Top Doctors® improves their user experience with Google Maps Platform
“Complex searches were optimised by around 170% with the optimisation of the APIs from Google Maps Platform.” – Alberto Lahuerta, Senior Developer at Top Doctors®.
SPAIN – 2021
THE ORGANISATION
Top Doctors® is the leading medical team of private healthcare on an international level. It was founded in 2013 in Spain, although it has renowned specialists in each specialism in Europe, Latin America, and USA.
It is a platform that aims to facilitate the search for medical professionals by specialism, pathology, and location. Whether using the app or its desktop version, it enables you to search, compare and request an appointment.
It also offers access to the profiles of registered doctors, their professional career,s and opinions of real patients. It also allows you to check whether they belong to our medical insurance directory.
THE CHALLENGE
The success of the platform itself, especially in recent years, with the exponential growth of the digitalisation of services, was what led Top Doctors® to a situation in which they required a change to their technological approach.
In 2013, the service did not require a geolocation system, it was more of a directory. As the demand grew, they added more features such as the option of managing appointments and stating where the centres were located. This is when the need arose to implement geolocation. The repercussions of this decision were huge and extremely positive: incidents were reduced, the working of the search tool improved which had a direct impact on the user experience and therefore on the number of users.
Top Doctors® was already using the services of Google Maps Platform, but there was still a lot to do. So, what was the challenge for Intelligence Partner? To optimise the use of APIs. And, as luck would have it, this is our expertise!
THE SOLUTION
Intelligence Partner provided advice to Top Doctors® about the use of Google Maps Platform APIs. The idea was to optimise the service that the platform offered both to patients and doctors. Currently, these APIs are the ones used by the company:
Geocoding API – helps Top Doctors® to show patients information about the closest doctor to the chosen location.
Geocoding is the process that turns addresses (such as “Torre Picasso, AZCA, Plaza de Carlos Trías Bertrán, 1, 28020 Madrid, Spain”) into geographical coordinates (such as latitude 40.4505067 and longitude -3.6930797222222225) which serve as markers or to position somewhere on the map.
Dynamic Maps (Javascript API) and Static Maps API: combine with Geocoding to be able to mark where the doctor or medical centre is located on the map.
These APIs enable the map itself to be viewed. Using both APIs, we can view any result obtained through the Google Maps APIs that we want to implement. The first shows us dynamic maps and the second, static maps.
Specifically, the most relevant optimisation was carried out in the correct and efficient use of these APIs. It was proposed that Static Maps be established as the default API in each search, rather than the Javascript API as had been done up until that point. This initially reduces the loading times without reducing the quality of the user experience given that, if the user continues the search, then the Javascript API does load.
THE RESULTS
One of the main improvements that Top Doctors® obtained was on a technical level: greater speed and performance of the platform was one of the direct results of the optimisation in the use of the APIs, which translated into a better SEO positioning. The fact that complex searches usually took around 5 seconds and decreased to only 2 seconds is remarkable.
At the same time, there was a significant optimisation of costs, reducing direct costs by more than 85%.
Without a doubt, the optimisation of the use of Google Maps was a key piece in Top Doctors®’s road to success.
