Blackcreek worked with MedAvail Technologies to launch the SpotRx brand, addressing problems in the retail pharmacy industry with the Remote Dispensing System, a complete technology solution for the pharmacy of the 21st century.
Strategy, App Design, User Experience Design, Creative & Visual Design, Branding, Web Development
SpotRx began to address the challenges in the retail pharmacy industry with a 24/7 self-serve kiosks that securely dispenses prescriptions and over-the-counter medications. While an innovative solution, the absence of a mobile patient portal to manage health information, insurance, and refills meant all user interactions had to occur directly at the kiosk. This led to longer than necessary transaction times, concerns about the availability of stock, and overall lack of patient engagement. These low points in the user journey reduced the potential impact of SpotRx technology and limited the value provided to both patients and pharmacies.
Our team worked closely with SpotRx to design and deliver a companion mobile application with the goal of improving the overall user experience under the technical and regulatory constraints. Our familiarity and expertise in the pharmacy vertical accelerated the strategy and technology phases of the project by identifying key risks and challenges early on and ensuring the timely delivery of technical milestones.
To minimize long and costly production cycles, we followed a lean product development model. The product roadmap was split into multiple phased releases, beginning with basic refill functionality and later expanding into eCommerce, CRM integrations and more.
As major features were incorporated into mobile application releases, the user interface had to evolve in order to deliver the optimal user experience. We also ensured patients had an intuitive shopping cart experience by separating over-the-counter products and prescriptions into different screens in the app. Over-the-counter products were designed with traditional eCommerce “add to cart” buttons to allow users to purchase multiple quantities, whereas refills retained their “checkbox” interface to only allow one of each script per order.
Designing for healthcare? We created a handy guide that will help aspiring designers, and anyone interested in the industry, design with healthcare practices in mind.
SpotRx was previously operating in Canada as “OnTheSpotRx” and operating in the United States as “APM Pharmacy”. The marketing team seized the opportunity to consolidate both brands to “SpotRx”, while applying a more modern look & feel that could appeal to a younger demographic. We were tasked with taking the new branding guidelines and refreshing the user interface with a refreshed overall aesthetic to reflect the new elevated brand. We needed to ensure that the redesign maintained high accessibility standards with increased text size, larger buttons, higher contrasting colours, more readable font, and a greater amount of whitespace.
We collaborated with SpotRx on the architecture of the overarching product ecosystem by holding multiple technical discovery and strategy sessions. The companion mobile application was designed and integrated directly with SpotRx’s pharmacy management system, keeping all orders, refills, and patient information in sync across the overarching infrastructure. A data-matching algorithm and approval process managed by the pharmacy enabled users to easily onboard themselves and gain access to their medication information.
By connecting the mobile application to the Remote Dispensing System through the use of the React Native framework and CRM integration, and allowing patients to order refills through the patient portal, the end-to-end kiosk transaction time was reduced from 5 minutes down to as little as 90 seconds.
Together SpotRx and Blackcreek reinvented the traditional pharmacy experience with automated retail kiosks, a mobile companion application, and fast & simple delivery options.
We designed and built a digital patient portal available on both mobile devices and web that streamlined registration and onboarding for new users. We expanded beyond prescriptions by integrating an eCommerce platform that incorporated over-the-counter products in a single, cohesive patient experience.
To support SpotRx’s internal marketing and operation teams, we integrated HubSpot with the companion application and backend software to automate workflows, while maintaining a clear separation between customer records and patient records.
We are continuing to develop the next frontier of pharmacy with SpotRx to better support patients in the 21st century.
Looking back on the project, there's a few important takeaways to note:
01 Don’t just focus on the customers - also pay attention to the needs and wants of the support and operations team. Enabling internal teams is a key factor in a better user experience.
02 Support knowledge transfer by aligning your technology choices with the existing infrastructure and expertise of the client. Being flexible and knowledgeable allows you to always choose the right tool for the job.
03 Rebrands are not just about new colours or typography - it can also enable you to target new groups of consumers, increase relevance, and consolidate multiple services.
