A Dental Service Organization's Best Friend
SaaS Product Improvement | Timeline: 6 Months | My roles: Product Design, Prototyping/Wireframing, UX Design, UX Research
An optimal experience for dental practices providing them with robust data visuals and parameters, reviewing patient and provider information, and keeping dental practices up to date on crucial alerts
Designing with data can be a huge challenge, and is inevitable in not only providing a user experience to organize files with a moderate amount of information to process but to also provide visual clarity as to not get lost within the complexities of raw data. How can we effectively provide a user experience for our dashboard to mitigate multiple windows open while effectively keeping tasks in check along with updating team members with utmost efficiency? We need to look at all the ways users interact with information and data by gauging how they are handling their data, tasks, and budget. By looking at each activity and identifying common patterns, users who oversee Optimizer Enterprise get a better grasp on how to identify and address the problem.
Design Overview:
Optimizer Enterprise empowers you to identify the operational gaps and opportunities for growth in your practice. From the raw operational data of your office, it presents insightful KPIs and reports to give you the strategic and operational insights to make the right decisions.
The Client
Dental practices that want to increase overall performance
The Challenge
Designing a database schema for a dental practice involves careful consideration of the various entities and relationships inherent in managing patient information, appointments, treatments, and other practice-specific data.
• How can practices utilize this?
• How much data & information based on set parameters?
• What are pre-emptive steps to comply with HIPAA standards?
• Why would practices use this over traditional methods?
• What makes this product much more optimal?
Tools Used
• Figma
• After Effects
• Zeplin
• Jira
The Objective
To develop a dental practice-friendly SaaS product by designing an optimized and scalable database schema for dental practices, facilitating seamless management of patient information, appointments, treatments, and practice-specific data.
Pinpointing Common Problems & Conducting Research
We reached out to several dental practices that are subscribed to that are seeking to make effective use of Optimizer to discuss the prevalent problems and needs in greater detail. In conjunction with the research, I have highlighted the common findings from users.
In order to get a deeper understanding of these common findings, we needed to know where the pain points lie within the day-to-day process of dental practices:
User Stories
Below are some of our common users that utilize Optimizer™ Enterprise on a daily basis, with varying extents of what they deem to be revenue generating and how we can update Optimizer to fit their unique situations.
Defining the Approach
With the users of Optimizer™ Enterprise in mind, complying with HIPAA and local/state government standards, and deidentifying sensitive information, we can condense the action items as follows:
So, how does the product team create a scalable update for Optimizer™ Enterprise to improve revenue generation for practices while adhering to compliance?
To get started on updating Optimizer™ Enterprise, we needed to determine a method that helps us achieve our objective. For that we'll be utilizing the Kanban Method
We reached out to several dental practices that are subscribed to that are seeking to make effective use of Optimizer to discuss the prevalent problems and needs in greater detail. In conjunction with the research, I have highlighted the common findings from users.
In order to get a deeper understanding of these common findings, we needed to know where the pain points lie within the day-to-day process of dental practices:
Phase 1: Project Assessment and Planning
- Assess the current state of Optimizer™ Enterprise.
- Identify key pain points and areas for improvement.
- Define clear objectives for the six-week improvement project.
- Assemble a cross-functional team, including developers, designers, and domain experts.
Phase 2: User Research and Feedback Collection
- Conduct interviews and surveys with dental practices currently using Optimizer™ Enterprise.
- Analyze user feedback to understand their pain points and requirements.
- Create user personas and user journey maps to guide improvements.
- Compile a summary of findings to share with the board.
Phase 3: Feature Prioritization and Roadmap
- Prioritize features and enhancements based on user feedback and business goals.
- Develop a product roadmap for the next six weeks.
- Assign tasks and responsibilities to team members.
- Present the roadmap to the board for approval.
Phase 4: Development and Testing
- Begin development work on the prioritized features.
- Implement improvements to the user interface and functionality.
- Conduct rigorous testing, including usability testing and quality assurance.
- Track progress and address any issues that arise promptly.
Phase 5: Performance Optimization and Scalability
- Optimize performance to ensure it can handle increased usage.
- Implement scalability improvements to accommodate growing user numbers.
- Perform load testing to validate the system's resilience.
- Prepare a report on performance improvements for the board.
Phase 6: User Training and Documentation
- Develop training materials and documentation for dental practices.
- Host webinars or training sessions to educate users about the new features.
- Gather user feedback on the training process and make adjustments.
- Present the completed project, along with user feedback, to the board and stakeholders.
Setting up the Design
To further assist in visually differentiating relevant information and insights, below is what the team ideated and designed with the purpose of fulfilling the criteria outlined as follows:
Keep in mind of the dental practice and where they are within the flow.
- We want Optimizer™ Enterprise to show only what the dental practices deem necessary from the get go.
Keep it simple and minimal
- We want Optimizer™ Enterprise to not feel cluttered while retaining prominent components to guide the user.
Keep the dental practice informed and engaged
- The dental practice should have sufficient time for their practices.
Conceptual Development of Components
Creating adaptive components, like cards, were a way to enhance Optimizer™ Premium offerings. Additionally, these could become elements for users to pinpoint procedures more effectively and gauge the patients more accurately.
Presenting insightful KPIs and reports to give you the strategic and operational insights to make the right decisions.
The overhaul update for Optimizer™ Enterprise rolled out in July 2022. This handy SaaS contains and organizes patient data with consideration of the dental practices utlizing the program.
- View Analytics and Reports of Patients at a Glance: Upon accessing Optimizer™ Enterprise, the practice is greeted with relevant information for them to make necessary actions to pursue new patients, follow up on existing and inactive patients, and view rankings of offices.
- Categorize Data for Easier Review: By categorizing information and data, Optimizer™ Enterprise not only contains crucial information based on categories defined by the user but also provides a quick snapshot of geographical data provided by the practice's management system such as Dentrix and Eaglesoft, for example.
- Unique KPIs & Flexibility on Connectivity : With dedicated support with the sikka.ai team, practices create their own unique KPIs to save time and money. Current KPIs range from cash-insurance ratio, marketing ROI, and payment types to name a few.
What I've Learned & Personal Thoughts
Over the past six challenging weeks, I've been a part of an extensive project aimed at transforming Optimizer™ Enterprise for dental practices, and the journey has been enlightening. Our progress was marked by numerous discussions and back-and-forths with board members as we grappled with differing viewpoints on priorities. Despite the challenges, we adhered to our KPIs and maintained our focus on enhancing user experience and system performance. This project has undeniably been one of the most demanding endeavors I've undertaken, but it reaffirms the importance of resilience, collaboration, and unwavering dedication to delivering a product that truly serves our users' needs.
