Internal IT Systems

Platform: Software - Website | Industry: Internal IT Systems & Healthcare (audiology) | My Role: Design Lead

Project Summary

The medical device industry is a highly regulated. Companies are routinely audited and must be able to produce accurate records pertaining to their devices. In the case of GN Hearing this includes the entire device portfolio (thousands of devices!), what devices are sold in what country and what each device is capable of based on each hardware and software platform. Up until recently all of these records were handled in a very complex variety of Excel sheets, a system that was prone to human error. To help streamline this system an initiative was put in place to create an internal online tool to replace the current system.

Project Goal

Create a system where project management, country management, regulatory management, development, system integration and system architecture teams could all input and export relevant information to their day-to-day tasks including:

  • Configuring & Approving new products

  • Adding & Removing Products to specific markets

  • Comparing the products available in different markets

  • Adding & Removing Products from specific brands in specific markets

Project Challenges

  • Being a completely new system users had little to no frame of reference of what they needed

  • Information overload! a massive amount of data is needing to be displayed at the right time

  • Data transfers across back end platforms

  • Coordination, between departments & time zones

 

Design Process

Step 1: Understanding the Requirements

Upon being tasked with the project the first thing I did was organize a week long workshop with key stakeholders from each department. During this workshop I:

  • facilitated information gathering sessions with the goal of aligning all participants to the current needs of the systems

  • facilitated whiteboard sessions where we brainstormed on information architecture, primary use cases, possible solutions etc.

  • captured agreed upon functionality & action items

Step 2: Set the Foundation of the System

The first order of business was to create an intuitive information architecture to guide the system forward. To reduce the number of systems used we decided to incorporate this new system into a current one by modularizing it and allowing users to see only those modules they have access too, this allowed us to make a simple navigational structure for each module opposed to one overarching complex structure.

 

Step 3: Identifying User & Data Flows

For each module:

  • identify the primary users & use case/s

  • outline the happy path user flow for each use case

  • create initial LoFi wireframes for each screen needed in the flow for development to use as a reference

  • identify data transfers between back end systems based on use case

 

Step 4: Tandem Working Method

As this project was moving at high speed I proposed we working in a SAFe/AGILE method. With this we were able to:

  • test with our users between development rounds (every 2 weeks)

  • propose changes based on the feedback

  • easily switch directions when a design was conflicting with the users mental model

  • work closely with development and systems architecture to understand system limitations

Step 5: TBD!

This project is in progress. Testing is currently in progress based on all user feedback we will evaluate and decide on next steps.