Most software overwhelms people before they even start using it.
Setup wizards. Product tours. Tutorial videos. PDF manuals. And if you’re a therapist who just wants to document sessions and manage appointments, this feels like punishment right from the start.
Early on, we saw how stressful software can be for non-technical users. Here’s where my experience as a product designer came into play.
We listened. We watched therapists work. We asked, “What can we remove or simplify?” It’s the reason why we have no endless setup screens. No confusing tours through the product. No tech jargon.
We took a completely different approach
We explain features by using the features.
When you open the calendar for the first time, there are already a few appointments scheduled, as if you had been using our product all along. Each one has a note explaining what type of event it is. Want to learn about documentation? Open the treatment notes of one of our existing sample patients. There are already two entries waiting, showing you exactly how it works, utilizing the capabilities of the feature itself.
No videos to watch. No separate tutorials. Just working examples, right where you need them. That’s thoughtful user experience every step of the way.
The result?
90% of therapists are up and running in under 20 minutes. Training costs for new team members are virtually zero. Therapists feel empowered, not lost.
Simplicity is extremely hard to build. It means saying no to confusing (but often powerful) features. It means rewriting things five times until they’re obvious. But it’s worth it.
Are we perfect? No, not even close. We still have workflows that make me wince on a daily basis. But simplicity is a process, not a destination. Every ambiguity removed means more time for care. Building software that people actually want to use is about removing friction.
Ask yourself: What’s one thing you could show instead of explain in your product?
