ASCO Continuing Education Portal Redesign
ORGANIZATION
American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)
ROLE
UX Research, UX Design
YEAR
2018
The Continuing Education (CE) Portal is a web application where ASCO meeting attendees can complete a variety of tasks related to getting credit for participating in meeting sessions. This credit enables them to fulfill the continuing education and maintenance of certification (MOC) requirements needed to stay current in the information they use to treat patients and make important decisions daily. Most users were experiencing friction completing tasks on the original CE Portal, so I worked as part of the ASCO Integrated Media & Technology (IMT) team to create a streamlined, more straightforward experience in support of ASCO's mission to conquer cancer through research, education, and promotion of the highest quality patient care.
CE Portal dashboard and credit claim UI prior to redesign
APPROACH
Through discovery research we were able to speak with stakeholders and users to better understand their specific goals and pain points for CE Portal, document current user behaviors and task flows and evaluate competitors and the comparative landscape for benchmarking and inspiration.
The discovery process included:
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stakeholder interviews
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user interviews
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remote moderated usability testing
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analytics analysis
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competitive and comparative analysis
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user flows
Research confirmed that an overhaul of the existing CE Portal was needed to enable users to successfully get credit for meeting attendance. Findings were divided into task selection and task completion.
Discovery research findings presentation slides that I created and presented to internal ASCO stakeholders
TASK SELECTION
Four categories of users access the CE Portal: physicians, pharmacists, nurses and other affiliated healthcare professionals. Though there is overlap between the tasks that each of these distinct user groups completes, there are also audience-specific tasks that are not applicable to any other user group. Nevertheless, the “dashboard” users landed on after logging into CE Portal displayed all options regardless of role. As a result users were confused by the number of choices available and which were applicable to them.
There were also numerous issues with the navigation. When looking at the dashboard users did not realize the main navigation items were clickable. They were also confused because the same tasks in the main navigation were referred to by another name in a table further down on the page. Consequently, users thought the tasks listed in the table were additional options when they were actually duplicates.
Top: CE Portal dashboard prior to redesign; bottom, related findings from discovery presentation
Task completion
Once a user selected a task, there was no clear overview of the steps they needed to execute in order to successfully complete it. While some of the tasks could be completed independently, other tasks had dependencies and required that another be completed first. Some of the flows were also unnecessarily convoluted. With no direction provided, users floundered and had to make several attempts to determine next steps before they were able to figure it out or reach out to staff for help. Additionally time-sensitive tasks did not clearly communicate any type of deadline.
Since the current task workflows generated confusion for internal staff and end users alike, I created user flows to document the current state. From there, I was able to provide a common understanding between stakeholders, developers and project managers and confirm business requirements before moving forward with recommendations for improvements.
Sample CE Portal user flow, initial sketch and final documentation
SOLUTIONS
Collaborating with stakeholders with subject matter expertise on the requirements surrounding continuing education, maintenance of certification and formal documentation of attendance for ASCO meeting participants was central to updating the user flows. Through frequent check-ins, I was able to make sure that as flows were simplified and feedback from discovery was incorporated that they were still meeting the needs of various types of users and their respective medical boards and organizations.
From there I worked with the rest of the IMT team and internal stakeholders to finalize and implement improvements, including:
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Utilizing customization based on user role and meeting to show only those tasks relevant to them
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Updating task flows on the backend based on updated user and screen flows
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Guiding users through tasks by clearly depicting the predefined flow in the UI & increasing visibility of deadlines when relevant
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Updating UI to increase ease of use for: navigation, search and filtering and mobile use within task flows
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Using consistent nomenclature throughout site to reduce confusion and support task selection & completion
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Distinguishing clearly between required versus optional steps, when applicable
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Ensuring CE Portal design is responsive
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Working with vendor to create final design based on wires I created and refined with my team in keeping with the ASCO style guide
customization
Wireframe and final design for customization screen - a new step users complete before reaching their CE dashboard for the first time.
After selecting their role and the meeting they attended users are shown only those tasks relevant to them. Tasks they select to complete are displayed on the dashboard.
OUTCOMES & NEXT STEPS
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CE Portal clearly guides users through task selection and completion, and initial usability testing I conducted with my team during beta and then post-launch confirmed users no longer struggle to understand what steps need to be completed
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Additional analytics are being implemented to better track metrics throughout all task flows
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We are looking to move from customization to personalization to further streamline the user experience
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CE Portal will continue to be updated as we cycle through research, design and development