Orthodontist online booking: consult stalls

A parent has noticed her daughter's front teeth are crowded and wants a first look. The practice's booking page asks for a reason for visit with options such as crossbite, Class II and interceptive treatment. Nothing says that a first look is a visit type. She picks the closest option, the form adds an insurance step, and asks for a plan and a member number she does not have to hand. She stops, and she books a general dentist for a cleaning, which the form accepts without any question.

• Read the reason list aloud. Is there a first look or not sure option at the top?
• Enter a child's age. Does the form send you down a parent route with guardian fields?
• Enter an insurance plan with an invented member number. Does the form check it outside the site?
• Open the date picker. Does it say when the first open time is, or show an empty grid?
• Enter a phone number and wait for a code. Does the page say what to do if none arrives?

A reason for visit list is written for the clinician, so it names the diagnosis rather than the worry. A parent who has noticed crowding or a bite that looks off does not know whether that is crossbite, a Class II relationship, or something a first look would only confirm. The form then asks her to commit to a treatment type before a consult has happened, which is backwards for a first visit. The fix is a first look or not sure choice above the list, with a short plain line beside each term, so the parent can book the visit that answers her question.

Test the list with a choice a parent would make, and with the option a parent is likely to skip. If the first look option is missing, a parent who wants one will pick the closest treatment type, and the booking will be for the wrong visit. Check the confirmation screen for the visit type, so the parent can see what was booked.

Landing page testing

Some practices separate children's consults from adult ones, because a child may need a parent in the room and a different clinician. The age question decides the route. A parent who enters her daughter's age may land on an adult path with no guardian field, or on a path that offers only a clinician who does not see children. The visitor then sees no suitable times and assumes the practice has none. Test with a child whose age sits near the cut-off, and with an adult. Compare the times each one sees, and the fields each one must fill.

Some forms ask for insurance before any date is shown, because the practice needs the plan to quote a visit. A parent who does not know the plan name, or who has no card to hand, stops there. If the form checks the member number with an outside service, the test cannot pass that step, since visitors cannot connect to an outside service. A booking that adds a text code adds a second wall. Visitors cannot receive a text message, so the test stops on the code screen, and a parent with a phone may get through.

To tell these steps apart from the calendar, check the order. If a date appears before the insurance or code screen, those screens come after the choice and are not a gate to the time. If no date appears until after them, they are the wall, and the fix is to move the times ahead of them. Write down which screen the form stopped on, with the words it showed.

The first run finds the question that stopped the parent: the reason list, the age route, the insurance step, the code or the calendar. A fix changes one of those, and a new visit type, a clinician change or a new insurance field can bring the same stop back. Run a parent with a young child after each change, then an adult who wants a first look, so both routes get checked.