Dashboard Redesign
EHR Dashboard
Addressing clinicians' challenges with accessing patient data by designing a streamlined, user-friendly dashboard.
My Role
Current Design Audit, User Research, Information Architecture, Wireframing, Prototyping, User Testing
Team
PM, Engineers, Psychiatrist, Therapist
Duration
2 months
Platform
Web
Context
Foresight Mental Health (FMH) leverages technology to enhance mental healthcare. The Electronic Health Record (EHR) dashboard is essential in managing comprehensive digital records, providing real-time data, and supporting personalized treatment plans. It enables clinicians to efficiently access and organize critical patient information.
About
The dashboard streamlines data access, allowing clinicians to quickly view and act on essential information. This redesign focused on improving usability, boosting productivity, and simplifying how clinicians and operators search for and manage patient records.
Results
40% Faster Data Retrieval – Reduced search time from 5 to 3 minutes.
15% Fewer Missed Follow-Ups – Improved proactive decision-making for patient care.
User
FMH Clinicians (Psychiatrists and Therapists)
Require quick access to patient histories, real-time navigation for adjustments, and timely alerts for follow-ups or suicide risks to ensure proactive, informed care.
User Problem
Struggle to access critical patient information due to an inefficient EHR dashboard, causing workflow disruptions and delayed patient care.
Key User Insights
“I spend too much time searching for basic patient details. It’s frustrating when I can’t find what I need quickly.”
“Switching between different sections of the dashboard feels clunky and slows me down during appointments.”
“I wish the dashboard would highlight key trends or issues without me having to dig for them.”
“I want to see everything I need about a patient in one place without jumping around.”
“If the system was easier to navigate, I could focus more on patient care instead of figuring out the software.”
Business problems
The existing dashboard's limitations hindered Foresight's operational efficiency and growth:
User Dissatisfaction & Competitive Risk
Poor engagement and clinician frustration weakened retention, harmed reputation, and reduced Foresight’s ability to position itself as a tech-forward provider.
Scalability Issues
The dashboard’s inability to manage growing datasets and complex workflows led to higher maintenance costs and developer strain.
Identified Problems
Inconsistent Prioritization – High-value sections (e.g., Appointments, Prescriptions) were buried, while low-priority items took up excessive space.
Ambiguous Categories – Unclear grouping (e.g., Clinical Notes mixed with unrelated uploads).
Duplication – Redundant sections like Upload Files and Upload Genetic Data caused confusion.
Scalability – The dashboard couldn't effectively handle growing datasets and workflows.
Goal
Redesign the EHR dashboard to ensure quick, seamless access to critical patient information, reducing workflow disruptions and preventing delays in care.
Redefined Information Architecture (IA)
Before IA with prioritizing labels:
Redesigned IA
Based on user research and discoveries, the priority was to clarify the purpose of the system.
Prioritize High-Value Information
Highlight critical patient data (patient data, medications, intake forms) on the main dashboard.
Create role-specific views for clinicians (clinical notes) and operations to focus on their tasks.
Simplify Navigation
Introduce an overview of flagged tasks and health risks for quick access.
Implement dropdowns, collapsible menus, or breadcrumbs for intuitive navigation.
Visual Cues
Applied color coding, icons, and bold text to highlight alerts and time-sensitive tasks, ensuring urgent updates are never missed.
Design Approach
Key Layout Principles
Strategic Placement: Position critical data (e.g., treatments and alerts) in the top-left corner to capture attention immediately.
Row-Based Flow: Arrange content in rows to guide the user’s eye naturally, minimizing the need to backtrack or search.
Continuous Scanning: Enable side-by-side comparisons of related information, reducing context switching and enhancing efficiency.
Explorations
To prioritize critical information, I minimized excessive scrolling and complex interactions by designing layouts that emphasized essential components and supported distinct user flows. After exploring various options, the Top-to-Down Layout (#2) was selected for its optimal balance of usability, organization, and space efficiency.
#1 - Cardstack
What Worked: Flexible and responsive, the cardstack design allowed for dynamic adjustments and scaling across different devices.
What Didn’t Work: Including more than 4 widgets made it difficult for users to focus, leading to visual clutter and a lack of a clear overview.
#2 - Top to down
What Worked: The categorized top menu provided an intuitive browsing experience, maintaining smooth eye flow. This layout optimized space usage by expanding detailed content when a category was selected, ensuring better navigation and readability.
What Didn’t Work: The layout required careful prioritization of categories to ensure the most critical information was always accessible.
#3 - Left to right
What Worked: The horizontal organization provided a logical structure for linear data.
What Didn’t Work: This design limited the available space for the main content, making it less practical for displaying detailed information and reducing overall usability.
#4 - Dropdown
What Worked: The compact dropdown structure allowed users to view a broad range of categories within a smaller space.
What Didn’t Work: The layout resulted in long, scrollable dashboards, overwhelming users and causing critical information below the fold to be overlooked.
Final Design – Key Features
Categorized Top Menu – Single-row menu for easy category browsing and role-specific views.
Maximized Content Space – Expanding sections upon category selection show detailed data without overwhelming users.
Enhanced Left Panel – High-priority sections for patient information, medications, intake forms, and urgent tasks, reducing search time and improving efficiency.
Appointments Page
Clinical Survey Page
Impact
Efficiency Gains
Locate patient information
40%
faster
decreasing search time from an average of 5 minutes to 3 minutes.
Proactive Decision-Making
Reduced missed follow-ups by
15%
leading to more timely patient care.
