Design Process

 

01. DISCOVERY PHASE

 

THE USERS

Hospital Inventory Managers are the primary users of this feature. They are in charge of buying, maintaining, and managing the allocation of physical assets throughout a hospital.

Inventory Managers have the constant challenge of managing the hospital equipment under their watch and minimizing equipment theft, loss, and damage. These managers are responsible for maintaining and tracking massive amounts of equipment and most are open to new processes and technology that can help them.

 

This feature allows Inventory Managers to create custom reports to view and manage their inventory by telling them where their assets are, how they are being used, how many there are, and what condition they are in.

 

APP & DESIGN AUDIT

I did an audit of the current reporting design the other designer created before they left to identify what parts needed additional iteration. I met with engineering and product management to review and refine the requirements to know what needed additional work.

 

First page of current reporting tool design (below)

Second page of current reporting tool design (below)

 

02. DEFINE PHASE

 

The Problem

Inventory Managers are under a lot of pressure to know their inventory status at all times so they can ensure there is enough available equipment to meet hospital needs. They need better tools to help them keep track of all their inventory.

 

Design Goal

Make the reporting filter selection as easy to use as possible since this is the defining feature within reporting since it allows Inventory Managers to curate their reports. Define what parts of the current design need iteration and/or refinement and validate designs with engineering and product management.

 

After surveying the current designs and meeting with product management and engineering teams I was able to define what was missing in the designs and what sections may need more design iteration prior to engineering handoff.

Current designs (below)

Sections of current design that need completion

  • Report filter states

  • Filter selection panel UI and states

  • UI to setup recurring reports and all states

Opportunities I took for further design iteration based on my knowledge of the primary persona, the Inventory Manager

  • Improve report filter visibility

  • Make report details section easier to scan

  • Simplify report sharing UI

 

03. DESIGN, VALIDATE, ITERATION PHASE

 

Design Explorations

The current design has preliminary filter components but I wanted to make the filter section easier to scan and use since it’s the primary function in the reporting feature.

It’s important that Inventory Managers can easily scan and see all filters that are applied to a report since the filters dictate the content of the report.

 
 

Defining all reporting states proved to be more complex than originally thought

I mapped out all the interactions and available actions for creating and sharing new reports and editing saved ones for both live and historical reports. I used this to refine the requirements for the states.

Some examples of findings from the mapping exercise that refined the requirements:

  • Creating a new report gives users different actions than editing an existing report

  • Actions users can take on a saved live report are different than a saved historical report

  • Setting up a recurring report only makes sense for live reports since a historical report does not change over time

 

04. RESULTS & IMPLEMENTATION PHASE

 

Final Designs & Engineering Handoff

I created both redline high fidelity documents and matrixes showing different states of the feature. I spent a lot of time sitting next to engineers as questions came up about this feature during development since this feature is complex and contains a lot of different states.

 

Final filter selection panel & filters

First page of feature

Final UI for sharing a report

Second (last) page of feature

Summary of final design:

  • Made filter selections more straightforward and visual to make it easier for inventory managers to scan and edit their custom report parameters.

  • Edited grouping and order of report inputs based on dependencies I uncovered.

  • Added filter selection side panels to support adding new filters and editing existing ones.

  • Made it more straightforward to share a report once or setup a recurring report.

Supporting documents showing feature states

 
 

Outcomes

  • Successful launch of a robust report builder feature that Inventory Managers can use to set specific parameters to view customized live or historical reports of their equipment inventory.

  • Straightforward report sharing UI that allows Inventory Managers to setup recurring reports to their team members.