Device compatibility for virtual appointments
Anticipating the shift toward more personalized and accessible healthcare, we launched eClinic in 2018—a comprehensive video consultation platform tailored for both healthcare professionals and patients. The platform enabled seamless appointment scheduling, real-time video consultations, automatic report generation, and a centralized interaction history for ongoing care. By empowering doctors with better control and giving patients a flexible, remote way to manage their health, eClinic bridged key gaps in traditional care delivery.
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic further underscored the platform’s value, accelerating adoption and validating its role in supporting safe, reliable, and scalable virtual healthcare experiences.
Project background
As we rolled out the first version of our 1:1 video interaction feature—starting with essentials like mute/unmute and camera toggles—internal tests showed promising results. Confident in the flow, we moved forward with pilot testing for a few smaller clients.
The target audience for this product included users aged 50–70 years, primarily in clinician–patient roles. Given their age group and varying levels of tech familiarity, we were especially mindful of creating a simple and frictionless experience.
What we learnt from the pilot study
Once the pilots launched, we began receiving reports of inconsistent behavior: users struggled to join calls, and many experienced frequent drops during sessions. From a UX standpoint, this posed a major concern—especially since our backend showed the connection was successfully established.
As we hadn’t yet implemented detailed analytics (being a prototype), I initiated a series of structured interviews with clients to gather qualitative insights. Through these conversations, we uncovered recurring patterns:
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Users were often working with shared devices in small spaces
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Network fluctuations and limited bandwidth were common
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The interface lacked clear feedback during connection issues
These findings became a critical input to our redesign. We shifted our focus toward building a more resilient, accessible experience—adding clearer connection feedback, improved error handling, and guidance tailored for less tech-savvy users.
Secondary research
With this previous information, we started having a hunch that there might be more such factors that could lead to users not being able to join a virtual call.While researching, a lot of topics surfaced that were not network related like
Unfamiliar user interfaces . Lack of technical knowledge . Lack of communication around the call.
​"Most of our calls were not up to the expectation as users faced network disturbance along with issues that restricted them from joining the call itself"
User interviews
To dive deeper into the issues users were facing, we conducted targeted user interviews, focusing on the patient persona within our study. The goal was to uncover specific pain points related to virtual consultations and connectivity. We aimed to gather insights on:
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What users believed was causing their calls or consultations to drop
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How they attempted to reconnect when faced with disconnection
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Their overall comfort and familiarity with mobile phones and apps
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Their level of independence when participating in virtual consultations
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The quality and speed of internet connectivity they typically had access to
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These conversations surfaced valuable patterns and responses that directly informed our next steps and helped us better understand the real-world challenges users were experiencing.
“ Sometimes when I am on a video call with my family something happens and then I don't know what to do from there.”
“ I am unable to figure out why I am not able to join the call even when I have good internet."
“ There have been few times when I have no clue what's happening on the other end when I am on a video call, there is a lot of uncertainty and anxiety."
“ Many a times I dont understand what is written on the apps. Have to wait for someone to assist me.”
“ My internet fluctuates a lot in my area and I want to be able to connect back somehow but that doesn’t happen. ”
“ I have an old phone, not sure if we can do all the modern things we see on other people's calls.”
Encouraging pre-session device checks
To reduce last-minute technical issues, we introduced a Device Testing feature tailored for patients.
This link—shared a few days before and on the day of the appointment—automatically checked the patient's device for camera and microphone access, network bandwidth, and browser compatibility. It was also available right before the call, offering real-time insights that doctors could act on to ensure a smoother consultation experience.
Device test for patients
Below screens showcases how patient flows from one step to another in automated steps. When patient faces any error with any of the steps, they are informed on how to resolve the same and the information also goes back to the patient. Making it easier to troubleshoot.
Device test results for doctors
Before beginning the call, doctors can see the device test results of their patients. If the patients test their device while on the call- the doctor will get real-time update on the status and can reach out to the patient to troubleshoot.
