Enhancing Medical Interfaces: User Research and Usability Testing for Form Design

Client
Medidata Solutions

Timeline
July 2024 (3 weeks)

My Role
User Experience Researcher Graduate Intern, Usability Test Moderation & Analysis

Team
Lead User Experience Researcher / Two Lead Product Designers

User Group
Central Nervous System Medical Doctors / Principal Investigators / Clinical Research Coordinators

Skills
Moderated Usability Tests / Remote Interviews / Affinity Mapping / Thematic Coding / Qualitative Analysis

Tools
Figma / FigJam / Condens / Respondent / Loom / Zoom / Pendo

Overview

Medidata Solutions is a healthcare technology company that develops software as a service for clinical trials across life sciences. Their products include those for clinical trial professionals, study optimization, data analysis, and supporting the patient experience.

The Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS) is a questionnaire used for suicide assessment by medical professionals. This research was conducted specifically for clinical trial research professionals working in the Central Nervous System field.

🚩 Problem

Medical professionals often conduct complex assessments and questionnaires, including the C-SSRS questionnaires.

Medidata sought to better support these assessments, recognizing that clinicians often need to move non-linearly through them by navigating between multiple sections and questions.

🎯 Research Goals

  1. Identify usability issues with the navigational flow

  2. Assess how effectively the navigation supports user goals and needs

  3. Uncover friction points or unmet needs that impact the experience

  4. Examine user perceptions and desires of displaying non-required sections or conditionally disabled questions

My Responsibilities

  • Contributed as a test moderator conducting remote usability sessions, which identified opportunities to streamline navigation and improve task efficiency.

  • Moderated 7 usability sessions, walking participants through prototypes to evaluate navigation patterns and ease of use.

  • Executed data analysis and synthesized findings into key insights, translating user feedback into actionable recommendations for the product team and design decisions

  • Increased study impact visibility by creating research artifacts, including slide deck, one-slide summary for UXR readout, and Loom video presentation

Key Insights

  • Almost all participants rated the prototype as “very easy” to use.

  • Deactivated sections and questions was preferred over showing all content at once.

  • Participants primarily relied on the primary navigation flow and overlooked secondary navigation unless prompted.

  • Some participants expressed a desire for additional flexibility and customization, such as adding notes or previewing content.

Business Impact

  • Helped validate overall usability, reducing risks before development.

  • Informed design decisions around navigation patterns and content structure to better align with user expectations.

  • Identified opportunities to enhance efficiency and flexibility, supporting smoother adoption across different user groups.

  • Positioned the product for greater scalability and long-term retention by balancing clarity with user control.

Recruiting and Participant User Group

Recruiting

Recruiting was performed by the Lead User Researcher through Respondent.

💭 Reflection

Personal Takeaways…

This experience allowed me to contribute to advancing Conservation International’s mission and goals while deepening my skills in research and engagement strategy. And, it ultimately sparked my career shift to Human Computer Interaction. Seeing how data-driven insights changed KPIs inspired me to want to explore how content and technology affect our experiences and lives.

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me. I would love to share my experience with you.