Summary
At the beginning of 2022, Hinge Health initiated a design sprint to enhance care team productivity by reimagining its three care team products (CTP) as a unified EMR/CMS tool. The goal was to provide a data-rich record tailored to coaches, physical therapists, and nurse practitioners, improving overall efficiency and user satisfaction.
The problem
The Hinge Health care team has diverse roles, which required careful organization of data to meet specific needs. The challenge was to create a flexible information architecture (IA) that could cater to different roles while also allowing for future scalability and expansion of services.
The solution
The project aimed to define the IA that enhances care team specialists' productivity, job satisfaction, and, ultimately, the overall product quality. The focus was on creating a holistic member experience through well-organized data and editable patterns.
Constraints and dependencies
• Differing data needs for each care team specialist
• Uncertainty about data presentation and editability
• Simultaneous development of the product framework alongside IA
Role
I collaborated with another product designer to define the strategy, lead user testing, prepare prototypes, and generate documentation for stakeholder meetings.
The process
Card sort and IA mapping
We created a card sort using a list of existing data points to understand how care team specialists expect the data to be organized. During the design sprint, we identified five categories and tested them through a closed card sort to see how each role sorted within those categories. We tested two specialists for each role to observe their collaboration and identify any similarities or differences in how they sorted the cards.
From the card sort, we found that:
1. Personalization is important – Having relevant information available to personalize their outreach to members is beneficial.
2. Care team members want a comprehensive understanding of the member's journey – Each role wants to see the member's activity across multiple data points in one place.
3. Care team members want a holistic view of the member record with the ability to narrow the focus –Each role wants to see the big picture and also filter.
We used the findings and feedback from the card sort to create a site map. Because we needed to organize data for three different care team specialists, we decided that a deep hierarchy would be the most effective approach. This way, we could organize the data points more concisely in each section.
Create wireframes and test
The initial wireframes were based on the site map, but we found that some sections needed further breakdown. There was too much focus on an overview page that accommodated all the roles, and it quickly became a catch-all. The wireframes went through three significant iterations and testing.
After testing, filtering was still emphasized due to the amount of data. Some sections were more customized for one care team specialist over others, and there was a common need for other areas to be higher in the hierarchy.
Member overview: The first iteration had an overview section that displayed a mix of data that we thought would be helpful for all care team specialists
Member overview: The second iteration removed the overview section and added a profile section that displayed enough information for them to personalize their interaction.
Edit patterns
Before beginning the visual design, our final milestone was to explore edit patterns. While there were only a few editable data points at the time, as we continue to develop our internal products and incorporate larger forms, it is important to define the data standards.
Our goal for at this stage was to define the edit pattern, determine if it's destructive, and assess the frequency of use within our data standards. Through competitive research, we compared edit patterns across other EMRs and CMS platforms and found that editing by section and inline was the most common. We defined destructive editing as changes that a care team specialist cannot undo and would require additional confirmation. Finally, we looked at the editing frequency, which could affect where care team specialists can access editing and the level of protection.
We conducted user testing with a coach, physical therapist, and nurse practitioner to observe how they would navigate editing on the profile section. The care team members all expressed a preference for editing inline, especially within a table or card, and also favored editing from a section level rather than individual data points. They also appreciated the extra level of protection when changing member details such as phone numbers and addresses.
Inline editing of service note. Care team specialist can access from icons where they can edit or delete
Updated service note edit fields for more robust editing
Account details editing from section and individual data point
Account details editing from page and section level
Results and conclusion
The iterative process revealed the challenge of finding a standard layout for diverse roles. Insights from testing guided the creation of an IA that aligns with the needs of each care team specialist, setting the foundation for an optimal MVP.
The next steps involve translating these insights into the visual design and implementing the finalized IA into the product framework for a seamless and user-friendly experience.
