Problem
Scheduling group appointments was stressful and time-consuming for associates, and the business was missing scheduling opportunities.
Summary
Synopsis: I redesigned an internal tool used by Kroger clinic and pharmacy associates
In the summer of 2024, I interned at Kroger as a Product Designer. While working with the Health & Wellness Associate Experience Team, the company launched a new service that would allow busy families to schedule a single appointment for their entire group.
To help employees schedule these new types of appointments, I led the redesign of the associate-facing Patient Scheduler experience.
At the end of the project, I handed off designs that received overwhelmingly positive feedback in usability testing, improving the user experience and streamlining scheduling.
Solution: My designs streamlined the scheduling experience for group and individual appointments
Reduced complexity using UX Principles
Applied my knowledge of other Kroger digital products to propose innovative solutions
Remixed familiar patterns from across industries to make the product easy to learn
Impact: "It will make scheduling take less time for PCTs and families and lessen frustration."
During testing, users overwhelmingly agreed that the new Patient Scheduler design was a significant improvement to the scheduling experience. They appreciated the ease and simplicity, saying it would "keep things calm." They were excited by how much time it could save them while scheduling appointments.
Among my team, the concept and user feedback sparked an active discussion about changes, leading to the design being prioritized for development. This new experience is expected to help the business accomplish its goal of doubling vaccine services and using clinic time more efficiently.
“It will make scheduling take less time for PCTs and families, lessening frustration.” Pharmacy Care Technician
“This concept is much easier than the current experience” - Regional Clinic Leader
“Malaika provided a strong UX design for our vaccine solution that we are expecting to help contribute to the goal of doubling our vaccination goals for this year.” Director of Product Strategy
Background: I aimed to improve the experience of a healthcare tool to streamline clinic operations and enhance the associate and customer experience.
Overview
Team
Product Design Intern
Product Manager
Engineers
Goal
Redesign an internal tool used by pharmacy associates to make group appointment scheduling easier
Company
Kroger Co: Health & Wellness Associate Experience
Timeline
Summer 2024 / 3 months
Product & User: An internal tool used by pharmacy and clinic associates to manage patient information
Product: Web-based patient management portal
Patient Scheduler is a web-based platform that is critical to the workflows of Kroger clinic and pharmacy staff members.
Associates use it to:
Schedule appointments
Manage patient information
View daily and weekly calendars of appointments at their location.
Users: Essential healthcare worker
I needed to design for healthcare workers, balancing lifesaving work with fast, friendly, and caring customer service.
Daily Responsibilities
Sort, stock, and distribute prescriptions
Provide customer service at the drive-thru and store counter
Answer patient questions
Manage internal and external prescription transfers by phone and fax
Gather insurance information
Schedule appointments by phone and in person
Problem: “There's no easy way to schedule for a family. You have to go through the whole scheduling experience for each person.” - Regional Clinic Leader
"Sometimes I've been like I can schedule one of you for an appointment, but please schedule the rest of your family members online." - Pharmacy Care Technician
“There was a family with a mom and two children. I was only able to get two appointments scheduled back-to-back. The third appointment had to be an hour later. So the mom had to wait with her kids until it was time for the third appointment. Being able to block time slots for a family can be really hard.” - Pharmacy Care Technician
Business Value: Improving the scheduling experience would increase employee and clinic efficiency and make customer service better
Associates
Increases efficiency and reduces stress, giving them time back to focus on their other tasks
Business
Optimizes use of clinic time, providing more opportunities for vaccine and health service sales
Patients
Offers convenient and personalized care, accommodating their families and busy lives
Process: I followed a process that included research, discovery, design, and testing.
Research & Discovery
Participated in whiteboarding and discovery meetings to understand business requirements and technical constraints
Analyzed travel booking flows to find effective patterns
Reviewed previous research to understand my users' needs, responsibilities, and pain points
Mapped user flows to create the most straightforward experience
Design & Iteration
Sketched ideas and wireframed to explore and refine ideas
Iterated based on feedback and team insights
Created a high-fidelity prototype to conduct usability testing
Testing & Synthesis
Created a test guide to facilitate usability testing
Synthesized user feedback to measure success and identify areas for improvement
Solution: My final solution was a streamlined scheduling experience
Patient Search & Selected Patients: Leveraging familiar patterns and heuristics to accelerate patient search and reduce errors
Made finding patients easier by simplifying the patient card and placing the most important information front and center
Reduced errors by introducing the Selected Patient panel, which provides real-time updates and lets associates quickly remove patients added by mistake
Accelerated decision-making with pagination to avoid overwhelming users
Linked Patients: Using existing patient information to streamline family scheduling
Streamlined the process by letting customers link their accounts using relationships established in the My Prescription patient portal
Review & Eligibility: Reducing clicks and making error correction easy
Reduced steps in the process by merging the review page and patient eligibility screen.
Made editing easy with the appointment review bar that lets associates change location, date, and time without restarting the scheduling process
Carried "Selected Services" throughout the flow to let associates make edits quickly
Outcome: I measured the design’s success based on user feedback and development prioritization
Impact: Users and my team saw it as a significant improvement to the Patient Scheduler experience
5/5 users loved the ease and simplicity of the new experience
All of the usability test participants reported that the new process was much easier to use. They were excited about the concept and said it would significantly reduce the time it takes to schedule appointments.
It was prioritized for development
The Patient Scheduler team was excited about the enhancements and user feedback. It was prioritized for development and sparked an engaged discussion about future changes. It is expected to help the business reach its goal of doubling vaccine appointments.
“It’s easy to read compared to the dropdown, which involves a lot of scrolling to find a service.” - Regional Clinic Leader
"This will reduce time and make it easier to go through the scheduling process.” Pharmacy Care Technician
“It was super easy to find the patient, especially once I learned about the linked patients feature.” - Pharmacy Care Technician
“Malaika provided a strong UX design for our vaccine solution that we are expecting to help contribute to the goal of doubling our vaccination goals for this year.” Director of Product Strategy
Next Steps: Improvement driven by user feedback and data
Iteration
How might we enable associates to help patients link their accounts?
How might we design for groups where individual members are getting different services?
Employee Survey
Time on task
Learnability
Feedback
Reflection: I found inspiration in the places I least expected.
Insight: Enterprise tool don't exist in a vacuum
Outside of work, associates use various apps and websites to complete tasks, connect with others, and entertain themselves. Understanding this helped me shape the experience I was designing, despite my limited ability to study competitors' internal tools. Ultimately, I believe this approach contributed to the effectiveness of the concept. By incorporating familiar patterns from tools associates might use outside of work, I lowered the barrier to entry. As a result, even though the experience was new, it felt familiar, making adoption more intuitive.
