Enabling Vaccinations for Millions of Victorians
Empowering Health Services in Australia: A Digital Transformation Case Study
I’ve omitted confidential information in this case study. All information presented is my own and does not necessarily reflect the views of the client. Protecting their privacy, processes, and customer data is my primary concern.
UX methodologies played a vital role in the design, development, and launch the project.
In the past, our consulting firm was hired to develop the COVID-19 Vaccination Management System (CVMS), which became the largest vaccination effort in Victoria. Leveraging the success of CVMS, we were subsequently contracted to scale this system to manage all vaccines, including COVID, and various vaccination schedules.
CVMS: https://sephu.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Key-messages-COVID-19-vaccine-online-booking-system.pdf
Central Immunisation Records Victoria (CIRV)
On a high-value government project, I had the opportunity to work on the development and implementation of a web-based immunisation management program. The goal of this program was to assist local councils and health services in managing and provisioning immunisation programs across Victoria. Our team provided strategic health consulting services leading to significant improvements in their operational efficiency.
Note to the reader: Central Immunisation Records Victoria will now be referred to as ‘CIRV’ in this case study.
[Visit CIRV]
Stakeholders
Junior and Senior Nurses, Senior Healthcare Council Representatives, and Product Managers.
My Role
Role: Product Designer
Location: Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Duration: 8 months • Full-time • May 2022– Jan 2023
Systems: Figma, Miro, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Microsoft Power Pages, Microsoft PowerApps
Collaborated with Cross functional teams across Australia, Taiwan, and India.
In this project, I played a pivotal role in building a new design system for the user interface. My responsibilities included developing a user-friendly responsive UI using the Ripple design system for CIRV’s customer portal, which utilises MS Power Pages, and our client-facing application the Front-line App, which uses MS PowerApps. I collaborated with the Microsoft development team to ensure we adhered to high standards. This approach set a precedent for future projects, and fostered deeper relationships.
I owned the entire design-developer hand-off process, fostering a culture of open and constructive communication between the design and development teams, and streamlined the feedback process.
“My primary goal was to help developers understand the design process, and my biggest win was to help them nail the UI.”
The Challenge
The main challenge of this project was coordinating teams across various locations and time zones. We had to develop a web-based immunisation management programme, requiring significant knowledge of local health services and immunisation provision. The programme needed to be user-friendly and capable of handling extensive data and bookings. Navigating consent complexities concerning vaccines was another significant challenge, including the management of parental consent and ‘no show’ cases.
Like any strategy, certain inputs form the basis for reasoning and decision-making. In our case, these inputs included feedback from local health experts, user testing results, and the operational requirements of the immunisation program. We also had to consider the technological constraints of the software we were using. For instance, while Microsoft PowerApps is a really powerful platform, it doesn’t support custom fonts.
Our Solution
I helped design four integrated applications. These applications were designed on Figma first using VIC Gov’s Ripple Design system, then handed off to the developers to build.
The three integrated applications developed are as follows:
1. Immunisation Provider Command Centre for Senior Staff, Local Council Healthcare Representatives and Admins [Bound by NDA, please contact me for details]
2. Front-line Application for Nurses
3. Online Booking Portal for the general public
While I can’t disclose the nitty-gritties on the research and how each of these applications work, I’ll discuss my design decisions in each of the applications I worked on.
Based on my understanding on the project, below is a high-level visual of how the four integrated applications come together.
Our Guiding Principles
- User-Centric: Every aspect of the system must be designed with the end-user in mind, ensuring it’s user-friendly, efficient, and satisfying to use.
- Accessibility: The system should be easily navigable and usable for all, regardless of their ability or disability.
- Reliable: The system must be dependable, offering accurate and up-to-date information at all times.
- Scalable: The system needs to accommodate a growing number of users and data as more councils are onboarded.
- Secure: The system must adhere to strict security standards to protect sensitive health information.
- Collaborative: The system should foster collaboration among health professionals, enabling them to manage and provision immunisation programs effectively.
- Inclusive: The system should cater to the needs of diverse users, including healthcare professionals, parents, and guardians.
CIRV Online Booking Portal
The online booking portal allows Victorians to conveniently schedule their immunisation appointments online.
This public-facing site uses Microsoft Power Pages. It provides users with an intuitive interface to schedule their immunisation appointments, ensuring a seamless, user-friendly experience. It adheres to the highest standards of accessibility, enabling diverse group of Victorians to easily navigate the system and secure their vaccination slots.
In line with our guiding principles, we had to ensure that users know their location at every stage of the booking portal. This way, users won’t have to second guess their entered information, providing a smoother user experience.
Frontline App for Nurses
The Frontline application is designed for efficient management of community, school, and corporate immunisation sessions.
Providing a consistent standard of care can be challenging, particularly during busy or stressful periods. We identified several potential pain points during the discovery phase of the project:
1. Risk of making errors in diagnosis, treatment, aftercare, or health management, which could harm patients.
2. Lack of clear communication and comprehensive documentation to prevent negligence.
3. Lack of continuous education and training to stay updated and provide the best possible care.
The app allows administrative staff to oversee appointments, consents, AIR matching, and client check-ins. It also enables nurses to record crucial details such as the vaccine type, batch, and dose. The system can document both individual and bulk immunisation events, and provides a comprehensive view of a client’s immunisation history from the Australian Immunisation Register (AIR).
Navigating complexities of consent on the Frontline App
One of the most challenging aspects of this project was navigating the complexities of obtaining vaccination consent for children under 18 years of age. This process is particularly intricate, as it requires the consent of both parents or legal guardians.
For each vaccination, we had to ensure that consent was given by both parents. This involved creating a system, ‘a consent matrix’, that could effectively track and manage these consents, ensuring that both parents had full visibility and the opportunity to give their consent for their child’s vaccination.
However, this system also had to account for situations where one parent denied consent. In such cases, regardless of the other parent’s approval, the consent for the entire vaccine was denied. This policy was suggested to ensuring that all vaccinations carried out were fully consented by all relevant parties.
This management of parental consent added an additional layer of complexity to the project, requiring careful consideration and strategic planning. But it was crucial for ensuring the ethical and legal administration of vaccines to minors.
Ways of working
We collaborated with the team using an agile approach. This was my first experience with a full-scale agile project, which is somewhat uncommon in consulting. I consider myself fortunate to have been part of such a remarkable team.
During the UI development, I facilitated bi-weekly conversations with the design-developer team to answer any UI-related questions, promoting clear communication. I’m so glad that our conversation led to a more collaborative approach.
Our developers struggled to reproduce the Figma screens on Power Pages. Fortunately, my prior experience as a developer allowed me to quickly create a preliminary version of the UI on Webflow. This greatly benefited the developers, as they were able to use the Inspect Element feature on Chrome to extract the HTML and CSS for the crucial components they couldn’t standardise on Power Pages. Therefore, I added value by significantly reducing development time. As Jared Dunn from the hit TV show Silicon Valley says, “I’m putting on hats!” :)
I also made it easier for developers to action feedback. I’ve seen countless design-developer conversations leading to conflict. I came across this amazing Medium article by Kaiting Huang on the ‘Art of feedback’ [you should read this!], and point one really resonated with me.
Point 1 says, “Focus on the work or behaviour, not the person”. Instead of getting frustrated on a pixel-level, I worked with the developers to come up with a format that worked for the both of us, and worked through this document during our bi-weekly conversations. Here’s a snapshot of what it looks like:
What my colleagues said about me
An excerpt shared with the Senior Leadership Team: “Hi all, I’d like you guys to know how impressed I’ve been with Sai’s UI Skills, knowledge and temperament. He’s taken control of all the UI related work on the healthcare project including developing [Figma] prototypes, Webflow, HTML/CSS Dev handover documentation. His attention to detail, commitment to delivering high-quality work, and ability to work collaboratively with different teams are commendable.”
– Christopher Ong, Director, SME & Product Owner
“His ability to translate complex requirements into clear, user-centric designs has been crucial to the success of our projects. He consistently delivers beyond expectations and is a pleasure to work with.”
– Vaish Maddi, Manager on the project
My Learnings
This transformative journey not only sharpened my acumen as a consultant, specifically in the healthcare domain, but also allowed me to masterfully steer through the intricacies of managing large-scale projects. This intensive project was a significant step in my career, offering a valuable chance to deeply grasp and apply design systems, as well as effectively convey narratives to stakeholders.
- I gained a wealth of knowledge about the healthcare sector, including how vaccine schedules and consents work. I also learned about the process when a minor turns 18 becoming a self-consenting individual, and how they are then unlinked from their parents, among other things. Navigating complexities beyond just vaccinations was intriguing, and if I could do it all over again I will!
- We collaborated with a reputable digital accessibility organisation and recognised the significance of accessibility. Not only did I utilise the Ripple design system (formerly known as Ripple 1) to construct the UI, but I also communicated major accessibility issues to VIC Gov’s design system administrators. I’ve learned that the touch target size for a mobile device is 48x48 px. This encouraged me to complete my WCAG Training from edX.
- I believe that empathising with your end-users is a vital exercise. I’m delighted that I can now consider it my superpower! :)
4. Form design is an art in itself. This was particularly relevant in our project, where a well-designed form was critical for collecting accurate user information. We prioritised clarity and simplicity, ensuring users could easily understand and complete the form without confusion or frustration.
5. While Microsoft PowerApps is a robust software, it doesn’t support custom fonts. We initially used the Ripple Design System and the approved VIC font to build the entire experience, but we had to use a limited font set available in PowerApps (Argh! Come on, Microsoft it’s 2024!).
After numerous meetings, we decided to use ‘Arial’, as a backup recommended in the VIC brand guidelines. (mega, mega sigh!).
I’ll probably write about why I hate Arial for UI elements in another post. 🤔
Get your jabs on time! Stay safe, y’all :)
