Lab results redesigned to maintain context and save physicians time
Overview
By redesigning the lab results screen, physicians can now review patient data, lab values and clinical context from a single screen — reducing context switching, cognitive load and time spent on task.
The result is a cleaner, more confident review experience in high-pressure clinical environments.
My role: Led the redesign of the lab results section of an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system, responsible for end-to-end design from research to final delivery.
Problem: The existing experience made it difficult for physicians to quickly interpret results and required frequent page switching during a patient review.
Team: Senior UX designer, product managers, business analyst, developers and QA
Understanding the problem
User group: Physicians
Methods: Heuristic evaluation, user interviews (through an internal advisory committee and clinic visits conducted by product managers)
We met with the advisory committee of physicians every few weeks and PMs gathered additional insights during one-on-one clinic visits. These weren’t formal research sessions they were more open discussions to understand their workflow and collect feedback.
Physicians shared what slowed them down, what they needed easier access to and where the interface created friction. These conversations helped us identify core usability issues and better understand their mental model when reviewing lab results.
Alongside this, I ran an independent heuristic evaluation to identify usability gaps.
Defining key design goals
From research, I established the following high-level goals:
Improve readability and clarity
Increase the number of visible lab results at once
Reduce workflow interruptions
Ensure consistency with the new EMR design system
Ideation & exploration
I began by exploring multiple layout variations using Figma. Early explorations included:
Alternative lab content arrangements
Condensed vs expanded result views
Side panels for patient context
Patterns for comparing multiple results over time
I quickly moved these into a high-level prototype to use in feedback rounds.
Iterative design
Method: Usability testing in advisory committee sessions (every few weeks) and feedback from clinic visits conducted by product managers
Approach: Show → Discuss → Collect feedback → Refine
Each iteration revealed practical insights, including:
Which result types needed priority
What information physicians wanted at a glance
Preferred placement for contextual lab and patient details
Final design solution
I delivered polished, developer-ready designs for all key flows, including:
✓ A cleaner visual hierarchy: Making critical values and trends easier to interpret.
✓ Increased data visibility: More results displayed on screen, reducing scrolling.
✓ In-context patient information: A persistent way for clinicians to view relevant lab and patient details without leaving the results page.
✓ Consistency with the EMR’s new design patterns: Ensuring scalability and alignment across the broader interface redesign.
Outcome
The redesigned lab results screen has been live for several years and is used daily — often multiple times a day — by physicians across the platform.
The experience has required only minor refinements since launch, a strong signal of a design that truly fits how physicians work.
Feedback has remained consistently positive, with physicians noting the experience feels cleaner, more intuitive and better aligned with their clinical workflow.
Reflection
What I enjoyed most about this project was the hands-on collaboration with physicians. Their feedback grounded every design decision in real-world use, which is especially important in healthcare environments. It reminded me how crucial it is to design not just for clarity, but for efficiency and mental load, especially in high-pressure settings.