Healthcare form design

Screenshot: close-up of ‘Home’ page of app

Creating an intuitive form for efficient and accurate data capture and billing purposes at a Turramurra retirement village

Client
Vision Lifestyle Projects for Huon Park

Role
Lead UX/UI designer
User testing

Year
2023

Project status
Complete

Design process

Discovering and defining

Vision Lifestyle Projects engaged me to design a service record form for use by staff at Huon Park, a retirement and independent living village in Turramurra.

The form was to be easy-to-use and accessible via desktop and tablet and simple for the nursing team to use during their shifts.

The Problem

The inaccuracy of service data recorded on paper ‘Charge Sheets’ filled out for each resident by the nursing team. This was due to changes in Aged Care legislation and to the operator of the village. As a result, the Charge Sheets no longer reflected the services available and rendered to residents;
Admin staff were required to manually input data from each Charge Sheet into a digital spreadsheet for billing, which was highly inefficient;
Inaccuracy and confusion over service offerings resulted in bill disputes with residents of the village.

My role

I was hired to design a new electronic version of the Charge Sheet that could be accessed by nursing staff on a tablet or desktop computer after providing care services to village residents. I also advocated for the needs of the care team — the main users of the new Charge Sheet — and insisted on user testing with care staff before delivering the final product.

I defined the archetypal users and created user profiles to understand user limitations, and how that would affect the form design, including shift time constraints and computer literacy. It helped me identify potential user issues in transitioning to using a digital form from the hardcopy Charge Sheets (e.g.: difficulty reading from a screen, anxiety around computer use, limited typing skills, etc.)
I spoke to the admin staff and nurses to better understand their needs for the final design solution. For instance, both admin staff and nurses spent extra time amending the Charge Sheets because staff were unclear how to categorise particular services they performed, or whether or not to note it as a charge. As a result, the admin staff also had to make decisions about how to charge for uncategorised services, further adding to their workload.

Key design requirements

Useability: Simple to use, easy access, pleasantly designed and branded to make lessen anxiety of users and assist those with lower computer literacy to keep good records.
Time constraints: Not overwhelming, not too long, fits smoothly into carer and nurse workflows.
Accuracy: Categories for services well-defined, in-built design constraints, logical form structure to limit opportunities for user error and improve accuracy of records for efficient billing.

Developing

After my research, I concluded it would be best to create ONE universal digital (Jot)form for both carers and nurses to fill out, that would be accessed via an app, right from the ‘Home’ screen of the tablets village management specified for the care team to use. To allow for the extra service categories included on the nurse Charge Sheet, the form would be split into tabs, including one for services only performed by a registered nurse, that carers could ‘skip’ to minimise unnecessary time spent on the form. Data from form submissions would be categorised within Jotform or exported to a custom Excel spreadsheet or similar for the admin team to efficiently bill residents each month.

Process

I used the sketching design method during the develop phase.
I created multiple iterations of form sections to improve functionality. In the example above, I wanted to simplify this table and make it easier to read (see next image to right for next iteration).
I simplified the element under ‘Nurse’s services’ for ease of use and clarity (see old version to left).
Tabs at the top of the form help users to navigate the form. Some form fields (marked with an *) indicate those that must be completed before the user can progress, helping to minimise submissions in error, or incomplete submissions.
If the user does not fill in a required (*) form field, a message at the top of the screen is triggered, specifying the number of errors and highlighting where the are on the page. This constraint helps to prevent incorrect submissions, and minimises frustration for users by showing where errors appear on the page.
The form gives the user feedback when they correct their mistakes, and allows the user to progress to the next tab.
Resident names and corresponding unit numbers appear in a dropdown with an additional page navigation function, to assists users in finding the resident they provided services to quickly.
Users must sign their name to complete their Charge Sheet form online. Before submission, the ‘Review Answers’ button gives another opportunity for users to ensure their form entry is accurate.
Some of the constraints used to show/hide options as they are/are not required by the user, keeping the form neat and short.
The ‘Home’ page of the app, as viewed on a tablet. The uncluttered layout and bright-coloured button shows where the users go to start filling out a new Charge Sheet. The colour scheme is based on the branding of the retirement village.