. At its peak, it provided accommodation for 700 elderly residents and orphans, people who were among the most vulnerable in society. Today, over 5,000 people are served annually through Providence Healthcare's inpatient and outpatient programs.

They were looking for a way to bring a closer connection between the patients, their loved ones and the hospital community.

I teamed up with a couple fellow designers—Pat and Greg. My role was UX Lead in developing the Providence patient portal app.

My main aim was to create a mobile app to support the residents there—in order to do the best job possible I wanted to start from understanding the vision and values of Providence Healthcare. Luckily, the staff there were very helpful and I was able to connect with their Foundation to run multiple discovery workshops.

Let me say, Providence is a fantastic place. During my time of research, I got the opportunity to chat with some of the residents and ended up leaving with many good stories. These user interviews were highly valuable, providing enough for me to know that what was needed in general was better connection. Not necessarily to the caretakers or hospital staff—they already do an excellent job. The main focus was on the connection to the life of the hospital. Events, their families, the staff and the community in general.

We took inspiration from social media when crafting out the primary user flows and interface. Everything as accessible as possible. All services would have a connection to the app, with the ability to interact e.g. book a haircut, or order a snack for pick up. On top of that, we included all the resources you would need whether you were a patient or a visitor; it can be daunting sometimes trying to find out information at a place like the hospital.

Connect with me.

Based in Toronto, Canada
phone (or text) me: 647 621 5520
email me: cheungydesign@gmail.com