Helios Health
A human-centred fertility journey
Fast Company
Best Health-Related
Design 2024 Honoree
Helios Health first approached us with one thing in mind: to find a partner whose intrinsic human centred approach would help them create a digital companion service to support people through one of the most emotional journeys they can go on — fertility.
When Helios Health chose ustwo, Alex Schaefer, Executive Director of Fertility, kicked off the project by saying “I believe this is an extraordinary opportunity for all of us to create something exceptional for the whole ecosystem of fertility that can improve lives significantly and bring the patient experience to a new level.”
So that’s what we set out to do.
Over the course of eight months, we partnered with Helios Health to create a digital fertility service as a companion to in-person fertility treatment.
The goal of this service is to help intended parents better understand the journey of fertility treatment and ease anxiety that is commonly a part of the process.
Equally important was to consider the benefits to clinicians and clinics. For clinicians, they recognised the value of providing patients with key information throughout the treatment, so their time with patients could be better utilised. For clinics, having a digital companion app was a helpful acquisition tool.
We ran a human-centred product development approach, focusing first on understanding user needs in Helios Health’s target markets of Spain and Germany, followed by our “Make, Test, Learn” process - allowing us to get tangible results quickly, based on key user insights.
Our user research surfaced insights that shone a light on the personal and emotional rollercoaster that getting fertility treatment can be – a journey in which facts are a precious commodity, ‘support networks’ are unique for each patient, and a process that does not have a defined end date.
It's very rewarding, for all women in the future it's a new tool, and we'd feel that there is someone out there who understands us. I wish that every clinic could offer this to us.
In addition to valuable user research, we also conducted secondary market and landscape analysis.
From this, we distilled key market trends which validated that this was an opportune moment to build the product: exponential growth forecasts in the fertility market, shifting legislation, and a complex, fragmented landscape.
We set out to combat these trends by focusing on the human elements: first impressions, accessibility, information-based decision making, and personal connection. At the end of our Discovery phase, we had a service vision and concepts to bring key moments in the journey to life.
As Helios Health was building a new business alongside the fertility app, helping them create the initial business model and beta brand was also part of our deliverable. For the initial business modelling, we identified potential revenue streams and considerations for growth.
For the beta brand, we created principles for tone of voice, fonts, imagery, and colours, plus a working logo and visual motifs to use throughout the product.
As part of our final deliverable, we brought the beta brand to life, representing it through key digital concepts and on representative physical assets to show the breadth and flexibility of our direction.
The close collaboration we had with key Helios Health stakeholders and clinicians, enabled us to create a product that showcased desirability, feasibility, and viability. Stakeholders who joined regular project meetings, helping to inform the direction of the project, meaning that there were no surprises for the business at the end.
We are thrilled by the reception of the product which absolutely reflects the outstanding collaboration with ustwo who at each project stage were able to deliver and adapt to our needs while also keeping clear focus on the unique needs of our patients and clinicians.
We created a wraparound support product, which Helios Health now call Pineapp Fertility, that guides and nurtures patients on their treatment journey.
Key features to aid intended parents include learning content, treatment plans, ability to contact the clinic, a calendar for appointments and medication, and next steps. In addition to the product itself, we also delivered a beta brand with a human tone of voice, a patient and clinic proposition, business modelling, and an informational website to accompany the product.
Pineapp Fertility can be found in the Apple App Store and in the Google Play Store, for certain markets.