User Experience (UX) Design is a field that has gained considerable attention in in the business world, including products and services across industries or professions. While I can never claim to be an authority in this field of UX design, I have been doing UX and delivering without knowing much about the field. I am very confident of my works now than ever before in my tech and entrepreneurial career.

In the context of advancing the field of UX and Design, I have finally decided to share my first UX strategy and design experience with the community in this artciels.

A case in point is when (2001) I started building my first Professional Website using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in a small one-bedroom apartment in The Bronx, NYC.

This was an interesting time for me, as a young immigrant who left the shores of West Africa, to join my family members in the United States. Between 2001-2003, I was a student at a hands-on computer programming course in Manhattan, NY. I was studied computer programming at Katherine Gibbs School New York (now closed). My interest in the field quickly grew without boundaries, leaning, coding and designing at the same time.

While studying in the school, I did not learn or read more the following words: User Experience, Experience Design, Design Thinking, Information Archistrat, Content Writing. These words were important importan subjects, had I known, because I was studying for an Associate Degree in Computer Programming. Anyone who watched me work and play with computer applications knew (at the time and today) I possessed the passion for the field.

UX Challenge: The Medical Directory

The challenge I faced at hand was to develop design solution that will allow the medical office to local physical files (called Medical Records or Charts made up of folders).

Between 2003-2005, my UX and design thinking experience was first applied, for the first time, to assist medical doctors and offices in the Bronx, New York. I was hired to work as an Office Administrator and IT Consultant for University Medical Associates (now called University Medical Services PC).

Having no specific goals and requirements proposed by the management, I set out to find a sustainable solution for the idea or challenge. I started with a simple tasks: to sort the paper-charts based on the client/patient last name, first name, and a letter for middle name, and I knew filing them in this order required bits of going through the names in order to find the correct last name, then match the first name, then look for what I call a ‘third validation record’ such as Date of birth, phone number, and/or residential address of the client/patient in order to retrieve the right patient chart. I quickly noticed that this manual process was tedious work, but I managed to handle the paper charts and records efficiently using my planning and administrative skills.

In few weeks, I organized myself and think through the following questions:

1. How does the office locate medical records (the paper-charts at the time) when a patient comes to see the medical doctor?
2. How can we make this experience of locating the medical records easier (design and technology skills to be deployed) and faster for office staff?
3. How can we design a User Interface connected to a database to be designed to achieve this objective of taking long to sift-through the last names (and sometimes first names) by the less experienced medical assistants (who had little technical knowledge)?

Technology Solution

To address the challenges of the patient chart directory, I first decided to create a solution through Information Technology.

The requirements/tasks running through my mind looked like these steps:

1. Create HTML/CSS web pages for each Alphabet (ABC…Z).
2. Created and managed Database using Microsoft Access.
3. Normalize the database or tables based on the Last Name, First Name, and Chart ID.
4. Ensure that every paper-chat is entered into this database using ASP (programming and code)
5. Additional components using local servers (IIS Windows system as the time was proper).
6. The patient records should contain five basic information (by any staff member): last name, first name, middle name, gender/sex, date of birth, and phone number.

I needed to look at the problem “wholistically”, meaning both the technology and people/user-context were requirements.

UX Strategy

The UX Strategy was to assign a unique number to each medical chart (the paper-chart or record), build the database using those numbers (a manual and tedious process) and a simple web application running on a local Microsoft server for easy record search on any computer in the office.

This required IIS by Microsoft, which enables the building of a simple User Interface (HTML, CSS, ASP) to serve as the starting point of creating the director.

While the numbers are assigned on each paper-chart manually using a paper or print-label, the data entry is done using the Microsoft Access database, which I managed efficiently.

Microsoft ACCESS

To avoid duplication of client/patient, the database manager (in this case that is me) and the system administrator (that is me), must ensure a process is in place to record every new patient in the system based on the letter of his or her last name, and corresponding ten (10) digits of numbers, starting with the first-letter of the patient’s last name that created a UID (for example A0000000001, B0000000002, C0000000003..).

It was easy to create Primary Keys that correspond to a last name letter of a sample using any relational database system.

User Interface (UI) Design

After installing the database to create unique patient identification numbers (UID), the next step was to build the User Interface (UI) using my skills and that will address the Users requirements (the office staff) and the final step is to deploy technology skills (Programming) to ensure the charting system is efficient. Once again, without knowing nothing about the field of UX, I set out to build the first page by providing a basic, three step instruction to the users (office staff) of this patient or chart directory as follows:

Ask the user to ask the patient for Last name, First name, and Phone number or by simply collecting his or her photo ID to verify that this is the patient before opening the application.
Ask the user to “Click on the Letter (A, B, C…), which is the root HTML/CSS3/ASP page created.
Ask to enter the last name (here I made the A page for all patients starting with last name A, and B page for all those with last name starting with B, C patient for all those starting with C, and so on. Look in the list or report for the Last name, First name. Match with Date of birth or phone number to ensure you have the right client/patient Write down a medical chart number and locate the paper-chart on the rack. You need to DOUBLE CHECK to ensure you have the right chart number that corresponds to the information provided by the patient.

These simple steps quickly turned out to be working efficiently, reducing the amount of time the staff and Office Administrator takes to locate the paper-charts from an average of 30 minutes to less than 10 minutes once the directory went live. I was pleased to see that the users of the directory or application find it easy to locate charts and repeat the process with ease.

Sample screenshots from the work:

The Conclusion

The lessons from these experiences gave me the foundation to think-outside-the-box when faced with a Design Challenge or UX Challenge. As a UX consultant, I always start with basic questions: How can this design be better? Who is using this product or service (what i call ‘user context;)? What technology, tool, and process can be deployed, in this scenario, to create a better or desired experience?

Design is both noun and verb, with the former being a ‘thing’ or ‘product’ such as a ‘logo’ or ‘website’ and the latter being the ‘thinking or process’ that the designer must follow to produce the ‘thing’ or ‘product.’

Being able to define what the challenge, solution, and benefit are important for me. I now read good UX books on design and technology, allowing me to add to my existing experience or knowledge from my first UX challenge at UMA.

I will end with my favorite UX quotation from my favorite book:

The Practitioner’s Guide to USER EXPERIENCE DESIGN written by Look Miller (who worked and taught at General Assembly, New York).

In the introduction section of this book, Miller writes:

“So, what is UX and how do you do it? The best answer to the first question is that UX is both a noun and a verb; it is both the end result experience a
product offers and a set of methods with which to craft experiences…”

I remember speaking to Miller and telling him how inspired and important the ideas and concepts shared in the book meant to me. I keep the book close, and now consider myself a UX professional by trade and profession.

It is all well, to my UX friends in the community. Do not stop exploring and reading until you become a professional without the Philosophy degrees.

Never stop dreaming and challenging yourself in this exciting field.

UX is only going to get better, so far as we do not stop thinking and doing for users.