Your medical system is losing to WhatsApp. And you don't even know it.

A management system that loses to a meme-sharing app

There is a paradox here. MedTech companies invest months and budgets into patient communication systems—with modules, notifications, and dedicated backends—yet they still lose to an app designed for sending funny GIFs to an aunt in a family group chat.
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It’s not because WhatsApp is better in terms of content. It’s because it is faster to use than the path your product has laid out. A doctor doesn't switch to private text messages because they enjoy the risk of violating patient confidentiality. They switch because the system forces them to go through five screens, two logins, and a form just to write one sentence: "please stop taking the medication three days before the procedure."
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This is exactly the moment when good UX stops being a matter of aesthetics and becomes a matter of patient data security. Because if the path within the system is slower than opening WhatsApp, users – even the most conscious ones – will find a workaround. Always.


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At ZIMA, we design so that workarounds aren't necessary

A similar challenge was behind our project for nOvum – a fertility clinic where the Patient Portal was intended to become the primary channel for patient communication. Not an addition alongside the phone and reception, but a real alternative to messages sent "on the side." For that to happen, the first interaction with the system – registration and login – couldn't be discouraging from the start. Because if a patient gives up at that stage, they’ll just go back to the phone.
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In practice, this means designing with a few core assumptions hard-coded into the process:

• GDPR and data security without discouraging the user. Two-step login was necessary due to the sensitivity of medical data – we refined it so that small, clearly explained steps wouldn't discourage patients right from the start.
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• Language that understands the digital context rather than copying the reception desk. At the clinic, staff address patients formally. In the Patient Portal, we opted for a direct tone – because it’s natural online and genuinely makes the process easier to understand.
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• Minimizing the points where a patient might drop off. Sending a user to their email inbox during registration is an invitation to distraction. Our "Sniper Link" takes them directly to the correct message, reducing the number of abandoned registrations.

You can find more about our approach to medical projects on our UX for MedTech page, and the full project story in our nOvum case study.


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WhatsApp isn't the problem. It’s a symptom.

In medicine, a fever isn't the disease itself. It’s a signal that something is happening in the body that needs attention. It’s the same with messaging apps. The mere fact that doctors communicate with patients outside the system isn't the root of the problem. It’s a signal that, somewhere in the designed process, the user found a simpler path to their goal.

That’s why, instead of fighting workarounds, it’s better to treat them as part of the diagnosis. They are usually the best indicators of where a product has stopped meeting people's real needs.

You don't have to plan a massive project right away; sometimes, it's enough to look at a single user journey together. That is exactly what our free pilot workshop is for – a way to diagnose a problem before you start looking for a solution.

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