Redesigning lab results in an EMR

Lab results screen - web and tablet

Overview

My role & goal

As the Senior UX Designer, I led the redesign of the lab results section of an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system. The existing experience made it difficult for physicians to quickly interpret results and required frequent page switching during a patient review.

The goal was to create a more intuitive, readable and efficient interface that supported the way physicians work.

The team

  • Senior UX Designer

  • Project Managers

  • Business Analyst

  • Physicians

  • Developers

  • Quality assurance

Understanding the problem

User group: Physicians (through an internal advisory committee and clinic visits conducted by product managers)

Methods: Feedback sessions

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.

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: 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

Physicians described the new experience as cleaner, more intuitive and better aligned with their workflow. Since its launch a few years ago, the design has needed only minor refinements and feedback has remained consistently positive.

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.