The initial version was hastily developed, leading to several issues that negatively impacted data clarity, usability, and user adoption. My objective was to redesign the dashboard with a focus on enhancing users' ability to provide accurate care to patients.
Website
Responsive Web App
Team
Me - Product Designer (Solo)
When
Jun - Aug 2022
Responsibilities
Research, UX/UI Design
Examples of the redesign
Background
Exercise is widely recognised as one of the most effective treatments for managing your health. However, individuals with chronic health issues often struggle to engage in physical activity, either because they are unaware of the benefits or doubt their ability to participate without pain and discomfort.
EXI partners with healthcare and fitness providers to offer personalised exercise programs through their app, tailored to each patient's health profile. These programs gradually increase in intensity, helping users safely and effectively reap the benefits of regular exercise.
The challenge
EXI provides healthcare providers with a CMS solution to manage members, track progress, and monitor health improvements. However, the first version of the dashboard, rushed to production, revealed significant flaws that hindered user adoption. As the business began attracting interest from larger NHS trusts, I was tasked with redesigning the main dashboard and health profile pages to address these issues.
The previous UI had a number of issues to fix
Research
My research began by gathering insights from the initial users of version one. Feedback from our Sales, Partnership, and Customer Support teams was invaluable, providing a wealth of customer input, complaints, and suggestions. This analysis was crucial, especially given the limited budget for a full research phase and the stakeholders' urgency to address usability issues and visual design to secure new contracts and drive growth.
Key Insights
Visual inconsistencies
Variations in styles and colors led to user confusion, as they mistakenly attributed meaning to unrelated elements, disrupting both usability and visual coherence
Unintuitive navigation structure
The dual navigation bars resulted in a complicated and unclear structure, making it difficult for users to find what they needed
Information overload
A cluttered interface with excessive information and colour created cognitive overload, hindering users' ability to focus on and extract key information
Confusing data aggregation
Users struggled with the need to manually calculate aggregated data, such as step counts, and questioned the relevance of certain metrics
Lack of accesibility
Poor contrast and a lack of adherence to accessibility principles resulted in numerous issues, particularly critical given the company’s client base, including NHS trusts and large healthcare organisations
Poor error handling
The existing configuration led to frequent errors and unavailable data when filtering, with little guidance provided to users on what had gone wrong
The solution
A dashboard should present key information at a glance while enabling users to delve deeper into specific areas as needed. I paid particular attention to the information architecture, grouping related information clearly and positioning it above the fold to facilitate quick analysis. Users were given the control to explore further through intuitive controls.
Redesigned main dashboard
The redesigned dashboard emphasised simplicity and reduced clutter. I improved the information architecture, clearly grouping related data and positioning it prominently, allowing users to gain key insights quickly. Controls were added to enable users to explore deeper information if required.
Patient Activity screen
The new design introduced more white space and reduced the amount of data displayed simultaneously. I replaced complex scatter charts with clear bar charts and table views, allowing users to easily navigate a patient's weekly activity and quickly assess their performance against activity targets.
Patient Health screen
A minimal colour palette reduced visual noise, minimising the risk of clinicians making false associations between data points. Confusing terminology, such as "unique active" and "average active," was clarified and grouped under intuitive tab headings, allowing users to select the desired metrics with ease.
Improved navigation
To improve scalability, I combined the previously separate top and side navigation bars into a single side navigation. This change created space for action buttons in the top navigation, simplifying the user interface and enhancing usability.
Responsive design
Given that users often accessed patient data on tablet devices during appointments, the lack of responsiveness in the original design was a significant issue. The new design ensures clarity and usability across a range of screen sizes, making it more adaptable to various devices.