Anise Health
Redesigning a Booking Experience
Aiming to improve patient retention rate
PROJECT BRIEF
This project focused on making booking easier and more routine. Instead of relying on clients to be proactive, we wanted to create more natural touchpoints for scheduling.
I led and mapped out the system across clients, therapists, and backend logic, as well as design flows that reduced confusion while encouraging consistent booking.
MY ROLE
Lead UX Design, User testing
WITH
COO, 2 Engineers
Timeline
6 weeks, launched Q3 2025
Client
AniseHealth (Pre-seed telehealth provider specializing in cultural responsive mental health treatment)
IMPACT
20% increase in appointment booking rate
8% decrease in churn rate
PROBLEM
Some insurance patients don’t book consistently and some just drop off suddenly which are affecting their progress and causing revenue lost for Anise.
Not engaging booking experience
SOLUTION
Building a smooth and engaging booking experience with clarity and support.
01
Session booking homepage
A more actionable homepage and a guided, accessible interface built around how patients actually think and feel.
Multi-booking Module
Instead of stopping after a single booking, clients are guided to schedule all remaining sessions in sequence. After selecting a date and time for the first session, the flow automatically advances them to the next, creating a smooth step-by-step experience.
Provider-led Booking
Therapists can now schedule upcoming sessions with clients directly, creating a natural booking touchpoint instead of relying on portal log-ins.
Why patients avoid booking all the sessions?
I spoke with both active users (those who booked and attended most sessions) and inactive users (those who dropped off mid-cycle), aiming to understand the behaviors that drive consistency vs. disengagement between groups
Session Booking Journey
first part
My first round of design focused on surfacing reminders and reducing the redundancy inside scheduling.
How might we nudge user better in homepage?
I took an atomic approach, designing session cards that clearly surface status to help patients prioritize and take action. I explored many styles and after a discussion with the COO, we chose the one that offered the best balance of clarity, minimal cognitive load, and expandable possibility.
Before
The distinction between different stage and priority is not clear, which led to design that is lack focus
after
I intentionally tested out the usage of the tag as well as prioritized the importance of each CTA to lower cognitive load for user
Design system thinking: how to make the design expandable for future use
Design system thinking: how to make the component responsive friendly
Inside the booking process: one session lead to the other, with clear progress
To reduce mental fatigue, I introduced a multi-booking module. The new flow focus on color and font usage to support a fluid booking flow. I also ensure the responsiveness of design, to lower the time of engineering.
#1 Layout
BEFORE
During testing, users reported having title, steps and subtitles all in different height makes them hard to follow.
AFTER
Aligned the title and step horizontally, provide a more natural browsing flow
#2 Button layout and color usage
BEFORE
User tend to follow the primary color, which led them to notice book appointment button and broke the flow.
AFTER
I decrease the color usage to highlight more parts we wanted user to focus on. I also change the book button to secondary to deprioritize it.
Second part: uncover the root cause
When “easy” to use wasn’t enough: the first part improved flow, but didn’t address why patients drop off at the first place.
Going broad again to brainstorm big ideas
The question of "why it matters" hit me hard. I realized: we’d fixed usability, but hadn’t addressed motivation. Nothing in the current design actually explained why it's important to patients. So I didn’t stop there and explored three new directions.
Tradeoffs and surfacing the right metrics
Gamification and incentives appealed to users but required a longer developing phase. With the needed data already available and a tight timeline, we aligned on the middle ground: personal progress tracking.
It was a clear trade-off: we chose a solution that delivered impact quickly without overloading engineering. I designed metric cards that were simple, positive, and personal—like streaks and recent improvements—to help patients feel their effort was seen and valued.
IMPACT
The new experience drove a major improvement in booking rates.
📈
20% increase
in appointment booking rate
📉
8% decrease
in churn rate
LEARNING
Sometimes, design starts with understanding people—not just flows.
Meet patients where they are
Good UX isn’t just about reducing effort—it’s about knowing when someone might hesitate or need support.
Small shifts can drive meaningful change
Some of the most effective improvements came from simple tweaks to copy, pacing, and layout. Lightweight doesn’t mean low impact—especially when the context is sensitive.
Learning to lead through ambiguity
When stuck without data, proxy users (like medical staff) can be goldmines. Their insights saved this project. This experience also pushed me to observe, make trade-offs, and move forward without full clarity—while always centering the patient experience.