Postpartum care, booked in one step.

Ruth Health offered prenatal and postpartum care by video: pelvic floor therapists, lactation consultants, doulas and mental health support. Starting from their MVP, I led the ground-up design of the patient web app and its design system, with a credit model so all four kinds of care could be paid for from one balance.

RoleSenior product designer
SkillsProduct design, design systems, pricing and payments UX, telehealth
Timeline2022
ContextRuth Health (YC S21), perinatal telehealth
Booking a visit, from a suggestion on home to a confirmed time. Sample data.
1
Screen to book: need, day and specialist
4
Kinds of specialist, one balance
01 · The problem

Four kinds of care, one new mother.

After a birth, care tends to arrive in pieces. A pelvic floor therapist for recovery, a lactation consultant for feeding, a doula for the first weeks at home, someone to talk to about mood. Each is usually a separate provider, a separate booking and a separate bill, landing at the most exhausting point in a person's life.

Ruth put all four on one platform, by video, and already had an MVP. The job was to turn that MVP, and Ruth's updated brand guidelines, into a complete patient web app and a design system the team could build on.

02 · The model

Credits instead of checkouts.

One balance for every specialist. Paying per session would have meant a checkout for every visit and a different price for every kind of care. I designed a credit model instead: buy a pack, spend one credit on a 30-minute visit with any specialist, and mix and match as needs change. In the design, that turned four services into one product, with packaged pricing from a single visit at $99 to twelve for $1,000.

Show credits as visits. A credit only works if people know what it buys. So the balance is counted in visits and sits in the sidebar on every screen. Every booking shows what it costs and what will be left before you confirm. Every pack shows its price per visit, so the value of a bigger pack is plain: $99 a visit on its own, $83 in the twelve-pack. A short ledger shows where every visit went.

Add visits screen: four packs of 1, 4, 8 and 12 visits with the price per visit and the saving on the 4, 8 and 12 packs, the 8-visit pack selected, a summary going from 3 visits to 11 after purchase, and a ledger of where visits went, including one already booked.
Add visits: packs priced per visit, and a ledger of where they went. Sample data.

Humayun took our MVP functionality and updated brand guidelines to create a design system and product experience we could be proud of, while keeping the mothers we work with firmly in mind.

Alison Greenberg · Former Co-CEO, Ruth Health (YC S21)

03 · The experience

Built around her week, not a menu.

Start from where she is. Onboarding asks where she is in pregnancy or postpartum, and home uses it. It opens on her week of the fourth trimester, the next visit with its prep checklist inline, her care team, and suggestions that make sense for that week, instead of a directory of everything Ruth offers.

Ruth Health home: 'Good morning, Stacie' with a fourth trimester progress bar at week 6 of 12, the next visit with a doula and a two-item prep checklist, her care team of three specialists, and three suggestions for week 6.
Home: week 6 postpartum, the next visit with its prep, and suggestions for that week. Sample data.

Book a person, not a service. In postpartum care, continuity matters. Someone who has already walked one therapist through her birth shouldn't have to start again with a stranger. Most booking flows ask for a service, then a time, and only show who you'll see at the end. Here it's one screen: pick what you need and a day, and every specialist shows their open times on their own card, with the one she has seen before marked. Then a single confirmation.

Booking screen: the pelvic floor need is selected, Thursday May 12 is picked in a week strip, two therapists show their open times, Dianne Russell is marked 'You've seen Dianne before' with 11:00 AM selected, and a summary panel shows the visit costs one visit, taking the balance from three to two.
Booking: need, day and person on one screen, with the cost beside it. Sample data.

Every visit leads to the next. Visits shows what's coming up and what's left to prepare for each one. Past visits come back as a short summary from the specialist, with the plan they agreed on and a follow-up one tap away, so the care team's advice doesn't end when the call does.

Visits screen: two upcoming video visits with their prep status and join times, a summary from the last doula visit with a two-item plan and buttons to book a follow-up or send a message, and a list of past visits with summaries.
Visits: what's next, what to prepare, and what the last specialist said. Sample data.
04 · The outcome

One product instead of four.

Ruth got a complete design for the patient web app and a design system built from their updated brand, with the credit model at its center: four kinds of specialist, one balance, and booking that starts with who you'll see.

It's the kind of problem I like most, where the business model and the interface have to agree with each other. Credits only work if people can see what they're spending.

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