In order to streamline my work, I came up with the process which helps me to keep focus on user needs
Activities: kick-off meeting and workshop, design brief, defining business problem, collecting marketing and sales data, user feedback, feature documentation and content from the client.
Activities: Lean UX Canvas, Journey mapping, Heuristic Evaluation (Design Review).
Activities: brainstorming, sketching.
Activities: wireframing
Activities: presentation, usability testing, wire framing
Activities: visual design, iconography, designing mockups, clickable prototypes, fine-tuning
Problem Statement: The New Work Lists feature is a powerful tool that enables hospitals to automate patient intake routines. However, it is not user-friendly for non-technical staff. MedMetrix often has to involve its tech support team to create work lists for customers, which increases costs and affects customer satisfaction.
I chose Lean UX approach because it suits perfectly for kick-off activity and helps to build understanding within the team and stakeholders, which was my main goal. Considering company doesn’t have a design process and experience working with UX designer before, I had to show the value fast. I also didn’t have direct access to users, so my research abilities were pretty limited. My main source of information and data was the team and Lean UX Canvas helped me to collect and streamline all insights and assumptions they had. Hence, the Lean UX methodology's core principle of "Think - Make - Check" was a suitable approach for this project.
During kick-off session and workshop I created UX Canvas document.
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Following the Lean UX approach, I utilised User-Story Mapping to illustrate solutions that emerged from the research. Considering my limitations on user access, I skipped the Customer Journey Mapping and honed in on User-Story Mapping to dissect specific features and how they tackle user pain points.
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I had access to the stage environment of the product and made a design review for each step of user’s journey. During the review I kept in focus Jakob Nielsen's 10 usability heuristics and user’s feedback I collected from the team.
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Based on research phase outputs, I came up with a set of ideas for improving the user journey and usability on each step. I started with sketching, than proceeded with Lo-Fi wireframes. For some journey steps, I made couple of options and after customer’s feedback made Hi-Fi wireframes. Please click on tabs below to see the process of creating and improving wireframes.
I decided to change table view to the cards view to enhance user visibility across each item in the Work List, aligning with a goal identified during the research phase. Table view more suitable when user needs compare date between the rows, which is not the case.
During user testing performed by the team, we discovered a few problems:
1) Showing the number of items in the Work List proved ineffective since it fluctuates daily, providing users with static information that doesn't offer valuable insights
2) Displaying progress on the work list card is beneficial. However, additional statuses are needed, and it would be useful for users to see actual changes over a selected period. The current version does not provide enough visibility.
3) The list of people working and assigned to work is helpful, but it's not the main focus. The current version places too much emphasis on this data.
I made updates to address these issues.
In the current version, the Work List creation involves a set of tabs that users can switch between in any order. My idea is to transform this into a guided step-by-step flow to reduce confusion and clarify the progress of setting up the Work List for the user.
I suggested to make presets and show default fields, set for each Reference type by default. This could reduce the time users spend adding fields that are typically the same for each work list. Users would retain the ability to delete, edit, or add custom fields. I also suggested implementing a drag-and-drop feature to move fields instead of using arrows. However, due to the extensive development required, this idea has been postponed.
Filter settings are one of the most complex features and can be confusing, especially for non-technical users. Due to technical constraints and limited development time, I needed to maintain the current functionality without making major changes. As a compromise, I proposed the addition of filter presets, which users can apply with a single click, while still keeping advanced settings available. This solution proved effective, as user tests showed that 80% of users apply the same filters to all their Work Lists.
I moved the Preview to the main work area. In the current version, it's placed at the bottom of the page, after the Save button. This placement is confusing and appears unrelated to the content the user adds.
Prioritization settings are implemented in a somewhat complex manner. However, like filters, they can be simplified using a number of presets. User test showed that field Weight, which sets the priority seems confusing as user can type any number in that field. I proposed to replace it with common markers like “Urgent”, “High”, “Low”, but team was not sure that it will work, further testing needed to make a decision.
I proposed replacing the two dropdowns used for assignee selection with a single multi-select field that includes a search function. This feature could be enhanced by adding search suggestions based on previous user search queries. I also suggested to replace checkbox “Enable Escalation” with dropdown, because checkbox is not intuitive in cases where user needs to select parameters.
While I wasn't directly involved in the user testing process, I collaborated with the team to define what metrics we needed to measure and prepared usability testing scenarios. One of the challenges we encountered was the absence of a structured user testing process. Feedback from users was collected by the support team and relayed to the development team without any formal measurement or UX methodology. My goal was to underscore the importance of research and offer streamlined, efficient approaches to gather valuable insights without prolonged time investments.
Considering requirements from the customer, I didn’t change colour scheme or fonts during redesign. My goal was to use what already exists and improve visual design.
If you like what you see and want to work together, get in touch!
ulyanaruban@gmail.com