Understanding Health Product Research Behavior
COMPANY: HEALTHLINE MEDIA
ROLE: USER RESEARCH
TIME: 2 MONTHS
The Challenge
The Healthline Reviews team identified mid-intent users as a potential untapped revenue source and decided to redesign their product review pages to help increase engagement with this target audience. Mid-intent users are people who are actively researching a health solution on Healthline.com but are not yet looking at specific brand product reviews. The first stage of research focused on better understanding Healthline’s mid-intent users and their health product research behavior.
User Interviews and Observation
The goal of the user interviews was to identify the information-seeking and purchasing behavior, motivations, and attitudes of mid-intent users struggling with insomnia. We also wanted to learn more about users’ health and wellness routines and challenges. I conducted 17 semi-structured qualitative interviews remotely over UserTesting.com.
Key Findings
Maximizers & Satisficers
Our interviews revealed two different patterns of health product research behavior in the users whom we were designing content for: “satisfying” and “maximizing.” Satisficers were content with doing less research for a “good enough” product. Maximizers opted to do extensive research to find the best possible solution.
Multiple Health Conditions
We also learned that some of our participants have multiple health conditions and are interested in products with multiple health benefits, such as herbal teas that could boost mood and enhance sleep.
The Ingredients Matter
Several participants had food allergies or dietary restrictions and valued quickly seeing a supplement or herbal remedy's complete ingredient list.
Safety and Drug Interactions
Participants on multiple medications were more concerned about side effects and drug interactions. It’s important to make this safety information easy to find and encourage users on prescription meds to ask their doctor.
Personas and User Journey Maps
Based on my findings in user interviews, I created personas and user journeys for Satisficers and Maximizers to guide the design process by identifying pain points and opportunities for these two groups.
Impact
The research findings laid the foundation for a human-centered iterative design process, which included rapid prototyping, concept testing, and iterative usability testing. The findings from user interviews also led to a new feature on Healthline that generated personalized product recommendations to Healthline users—including people with multiple health conditions—to help with the exploration and evaluation phases of health product research.
