Tasks Case Study
This project introduced a task management system for nurses and managers to prioritize and manage their work at Optimize Health.
Timeline
May 2023 - Present
Role
UX Lead
Responsibilities
User Research
Information Architecture
Design Ideation
Usability Testing
Key Problem
The Optimize platform lacked a centralized repository for all tasks assigned to nurses. This led to nurses investing precious time in work such as identifying patients for monitoring, manually computing time spent with patients, and remembering future assignments.
Project Goals
Increase user satisfaction and engagement with a task management feature
Increase time spent on patient records versus the patient list
Increase overall efficiency by prioritizing tasks based on urgency level
User Research
To gain insights on users’ frustrations I conducted both qualitative and quantitative research methods to gather data. Questions were presented to participants to assess their attitudes across the following four categories:
↪︎ Patient Monitoring
Participants were asked about their process for selecting patients to monitor on the platform, with the goal of understanding the various workflows users followed. They described starting the process from the patient list; filtering on critical new readings. From there, they would consult the electronic health record (EHR), searching for the patient to check for relevant notes. What should have been a straightforward process turned into a time-consuming hour-long task.
↪︎ Current Workflows
Participants detailed their login workflows and steps on the platform, revealing at least three distinct workflows. Interestingly, even nurses within the same organization had variations in their monitoring processes in the platform.
↪︎ Audit History
Participants shared insights on their methods for tracking activities related to specific patients and audit history. Besides consulting the billing report or the historical interactions tab, users lacked a comprehensive audit trail for all actions performed since a patient’s enrollment. I also identified instances where users were mistakenly utilizing the Notes panel to store interactions with the patient.
↪︎ Future To-Do’s
Participants were asked about their methods for tracking future check-ups for patients. A notable observation was that a number of users relied on the Notes panel to document the future to-dos for each patient. However, this approach posed challenges due to the absence of notifications and the inability to search for completed tasks for a patient.
Pain Points
From my research I was able to identify the following pain points that were common among users:
1
Monitoring is a cumbersome process
It takes patients too long to determine which patients to monitor upon login to the platform
2
There is no audit history
Users don’t know what was done for a patient without having to dig through the notes panel or the historical interactions tab
3
Future tasks are hard to remember
Due to the absence of notifications, remembering future tasks became challenging for users. A common workaround was to use post-its to remember tasks
Making Meaning of the Data
After the research stage, I parsed through the takeaways and key findings to begin brainstorming how I could tackle a task management system and address the users’ frustrations.
I conducted several brainstorming workshops with the product team and engineers to begin mapping out the various user paths and ensure everything was being tied back to the appropriate features within the platform.
These sessions were imperative as they helped me find the clearest flows and remove any redundant or confusing steps.
Low Fidelity Wireframes
I played around with a couple of ideas to show tasks, taking inspiration from the patient list page in the platform. User feedback helped me validate some of these designs and I was able to narrow down my ideas from there.
Mid Fidelity Wireframes
I started introducing elements and components to the designs as well as creating complex prototypes to visualize the user flow. User feedback sessions helped me iterate on the designs and validate we were heading in the right direction.
Usability Study Findings
Throughout the project, I conducted three rounds of usability studies. The initial round assessed the functionality of the user flow and architecture. The next rounds consisted around my high-fidelity prototypes and identifying areas where the mockups needed refinement or were confusing.
Takeaways & Insights
Achievements:
Participants were satisfied with the proposed new landing page, emphasizing its efficiency in providing a comprehensive overview of pending tasks
All participants independently and successfully completed test scenarios without requiring assistance
Challenges:
Some participants expressed concern about the prospect of an endless tasks list. I clarified that the default view would be “My Inbox”, displaying tasks assigned to them or unassigned
Another point of confusion for participants was accessing the history of completed tasks. I clarified this would be a future installment in future state
Final Designs
After going through a few cycles of design iterations and testing, the final designs were completed.
Reflection
I had certain expectations going into this project, however, throughout the design stages, I learned it was quite complicated with the numerous ways tasks tied together with other features on the platform. Maintaining an open-door policy and fostering collaboration played a crucial role. Feedback with cross functional teams and teamwork was the key to delivering a seamless handoff of the final designs.
1
Successful Collaboration
The tasks page and side panel are still being built, but it was a big accomplishment in terms of cross-functional team collaboration
2
Increase in Patient Engagement
68% of users spent less time on the patient list and increased time on patient engagement overall
3
User Satisfaction
“It’s the Ferrari of the remote care platforms! I love how easily I can provide valuable care”
-A happy user who piloted tasks
Tasks Case Study
This project introduced a task management system for nurses and managers to prioritize and manage their work at Optimize Health.
Timeline
May 2023 - Present
Role
UX Lead
Responsibilities
User Research
Information Architecture
Design Ideation
Usability Testing
Key Problem
The Optimize platform lacked a centralized repository for all tasks assigned to nurses. This led to nurses investing precious time in work such as identifying patients for monitoring, manually computing time spent with patients, and remembering future assignments.
Project Goals
Increase user satisfaction and engagement with a task management feature
Increase time spent on patient records versus the patient list
Increase overall efficiency by prioritizing tasks based on urgency level
User Research
To gain insights on users’ frustrations I conducted both qualitative and quantitative research methods to gather data. Questions were presented to participants to assess their attitudes across the following four categories:
↪︎ Patient Monitoring
Participants were asked about their process for selecting patients to monitor on the platform, with the goal of understanding the various workflows users followed. They described starting the process from the patient list; filtering on critical new readings. From there, they would consult the electronic health record (EHR), searching for the patient to check for relevant notes. What should have been a straightforward process turned into a time-consuming hour-long task.
↪︎ Current Workflows
Participants detailed their login workflows and steps on the platform, revealing at least three distinct workflows. Interestingly, even nurses within the same organization had variations in their monitoring processes in the platform.
↪︎ Audit History
Participants shared insights on their methods for tracking activities related to specific patients and audit history. Besides consulting the billing report or the historical interactions tab, users lacked a comprehensive audit trail for all actions performed since a patient’s enrollment. I also identified instances where users were mistakenly utilizing the Notes panel to store interactions with the patient.
↪︎ Future To-Do’s
Participants were asked about their methods for tracking future check-ups for patients. A notable observation was that a number of users relied on the Notes panel to document the future to-dos for each patient. However, this approach posed challenges due to the absence of notifications and the inability to search for completed tasks for a patient.
Making Meaning of the Data
After the research stage, I parsed through the takeaways and key findings to begin brainstorming how I could tackle a task management system and address the users’ frustrations.
I conducted several brainstorming workshops with the product team and engineers to begin mapping out the various user paths and ensure everything was being tied back to the appropriate features within the platform.
These sessions were imperative as they helped me find the clearest flows and remove any redundant or confusing steps.
Low Fidelity Wireframes
I played around with a couple of ideas to show tasks, taking inspiration from the patient list page in the platform. User feedback helped me validate some of these designs and I was able to narrow down my ideas from there.
Mid Fidelity Wireframes
I started introducing elements and components to the designs as well as creating complex prototypes to visualize the user flow. User feedback sessions helped me iterate on the designs and validate we were heading in the right direction.
Final Designs
After going through a few cycles of design iterations and testing, the final designs were completed.
Pain Points
From my research I was able to identify the following pain points that were common among users:
1
Monitoring is a cumbersome process
It takes users too long to determine which patients to monitor upon login to the platform
2
There is no audit history
Users don’t know what was done for a patient without having to dig through the notes panel or interactions tab
3
Future tasks are hard to remember
Due to an absence of notifications, future tasks are hard to remember
4
Inefficient monitoring process
Users have different workflows and there is no one streamlined flow to quickly monitor patients
Usability Study Findings
Throughout the project, I conducted three rounds of usability studies. The initial round assessed the functionality of the user flow and architecture. The next rounds consisted around my high-fidelity prototypes and identifying areas where the mockups needed refinement or were confusing.
Takeaways & Insights
Achievements:
Participants were satisfied with the proposed new landing page, emphasizing its efficiency in providing a comprehensive overview of pending tasks
All participants independently and successfully completed test scenarios without requiring assistance
Challenges:
Some participants expressed concern about the prospect of an endless tasks list. I clarified that the default view would be “My Inbox”, displaying tasks assigned to them or unassigned
Another point of confusion for participants was accessing the history of completed tasks. I clarified this would be a future installment in future state
Reflection
I had certain expectations going into this project, however, throughout the design stages, I learned it was quite complicated with the numerous ways tasks tied together with other features on the platform. Maintaining an open-door policy and fostering collaboration played a crucial role. Feedback with cross functional teams and teamwork was the key to delivering a seamless handoff of the final designs.
1
Successful Collaboration
The tasks page is still being built, but it was an accomplishment in terms of cross-functional team collaboration
2
Increase in Patient Engagement
68% of users spent less time on the patient list and increased time on patient engagement overall
3
User Satisifaction
“It’s the Ferrari of the remote care platforms! I love how easily I can track care”
4
Tying features together
Through tasks and notifications, several platform features were tied together to streamline workflows
Tasks Case Study
This project introduced a task management system for nurses and managers to prioritize and manage their work at Optimize Health.
Timeline
May 2023 - Present
Role
UX Lead
Responsibilities
User Research
Information Architecture
Design Ideation
Usability Testing
Key Problem
The Optimize platform lacked a centralized repository for all tasks assigned to nurses. This led to nurses investing precious time in work such as identifying patients for monitoring, manually computing time spent with patients, and remembering future assignments.
Making Meaning of the Data
After the research stage, I parsed through the takeaways and key findings to begin brainstorming how I could tackle a task management system and address the users’ frustrations.
I conducted several brainstorming workshops with the product team and engineers to begin mapping out the various user paths and ensure everything was being tied back to the appropriate features within the platform.
These sessions were imperative as they helped me find the clearest flows and remove any redundant or confusing steps.
Low Fidelity Wireframes
I played around with a couple of ideas to show tasks, taking inspiration from the patient list page in the platform. User feedback helped me validate some of these designs and I was able to narrow down my ideas from there.
Mid Fidelity Wireframes
I started introducing elements and components to the designs as well as creating complex prototypes to visualize the user flow. User feedback sessions helped me iterate on the designs and validate we were heading in the right direction.
Project Goals
Increase user satisfaction and engagement with a task management feature
Increase time spent on patient records versus the patient list
Increase overall efficiency by prioritizing tasks based on urgency level
Pain Points
Monitoring is a cumbersome process
It takes users too long to determine which patients to monitor upon login to the platform
There is no audit history
Users don’t know what was done for a patient without having to dig through the notes panel or interactions tab
Future tasks are hard to remember
Due to an absence of notifications, future tasks are hard to remember
Inefficient monitoring process
Users have different workflows and there is no one streamlined flow to quickly monitor patients
Reflection
I had certain expectations going into this project, however, throughout the design stages, I learned it was quite complicated with the numerous ways tasks tied together with other features on the platform. Maintaining an open-door policy and fostering collaboration played a crucial role. Feedback with cross functional teams and teamwork was the key to delivering a seamless handoff of the final designs.
Successful collaboration
The tasks page is still being built, but it was an accomplishment in terms of cross-functional team collaboration
Increase in patient engagement
68% of users spent less time on the patient list and increased time on patient engagement overall
User satisfaction
“It’s the Ferrari of the remote care platforms! I love how easily I can track care”
Tying features together
Through tasks and notifications, several platform features were tied together to streamline workflows
User Research
↪︎ Patient Monitoring
Participants were asked about their process for selecting patients to monitor on the platform, with the goal of understanding the various workflows users followed. They described starting the process from the patient list; filtering on critical new readings. From there, they would consult the electronic health record (EHR), searching for the patient to check for relevant notes. What should have been a straightforward process turned into a time-consuming hour-long task.
↪︎ Current Workflows
Participants detailed their login workflows and steps on the platform, revealing at least three distinct workflows. Interestingly, even nurses within the same organization had variations in their monitoring processes in the platform.
↪︎ Audit History
Participants shared insights on their methods for tracking activities related to specific patients and audit history. Besides consulting the billing report or the historical interactions tab, users lacked a comprehensive audit trail for all actions performed since a patient’s enrollment. I also identified instances where users were mistakenly utilizing the Notes panel to store interactions with the patient.
↪ Future To-Do’s
Participants were asked about their methods for tracking future check-ups for patients. A notable observation was that a number of users relied on the Notes panel to document the future to-dos for each patient. However, this approach posed challenges due to the absence of notifications and the inability to search for completed tasks for a patient.
Usability Study Findings
Throughout the project, I conducted three rounds of usability studies. The initial round assessed the functionality of the user flow and architecture. The next rounds consisted around my high-fidelity prototypes and identifying areas where the mockups needed refinement or were confusing.
↪ Takeaways & Insights:
Achievements:
Participants were satisfied with the proposed new landing page, emphasizing its efficiency in providing a comprehensive overview of pending tasks
All participants independently and successfully completed test scenarios without requiring assistance
Challenges:
Some participants expressed concern about the prospect of an endless tasks list. I clarified that the default view would be “My Inbox”, displaying tasks assigned to them or unassigned
Another point of confusion for participants was accessing the history of completed tasks. I clarified this would be a future installment in future state
Final Designs
After going through a few cycles of design iterations and testing, the final designs were completed.