Hi, I’m Coco. You’re Virtual Healthcare Assistant.
Healthcare can be complicated. Remembering your treatment plan, virtual appointments, when to take medicine and how frequently. Each patient has different needs. I was part of an ambitious project to design a virtual assistant for the Teladoc Health app.
To comply with my non-disclosure agreement, I have omitted and obfuscated confidential information in this case study. All information in this case study is my own and does not necessarily reflect the views of Teladoc Health.
Hey Emily, looks like your doctor appointment is soon. Do you want help preparing for it?
Yes
No
Coco provides personal assistance thru vocal and text prompts to help users complete tasks, find information thru natural language commands. Coco uses this to process commands like reminding user of appointment details, sending messages to healthcare providers, checking status of various healthcare related requests, and of course getting them the care they need.
It integrates with Teladoc Health's ecosystem, making it an essential tool for interacting with all products under the Teladoc Health umbrella. (BetterHelp, Livongo, MyStrength, Teladoc, etc.)
Responsibilities
Research how users were using similar tools (Google, Siri, Alexa, etc.) to understand what queries and structure of queries would be most helpful. Also considered accessibility for those who have difficulty speaking
Design the UI, interactions, prototypes, and micro-animations for this virtual persona
Participate in User Research sessions to understand how patients were using early prototypesPartner with engineering and data teams to develop early prototypes
Developing the Personality:
Who Do I Want Taking Care of Me?
Inspired by deconstructing Teladoc’s logo (see below) I decided to call this AI persona “Coco”. I chose to give Coco constant and subtle movement to help Coco seem "alive" and ready to help.
Bedside Manner:
How Do I Want to be Taken Care of?
Research showed that bedside manner heavily influences patient satisfaction. With that in mind, and knowing most users interact with the app while feeling unwell or anxious, I shaped Coco’s visual expressions to project calm, confidence, and trust. The goal was to mirror the reassuring presence of a good doctor and position the experience as dependable, professional virtual care.
On Tap:
When tapped, Coco expands slightly toward the user and immediately begins listening.
Idle State:
Gently rotates and hovers to signal that it’s attentive and ready to help.
Thinking:
The outer glow slowly expands and contracts to show it’s processing the user’s request.
Validating Use Cases
We tested real patient-provider scenarios to understand how people responded to Coco’s replies. Users liked and wanted Coco to surface helpful actions, like adding follow-up visits to their native calendar or creating reminders based on provider messages.
Coco scans conversations for key dates, locations, and instructions, then highlights opportunities the user might want to act on. Once the user taps a suggestion, Coco follows up with the next step, giving them a stronger sense of clarity and control.
“Coco, when is my next appointment?”
User testing showed that people valued being able to ask simple, natural questions like “When is my next appointment?” and get a clear answer.
Coco can read upcoming visit details, then connect directly with native calendar and reminder apps so users can manage their schedule without leaving the conversation.
Voice Test
Prototype of Coco could react when speaking to the user.
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