The top 5 UX challenges when designing for healthcare workers
In healthcare, users can be categorised into 3 types: patients, clinicians, and administrators — all with different end-goals. Choudhary breaks down these differences quite well, and explains the not-so-simple reasons as to why the healthcare industry is lagging behind.
Until now, patients have had the most technological boom in recent years (think Babylon, Thriva, Push Doctor, etc.). However, there’s still an area that’s largely been forgotten: the admins. These admins are those who keep the smooth running of the hospital’s day-to-day, generally hidden from the public.
At Patchwork, we recognise the lack of quality software these admins are using. Great design can be utilised in order to close this gap, which is why here in the Patchwork design team, we have been focussing our efforts on creating better user experiences for hospital admins. Our ultimate end-goal is to address the staffing crisis and work-life balance of clinicians that are rampant in the NHS.
While we’re only a team of 3, here are the 5 biggest UX challenges we’ve faced so far.
1. Moving away from legacy systems, without reinventing the wheel
When speaking to hospitals, most, if not all will rely spreadsheets to manage their daily tasks. Stories about managing a department of over 500 staff using Excel, is a common tale we hear.
As much as we designers want to introduce slick, trendy solutions — the reality is not always that easy. These organisations have a lot of complex processes, often embedded in legacy systems that have been in place for decades.
If we introduce a complete overhaul, we run the risk of our solutions not landing well. Despite the term ‘legacy’ having negative connotations, we still have to be mindful of not disrupting entire processes. Instead, we can identify areas where we can introduce incremental improvements without shocking the system.
To change the way an entire industry operates, will be a gradual change over the course of many years, that requires empathy and lots of patience.
2. Conducting research in an industry that’s already overstretched
Considering the NHS is still going through the worst workforce and staffing crisis, this makes it even more difficult to find users who have the time to do research with us.
Not only do different hospitals do things differently, different departments within the same hospital will also do things differently. Therefore, making sure we have sufficient feedback is vital to ensure our solutions aren’t catered to only one team or hospital.
In the past, we’ve had to rely on educated assumptions based on minimal feedback. While this is not ideal, the design team recognises this and are continuing to improve our research methods, so that we can get the right feedback during those precious moments with our users.
3. Providing value and making an impact
When improving legacy flows, it’s not as simple as ‘modernising’ an existing design. When you become used to looking at janky systems, applying a redesign may feel as if the problem is solved.
For all intents and purposes, the team really did believe that improving the UX/UI on the surface was the solution. Everything else on the market looked out-dated, so surely this was enough to make us stand out from the crowd, right?
Through trial and error, we found that our users were still voicing the same frustrations as before. We quickly realised our original approach wasn’t working, and that we had to dig deeper into why those legacy flows weren’t working in the first place.
We revisited the drawing board, and have now implemented a more structured framework which links directly to trackable metrics. The wider team now has clarity on what the definition of value is per feature, with insights and feedback to prove this.
4. Solving problems which have never been solved before
More often than not, design problems have already been solved. Arguably, the responsibility of a modern designer is about tailoring solutions to meet business goals and user needs, as opposed to starting from scratch.
However, one big challenge that is apparent when disrupting an industry, is that you are starting from scratch. Building management systems for the NHS is one of them.
While there are existing systems, say — one that allows a restaurant to manage their employees, this wouldn’t translate well into a hospital environment. The NHS has many healthcare rules and regulations that a generic system wouldn’t be able to handle.
Innovating isn’t easy, but being a product designer in this space comes with that exciting challenge. Consequently, this makes it even more important for the design team to rely on early stage testing, combined with time for experimentation, so that the software we’re building is fit for purpose.
5. Industry jargon, concepts and culture
Designers working in specialised industries won’t be immune to learning their ways of working (eg. finance, law or even the military).
As representatives of the user, it is key for us to take the time to understand how our users work, and the type of concepts they are dealing with on a daily basis. Not only is it our responsibility to keep up with the trends and changes in the design world, we also have to stay informed on the changes within the industry itself.
In most cases, it would be a matter of memorising abbreviations and acronyms. Other times, there may be specific concepts that require us to put ourselves in the shoes of a clinician. This can be a challenge, as problems have to be understood within context, which takes additional time and mental capacity to wrap our heads round. This is something we don’t compromise on however, as we must show care and compassion to avoid designing tone-deaf solutions.
Do we accept these challenges?
Yes. While these are the most prominent UX challenges we face in the design team, we readily accept them with full force. There is a clear need for better software and services in the NHS, and the only way to address them is to face these challenges head on. If we don’t start somewhere, these legacy systems will remain unchanged and hinder the progress of the industry moving forward.
Read more about how the design, product, engineering and more teams, achieve our mission at Patchwork Health.
