First-Care Clinic Records Management App
UX Case Study
Medyna
Product name
2 months
Duration
Lead UX Designer with a focus on Interaction Design
Role
Project Overview
This project, part of the Google UX Design Professional Certificate program, focuses on designing an app and responsive website tailored for first-care clinics. The goal was to create a seamless experience across mobile and desktop platforms, enabling healthcare professionals to document, store, and access patient records efficiently.
Through a user-centered design approach, I conducted secondary research, developed user personas, and applied Design Thinking techniques to guide each stage of the process. The result is an intuitive and user-friendly interface, designed to streamline workflows and enhance operational efficiency in healthcare environments.
The Problem
Healthcare professionals often face fragmented workflows and inconsistent tools, which can lead to administrative errors, delays in accessing critical information, and increased cognitive load during patient care.
The Goal
The goal of this project was to design a record management tool that serves not just as software, but as an ally for healthcare professionals. By prioritizing workflow efficiency, usability, and clarity, the solution aims to:
Reduce administrative errors during patient care.
Improve the speed and accuracy of accessing critical patient data.
Enhance the clarity of documentation processes for doctors and nurses.
Minimize cognitive overload by presenting information intuitively.
Every design decision was rooted in understanding the day-to-day challenges faced by healthcare teams, ensuring the final product delivers reliability, adaptability, and ease of use. The ultimate objective is to empower healthcare professionals to focus on delivering high-quality patient care without unnecessary friction.
Responsibilities
While I was involved in multiple stages of the project, my main focus was on Interaction Design—ensuring every touchpoint was intuitive, functional, and aligned with user expectations.
My contributions included:
Conducting user research to uncover key pain points and opportunities.
Developing user personas to represent audience segments accurately.
Creating interaction flows to map out seamless user experiences.
Designing high-fidelity prototypes that validated design hypotheses.
Collaborating closely on visual design, ensuring cohesion across interfaces.
Conducting usability testing to refine interactions and address friction points.
User Research
For the user research phase, while the program did not require primary research with real users, I decided not to pursue it due to limited time and resources. Instead, I conducted secondary research to analyze the current landscape of formal workers in the healthcare sector, gathering data to better understand the market and its quantitative dynamics.
Key insights
777,143 physicians, over 4 million nurses, and approximately 202,304 dentists currently work in first-care in the U.S.
Insight: These numbers reflect the massive scale of professionals involved in primary care services, including a significant presence of dental professionals who play an essential role in patient care.
Impact on Design: The system needs to be scalable and intuitive, accommodating a diverse group of healthcare professionals without compromising performance or introducing excessive complexity. Additionally, it should consider the unique workflows and documentation needs of each professional category.
Patient visits in first-care are projected to increase from 773,606 in 2020 to 893,098 by 2040.
Insight: The expected increase in patient visits indicates a rising demand for fast and efficient healthcare services.
Impact on Design: The solution must be scalable and prepared to handle large volumes of data, ensuring information remains organized and easily accessible through an intuitive interface.
Women represent 38% of physicians, 90% of nurses, and approximately 38% of dentists in the U.S. first-care sector. However, there is still insufficient demographic data regarding the presence of non-binary individuals in the healthcare workforce.
Insight: The continuous growth of women's representation across these professions signals a clear demographic shift. The absence of data on non-binary individuals suggests a gap in statistical representation.
Impact on Design: The interface must be inclusive and accessible, with language and workflows that respect gender diversity and ensure a welcoming experience for all users.
Workforce shortages are expected to worsen by 2036, particularly in non-metropolitan areas.
Insight: Workforce shortages in non-metropolitan regions pose a challenge to maintaining quality and efficiency in healthcare services.
Impact on Design: The app must be designed to maximize the efficiency of smaller teams, offering features that automate repetitive tasks and reduce cognitive load on professionals.
Conclusion
These insights served as a foundation for the design decisions made in the next phase. Each data point informed critical aspects of the solution, from scalability and workflow efficiency to user inclusivity and data accessibility. Additionally, the absence of demographic data on non-binary healthcare professionals highlights the importance of creating inclusive design systems that respect diverse user identities.
The proposed app aims to address these key needs, ensuring that healthcare professionals, regardless of team size, location, or background, can rely on a seamless and effective tool.
Sources
State of the U.S. Health Care Workforce, 2023
Ambulatory Care Use and Physician office visits
Distribution of licensed dentists working in the U.S. from 2001 to 2023, by gender
Pain Points
Workforce Shortage and Overload
1
Growing staff shortages result in increased workload, burnout, and higher error rates in patient care.
Lack of Interdisciplinary Integration
2
Gaps in communication between different specialties make it challenging to coordinate care and share critical information effectively.
Administrative Burden
3
Increased patient visits add layers of administrative complexity, leaving less time for direct patient care and increasing the risk of documentation errors.
User Personas
To better illustrate the users of this app, I developed personas that represent key audience groups across different professional categories in first-care services. These personas are rooted in insights drawn from demographic data and workforce trends, ensuring they accurately reflect the real-world challenges and workflows of healthcare professionals.
The U.S. healthcare workforce is experiencing notable demographic changes:
Physicians and dentists: An aging workforce with many professionals approaching retirement age, intensifying projected shortages in the coming years.
Nurses: A balanced demographic profile with a significant female majority, playing a critical role in maintaining workforce stability despite rising demands.
These trends underscore the need for adaptable tools that accommodate diverse user profiles, varying levels of technical proficiency, and distinct professional responsibilities.
In the following section, you'll find three key personas representing physicians, nurses, and dentists. Each persona highlights their goals, pain points, and unique needs, serving as a foundation for design decisions that address their day-to-day challenges."
Dr. Michael Harris
Physician
Michael is an experienced family physician in his late 50s, working in a suburban clinic. He feels the pressure of rising patient demand and struggles with the administrative burden of managing records, which takes time away from direct patient care.
"If I could spend less time on documentation and more on patient care, I’d feel less overwhelmed and more effective in meeting the growing demands of my clinic."
Goals
Focus on patient health without distractions.
Maintain a detailed medical history to monitor each patient's condition.
Quickly access key patient information during consultations.
Frustrations
Difficulty finding specific information quickly.
Needing assistance to navigate a complex record-keeping system.
Feeling overwhelmed by redundant administrative tasks.
Emily Rodriguez
Nurse
Emily is a registered nurse in her early 30s, working in a fast-paced urban hospital. She values efficiency and relies on digital tools to manage her workload, but she often encounters difficulties in coordinating care across interdisciplinary teams.
"If I had better tools to coordinate with other teams, I could avoid miscommunication and deliver more seamless care to my patients."
Goals
Perform her tasks efficiently without system-related interruptions.
Have the autonomy to care for patients without unnecessary delays.
Easily coordinate workflows with other professionals.
Frustrations
Juggling too many tasks that could be automated.
Having to pause work to assist other users with the system.
Inconsistent communication between different departments.
Dr. Sophia Patel
Dentist
Sophia is a dentist in her mid-50s, running a practice in a rural area. She faces challenges due to staff shortages and limited resources, making it harder to maintain efficient workflows while meeting the growing needs of her patients.
"If I had access to resources that simplified workflows, I could better manage my practice and meet the needs of my community despite the staffing challenges."
Goals
Use a simple and intuitive system for patient registration and documentation.
Conduct consultations without interruptions or technical hurdles.
Quickly access key patient information during appointments.
Frustrations
Difficulty inputting data efficiently into the system.
Needing technical assistance frequently.
Lack of clear workflows for managing daily tasks in smaller teams.
These personas represent key audience groups who will interact with the app. Each profile highlights unique goals, frustrations, and needs, reflecting the real-world challenges faced by healthcare professionals.
They serve as the foundation for design decisions aimed at improving workflows, reducing administrative burden, and ultimately allowing professionals to focus on patient care.
User Journey’s Mapping
To gain a deeper understanding of the clinic's workflow and interactions, I developed a journey map for each persona. These maps outline their key tasks and responsibilities, showcasing intersections, dependencies, and opportunities for optimization in their daily operations. Through this analysis, I identified recurring patterns, such as frequent feelings of anxiety, confusion, and overwhelm during critical moments of care delivery. These emotional markers often correlate with tasks involving manual data entry, reliance on other departments, and unclear workflows.
Key opportunities emerged from these insights, including the implementation of automated systems for pre-loading patient information, AI-driven suggestions, and checklist validation tools. Additionally, improving interface design to prioritize clarity, intuitive navigation, and functional shortcuts can significantly reduce friction during key stages of patient care.
Lastly, fostering integration between departments through synchronized systems and streamlined information sharing addresses bottlenecks and enhances operational efficiency. By addressing these insights, the clinic can improve not only the experience of healthcare professionals but also the quality of care delivered to patients.
Design
The insights gathered during the research phase provided a solid foundation for understanding user needs, challenges, and goals. With these findings in hand, I moved into the design phase, where abstract concepts and user expectations began to take shape through tangible representations.
This stage was all about translating insights into actionable solutions — exploring flows, interactions, and interface structures that would directly address the problems uncovered earlier.
The following steps showcase how this transition unfolded, starting with visual storytelling through storyboards, progressing into wireframes, and culminating in an interactive low-fidelity prototype.
Introduction
To bridge the gap between research insights and interface design, I started with two layers of storyboarding:
Big Picture Storyboards: These focused on capturing the broader context of user interactions, mapping out how personas would navigate through the product and achieve their goals within their workflows. This step provided a clear understanding of usage scenarios and helped identify critical touchpoints.
Screen-Specific Storyboards: After establishing the big picture, I zoomed into the details, exploring on-screen interactions such as button placements, text fields, menus, and other interface elements. This layer aimed to ensure that each screen served a clear purpose and facilitated smooth interactions.
These storyboards laid the groundwork for the wireframing phase, where concepts would become tangible and testable
Storyboards
With these storyboards as a foundation, I moved forward to build the first set of wireframes, translating these sketches into structured digital layouts.
In this phase, iteration was fluid and continuous, driven by constant reflection and refinement of previous findings. Each sketch served as a rapid prototyping tool, enabling quick validation of ideas and immediate adjustments based on emerging insights.
Paper Wireframes
A key focus during this stage was addressing the distinct needs of different user groups:
Doctors and Dentists: Separate templates were designed to accommodate their specific workflows, ensuring clarity and efficiency in accessing relevant information and performing key tasks.
Nurses: Dedicated screens were crafted to support their dynamic routines, prioritizing quick access to patient data and real-time task management.
Intersections Across Areas: Recognizing the overlaps between these groups, such as patient profiles, wireframes were carefully designed to ensure consistency and seamless navigation across shared components.
Wireframing for the dentist template for an odontogram on bigger screens.
This approach allowed the design to balance specialization with cohesion, creating an experience tailored to each professional's needs while maintaining a unified system architecture.
The fluid iteration cycle ensured that each decision remained aligned with the core user insights and product goals, setting a strong foundation for the transition to digital wireframes.
Quick paper wireframes showcasing templates for doctors, dentists, nurses, and shared patient profiles.
Digital Wireframes
Transitioning to Figma, I developed a customized wireframing framework based on an existing one, adapting it to meet the specific needs of this project. This allowed me to establish a structured and repeatable process for building screens efficiently.
Leveraging my experience as a prototyper, I quickly componentized repetitive elements, ensuring consistency across the wireframes while maintaining the flexibility needed for iteration.
This approach not only streamlined the creation of layouts but also accelerated the design workflow, allowing me to focus on refining user flows and addressing key insights from the previous phase.
The prototype development closely followed the logic and insights gathered during the discovery and ideation phases. The main flow was designed around a patient list screen, serving as the entry point and a consistent anchor throughout the experience, easily accessible whenever needed.
From this central screen, users could:
Add new patients
Access existing patient profiles
Navigate to other key pages via a persistent menu
Access the menu from the top button
Low-fi Prototype
To ensure a predictable and intuitive flow, I mapped out probable user journeys using FigJam. This step provided a clear overview of potential interactions, helping me anticipate user behavior and refine navigation paths.
This structured approach not only enhanced the coherence of the prototype but also laid a solid foundation for planning the interaction and usability testing phase.
The complete interactive flow for the prototype on Figma
Usability testing
Methodology
Objective: Understand how easy it is for users to navigate and operate the medical records management app for first-care clinics.
Location: Brasília, Brazil.
Date: December 18, 2024.
Duration: Each session lasted up to 10 minutes, followed by a System Usability Scale (SUS) evaluation.
Participants:
Group A: Healthcare professionals.
Group B: Users with no prior experience in the healthcare sector.
Demographics: Two males and two females, aged between 35 and 68.
Format: Moderated usability study with scenario-based tasks and structured prompts for each group.
Scenarios Tested:
Creating and managing patient profiles.
Accessing and updating medical records.
Managing user administration within the app.
Performing specific actions such as printing medical history and deleting user accounts.
Tools: Prototype testing on a digital interface with guided scenarios and SUS evaluation.
Participant A
Performance: Operated the app with ease and successfully completed all tasks.
Challenge: Faced initial difficulty understanding the separated user administration menu.
Observation: Suggested improvements in the visibility and structure of administrative features.
Participant B
Performance: Faced initial difficulty with the placement of the "Add" button, as it overlapped with text (intentionally designed for validation).
Challenge: Struggled slightly with the first task but successfully completed all subsequent tasks.
Observation: Provided valuable suggestions based on prior experience with similar apps.
Findings
Participant C
Performance: Experienced the most difficulties across all tasks due to unfamiliarity with similar applications.
Challenge: Required additional time to understand the app's workflow logic.
Observation: Once the structure was understood, successfully completed all tasks.
Participant D
Performance: Achieved the highest success rate, performing tasks almost in real-time with the prompts.
Challenge: Minor observations regarding layout clarity.
Observation: Suggested layout improvements to optimize task flow.
The app was generally well understood and effectively used by participants.
Key adjustments identified:
Introduction of a dedicated home screen as a common starting point for all user types.
Addition of scheduling features for patients.
Integration of administrative statistics to support clinic management.
These improvements not only address usability gaps but also establish a new KPI:
Optimize operational decision-making through actionable data insights.
Overall Observations
Design refining
Before and after
Usability testing played a crucial role in shaping the evolution of this project. Through the insights gathered, we implemented significant adjustments focused on delivering the best possible user experience.
Some pages were added to address new needs, while others were removed to simplify navigation. Additionally, key workflows were redesigned, making interactions clearer and more efficient.
One standout improvement is the introduction of a new statistics insights feature, providing valuable data to ensure clinic administration is handled intuitively and effectively.
Bellow, we highlight the most impactful changes, with visual comparisons illustrating how each adjustment contributed to a smoother, more efficient, and user-centered experience.
Home Screen & Scheduling
Before
Users started directly on the Patients screen, which felt rigid and unintuitive for most workflows.
A customizable Home screen was introduced, serving as a central hub for essential tasks. Additionally, a scheduling feature was added to align with familiar patterns from productivity apps.
After
Key Changes:
Customizable Home Screen: Users can set priorities and streamline their workflow.
Integrated Scheduling Feature: Familiar and easy-to-use calendar interactions.
Flexible Access Points: Scheduling and patient management remain accessible via the toolbar.
Dr. Harris now starts his day with a personalized overview on the Home screen, quickly scheduling follow-ups and navigating tasks without friction.
Insights Dashboard: Data-Driven Decision Making
There was no clear way to access aggregated data about clinic performance.
Before
The Insights Dashboard centralizes essential metrics, offering clear, actionable information for clinic administration.
After
Key Changes:
Centralized Metrics: Visits, follow-ups, and exam data are aggregated in one place.
Improved Decision-Making: Insights enable better resource allocation and planning.
Data Privacy: Only anonymized, aggregated numbers are displayed.
The clinic manager can now quickly identify peak appointment hours and optimize staff schedules based on real-time statistics.
Simplifying with Unified Procedures
Before
Exams were treated separately, with their own page and distinct workflows.
Exams were integrated into the Procedures page, simplifying navigation and reducing redundancy.
After
Key Changes:
Unified Navigation: Exams and procedures now share a single entry point.
Multiple Access Pathways: Professionals can request exams from various sections.
Reduced Complexity: Fewer clicks and more streamlined workflows.
Ms. Rodriguez can now request both routine procedures and exams from a single interface, without switching between screens.
Streamlined Workflow: Simplifying Event Creation
Multiple buttons for different types of events created confusion and decision fatigue.
Before
A single, unified button now opens a pop-up for creating encounters of all types, simplifying the experience.
After
Key Changes:
Unified Event Button: One button replaces multiple scattered options.
Simplified Pop-Up Selection: Clear options for different encounter types.
Calendar Integration: Events can now be managed directly from the scheduling interface.
Dr. Patel, can now schedule follow-ups and appointments seamlessly from the calendar view, saving time and avoiding missteps.
Design implementation: Bringing Refinements to Life
With the refinement decisions finalized, I proceeded with the visual design development of the app.
This phase ensured a consistent and polished experience across both mobile and desktop devices, focusing on clarity, usability, and seamless interactions.
Every visual element was carefully crafted to balance aesthetic appeal and functionality, creating an interface that feels intuitive from the very first interaction. Special attention was given to responsiveness, ensuring that layouts adapt seamlessly across different screen sizes and devices.
The key screens, such as the customizable Home screen, the streamlined procedures page, and the integrated scheduling feature, were designed to empower professionals with clear navigation and actionable insights.
Additionally, these visual refinements directly address feedback from usability testing, resulting in a smoother, more cohesive experience tailored to users' real-world workflows.
Results and Learnings
In this project, my focus was on designing an intuitive and efficient digital experience that directly addressed the operational challenges of a fast-paced primary care clinic. Every design decision was guided by the goal of reducing friction in critical tasks and creating a seamless workflow across different user roles.
My contributions led to:
Optimized Task Flows: I streamlined the interface to reduce the time spent on routine tasks, from patient intake to diagnosis delivery.
Enhanced Interdisciplinary Collaboration: I implemented a design system that ensured consistency across screens, enabling seamless communication between doctors, nurses, and dentists.
Scalable Design Solutions: I created reusable components and templates that supported growth without compromising usability.
Human-Centered Outcomes: By minimizing digital barriers, I ensured professionals could focus on what truly matters—providing quality care to their patients.
Every design choice was backed by research, tested iteratively, and validated through measurable results and qualitative feedback.
Impact
Throughout this project, I encountered valuable opportunities for personal and professional growth, refining both my technical and strategic design skills.
New Design Techniques Expanded My Creative Approach: I explored innovative design methods that allowed me to develop and communicate my ideas more effectively, especially in scenarios requiring high levels of creativity and problem-solving.
Project Structuring and Documentation Became Essential: While I’m well-versed in Agile methodologies, this experience highlighted the importance of robust documentation to support a clearer overview of the project lifecycle. I learned to better articulate and formalize my processes, ensuring alignment across all stakeholders.
User Research Took on a New Dimension: Although not my first experience with user research, this project allowed me to experiment with new research formats and methodologies. I gained deeper insights into user behavior and refined my ability to translate data into actionable design decisions.
Every challenge was an opportunity to improve, and every success was a lesson in clarity, adaptability, and purpose-driven design.
Learnings
Building on the foundation of this project, I’ve outlined clear opportunities for future improvements and growth:
User Feedback After Three Months: Conduct a follow-up feedback cycle with users after the first quarter of adoption. The goal is to uncover insights and areas for improvement that may not have been addressed in the initial usability research, enabling a more targeted and efficient iteration.
Exploring a Patient-Focused Version: Investigate the feasibility of developing a patient-facing version of the app. This iteration would empower patients with organized and intuitive access to their health records, reducing dependency on healthcare professionals for routine information retrieval.
Expanding Initial User Research: Revisit and refine the initial user research to include broader demographic data. By gaining a deeper understanding of diverse ethnicities, orientations, and backgrounds, we can ensure more inclusive design decisions and improve interactions between users and healthcare professionals.
Each of these steps is designed to add value, drive continuous improvement, and ensure the product evolves in alignment with both user needs and strategic goals.
Next Steps
Let's work together!
Have questions or a project in mind? I’d love to discuss how thoughtful design can make a difference. Reach out, and let’s create something impactful together.
contact@eduoliveiradesigner.com
+55 61 993 066 300
Brasília, Brazil.
