Vim started out as BookMD, a company that helped patients book imaging appointments faster, while saving money on out-of-pocket expenses.
I came on as the first designer and fourth full-time member of the team. Over the 4 years I was there, we launched products for patients and providers, rebranded, moved offices 5 or 6 times, grew the team significantly, and raised two rounds of funding.
Vim continues to thrive today and I'm proud to have been a part of building its strong foundation.
Before I joined, a designer had created a logo and mock ups to help BookMD get started.
These provided some direction for the visual design and booking flow.
I established guidelines for creating additional line art illustrations. We would combine geometric shapes, aligned to a grid to create a consistent look and feel across our imagery.
Illustration became a key component of our design system and influenced our company culture.
Mobile First—Our patient and provider tools were developed as web apps. I was very familiar with responsive design from my years in eCommerce. I took a mobile first approach to ensure our app worked well across devices.
Accessible—I had learned best practices for accessibility from a product leader at PayPal. I applied these standards in my new role, which came in handy when insurers were vetting our app.
Joyful—Our Head of Product, Yael, was a wonderful partner who always considered the emotional state and motivation of our users. We worked together to imbue the experience with humanity and joy.
Our first commercial partner was Disney. As a self-funded employer, they were incentivized to keep employees healthy while saving on the cost of services. BookMD offered a user experience that guided eligible employees through their preventative care options and got them to the right care at the best price.
Disney asked us to increase employee adherence to preventative mammograms with a targeted campaign. They would provide a list of eligible employees and we would handle outreach, booking, rewards, and reporting.
Yael and I crafted the slogan "Take Care of You" and I designed a type treatment, digital experience, and tote bags.
Disney saw a 70% increase in mammograms that year.
A few slides from our post-campaign report
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We later teamed up with Disney, Cologuard, and Orlando Health to provide free at-home screening tests to eligible employees.
By this time, I had hired two designers and worked closely with one of them on this campaign.
We incorporated the health system's colors and logo throughout the experience.
With high click through and conversion rates, the campaign was considered a success.
Overall 50 kits were returned with validated samples.
By 2017, the company was looking beyond appointment booking and the name “BookMD” was too narrow. So we started on a journey to find a new name.
The leadership team and I got together to pinpoint the key attributes that we were looking for in our new name:
After lots of conversation and a proposal from an outside agency, we still hadn't settled on a name.
I pitched “Vim”, as in “vim and vigor”. The concept was flexible. The word was short and easy to remember. It also had a unique quality since it's not often used today. It represented the energy of our team and the wishes of good health that we had for our customers.
Finally, the team was convinced and we made a decision. Ever since, Vim has become a beloved name because of the people behind it 💙
Now that we had a name befitting Vim’s ambitions, we needed a logo to match. I started exploring type treatments and noticed that the ‘v’ shape could also be a heart. I explored the form and how the shapes could extend to the other letters in the word.
I used simple shapes to tie in our geometric aesthetic. I wanted the pieces to reveal how they come together to make a whole, similar to how Vim connects systems to provide a seamless customer experience.
Once I had the form, I thickened the shapes so that the word would take up as much space as possible, making it read well when scaled down.
At Vim, I created product screens, visualized business strategies, crafted messaging , and created videos to help our leadership team bring our vision to life.
Our sales presentations had a high level of quality, detail, and polish, which gave us the ability to tell a compelling story and create the strategic relationships we needed to grow.
A few example slides below
When we needed to tell our value-based care story to providers, I created this video. The concept, script, illustrations, and voice over were done by yours truly. I called in The Buzz Lab to collaborate on the storyboard, animate, and bring it all together.
Vim’s founders have always cared deeply about having a strong company culture. They invested in bringing the visual identity into the office and beyond. I created swag and large format illustrations for our offices. It was satisfying to see how the team responded and showcased Vim with pride.
Vim has continued to secure funding, partners, and commercial contracts—growing the company significantly since they started. I’m so proud to see how the design system and culture I helped create lives on today.
