My Role
User Research, User Flows, Visual Design, Prototyping, Usability Testing
Overview
Office Practicum EHR has been around since 1992 and touches over five million patients' lives, but in that time it has not received a significant visual update resulting in a dated and fragmented user experience for users on desktops and tablets. We decided to begin a new “Facelift” project and bring OP EHR up to current design standards, improve the information architecture, increase development efficiency with standard controls and form layouts, and also optimize for touch devices.
Before Facelift
OP EHR, like many other EHR systems, suffered from over complexity, feature bloat and confusing information architecture. The primary navigation was not grouped appropriately, and adding permission levels on top of that made it even more confusing. Through user interviews and surveys, we noticed a trend of users moving away from using OP EHR on their desktops and switching over to tablets. Since OP EHR was built on outdated technology it could not be responsive to our users and adjust to the screen sizes they were using.
Office Practicum EHR before starting the facelift project
Confusing Office Practicum EHR navigation
After Facelift
Once we were able to update the technology used by OP EHR, we were able to fix glaring issues. We started by creating permission tabs for every role that uses OP EHR. They would be able to work inside their tab and they wouldn’t have to worry about other options or controls they would never utilize. Some users required more than one tab so this layout made it easier for them to switch between their roles. We were also able to make the primary navigation responsive and adjust between different sizes depending on the user's screen size. We also redefined how page layouts were designed by designating areas for the page header, action buttons, filters, and primary content. The new page layout improved visual hierarchy and readability, making it easier for users to accomplish their tasks.
New Office Practicum EHR interface
New permission based tabs
Updated form structure
Consistent spacing
Full width data tables
Grouped Inputs
Getting OP Certified
Towards the end of the facelift project, we also started the process of getting the release certified for our physicians. A certified EHR demonstrates the technological capability, functionality, and security requirements required by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. The certification process required the completion of a large usability test throughout different modules inside OP. After all the data was captured from our usability test we were ecstatic to see that we had raised our system usability score above other vendors who had also completed the certification. This score was also above the EHR industry average of 45.
Feedback
Right after the release of our facelift project, the feedback started rolling in, and it was amazing to see our users were excited about the update.
