Overview
As a UX design intern in Athenahealth, a comprehensive SaaS medical software corporate, I own the electronic connection setup task board redesign project. Through the accessibility auditing and reorganizing of the task board, we have effectively streamlined the connection processes between medical groups and payers. This has resulted in an increase in task completion rates to 100% and significantly enhancing the overall user experience.
Project Type
Internship project for a B2B healthcare software company
My Role
UX Designer
Timeline
10 weeks (July 2023 - Sep 2023)
My team
UX Manager (1), Senior Designers (2), Content Creator(1) , PM/PO(2), Developers (3)
Redesign Task board has potential to increase athena clients‘ electronic connection setup rate
Athenahealth’s product team noticed that current unclear task board design is causing failed electronic connections including Electronic remittance advice(ERA) and electronic funds transfer (EFT) for Athena clients, which not only increasing operational costs for the company, but also delaying insurance payments to patients. For this task, we want to iterate the outdated task board with low accessibility to expedite connection speed between us and our clients.
“Athenahealth currently spends $11 million annually on processing paper explanations of Benefits (EOBs) which is largely the result of practices not enrolling in Electronic Connection Setup.”
“Athena’s current ERA rate is 83%, which is not an industry-leading.”
— 2022 Athenahealth Annual report
Define specific problems of the existing UI
Collect right information that customers need to complete ERA & EFT Setup
Since we found There’s a big knowledge gap between current page and customer’s need. By conducting Workflow Mapping and Information Rearchitect we try to understand the key information needs from our clients for new page design.
We streamlined different payer's ERA & EFT registration processes into the general workflow and collect information that customers need from each steps based on 20+ pages long instructions that our operational team shows.
Inconsistent language caused confusion and accidental mistake
During the workflow analysis process, we found that the terminology Athena used did not always match the language and mental models users were familiar with,
Taking the word [Provider] as an example
Athena’s definition : A single person who provides medical service to patients.
Payers’ definition : A Medical group or a single person.
Users are confused about the progress of the task
In order to directly understand our users’ pain points, I worked with our data team and reviewed over 300+ help reviews and went through several in-house interviews.
We identified another user pain point that users frequently encounter confusion and uncertainty regarding the subsequent steps after completing a task.
OPPORTUNITY AREAS & ASSUMPTIONS
Increase readability and accessibility of the task UI to reduce task complexity and increase the EAR & EFT connection rate
After five weeks of comprehensive research from various angles, I identified several potential areas for improvement that could possibly increase the ERA & EFT task completion rate and speed.
A New Full-Screen Client Facing Task Page Design
Taking all the assumptions in mind, I started to sketch, wireframe, and iterate my drafts through rounds of discussion with our internal design team, project managers, and some other relevant stakeholders from the department. After rounds of revolution, we came up with a brand-new client-facing task page design.
INTERVIEWS & USABILITY TESTINGS
Validate New Design with athena clients
To validate the new ERA & EFT task page design, I collaborated with the operational team and conducted nine rounds of testing Through usability tests and open discussions with participants, we gained a deeper insight into their sentiments about the new design. We identified more opportunities during the process, but more importantly, our clients affirmed that all our design assumptions for the new ERA & EFT are accurate. athenaOne users showed a very positive attitude to the new task page design.
Feel free to check interview outline and detailed note records.
Opportunity 1: Clarify where the information is come from
Throughout the interview, our clients frequently asked about the source of information presented on the information reference page. We found that despite this information being directly extracted from their profiles, our clients harbored uncertainty about its origin. This uncertainty could potentially cause them to discontinue the task.
DESIGN IMPROVEMENTS AND MORE
New Opportunities
Opportunity 2: Submit task with no confirmation number
During the validation interview, our clients mentioned that not all payers will provide a confirmation number after users submit their connection application. For the old design, only if the user inputs the confirmation code, they can submit the task.
In order to solve the problem, I added a check box in the submission panel as an option for clients to submit the task without getting a confirmation number.
Reroute different problems to who can solve them
The more interviews I conducted, the more opportunities I discovered than I had initially anticipated. However, not all problems can be solved from the designer side, we also identified opportunity areas for team focus to minimize task delays and improve user experience.
NEXT STEPS
More edges cases to consider
After the last round of iteration after the interviews, my 10-week internship came to an end. I documented all the design files and presented all the findings and revisions to the entire Configuration & Enrollment team. However, there is still a long journey ahead to bring the conceptual design to live.
If I have more time, I will:
Designing distinct task layouts based on task types, including both combined and separate ERA & EFT tasks.
Conduct more research on various payers' connection processes, with a particular focus on smaller local payers to develop refined instructions tailored to different scenarios.
Engage actively with PMs, developers, the operational team, and other stakeholders to ensure thoroughly considered all possible edge cases in my design.
Read through the style guide from athena’s Forge design system to ensure all design details are accurate.
VALUABLE LESSONS LEARNED
Learning by asking
In my early internship weeks, adapting to the complex healthcare industry, entirely new to me, was the biggest challenge. Athenahealth offers extensive onboarding courses, but navigating the vast amount of information was overwhelming. In the process, I learned that the most efficient way to grasp the project's background and scope is by consulting with team members and managers, and consistently seeking clarifications. Communicating with PM, Managers and operation teams can lead you to understand information much faster than you think.
UX is also about redirecting experience problems to those capable of solving them
During the research process, I realized that as a designer, I cannot solve all the questions alone. In addition to design, our responsibility is also to collaborate with different teams and redirect these problems to people who can solve them. For instance, when I noticed that some of the links and files on the task board were not accessible, I needed to communicate with our operational team to take care of it. Similarly, when clients mentioned how difficult it was to deal with multiple NPI, I had to speak with our information architect to figure out if there was a way to improve this. UX is a collaborative effort
Embracing changes by preparing well
Working in a professional industrial environment entails encountering numerous challenges and uncertainties beyond our control. To ensure smooth usability tests within a 30-minute timeframe, I meticulously prepared two sets of plans and conducted in-house testing as a pilot run. Following the pilot tests, we made extensive adjustments, ultimately leading to the successful completion of all nine tests.
SWEET MEMORIES WITH MY BEST TEAMMATES
Working in athena was a really valuable and sweet experience for me. I had really good time within this super supportive team and learned a lot.
