The healthcare chatbot market is expected to grow by over 23% yearly until 2030. AI chatbots are all the rage in healthcare these days as well— lots of the startups and established products I work with are considering adding or starting a chatbot.

A few reasons why:

• chatbots can gather valuable data such as vitals, symptoms, and goals, and further “coach” a patient;
• chatbots simulate natural conversations and create a more engaging user experience;
• chatbots can reduce operational costs and provide round-the-clock support.

In this article, we will go over the design of one of the most popular healthcare apps using a chatbot to communicate with the users and provide product value — Flo Period & Pregnancy Tracker.

Flo — the world’s most popular female health app

350 million people use Flo as their ovulation and period tracker app, fertility calendar, and pregnancy assistant. It has 4.8 ranking on Apple Store and 4.6 ranking on Google Play.

Impressive, right?

Let’s give in and study how they have designed their in-app chatbots.

1. Start from the pre-programmed topic selection

Improved user guidance. By presenting categorized topics, we reduce cognitive load, and eliminate confusion and frustration present in most open-ended interfaces.

Expectation Setting. The pre-programmed topics show the types of questions users can ask each assistant. This sets user expectations and promotes a sense of control.

Virtual assistants in Flo are grouped by the topics: sex check-in, cramps, headaches, acne, and mental health.

When a user lands on one of the flows, since these are already programmed by the designers, the progress bar appears signaling how many steps are left.