Redesigned the existing app with a goal to reduce time spent on payroll, prevent billing errors, and turn a manual, paper-heavy process into a fully digital process.
As a UX Designer I conducted research, synthesized the research, designed wireframes, performed usability tests and created hi-fidelity mockups.
From keeping track of caregivers' schedules to managing billing and payroll, recording the entire caregiver process was incredibly time-consuming, taking around 20 hours of work every two weeks per employee due to the manual paper process. ComForCare employees struggled to catch errors, which were common, and spent hours manually fixing them for payroll. If mistakes are not corrected, clients can be billed incorrectly and caregivers can be paid incorrectly. Furthering the problem, even though a caregiver app was available, over 95% of caregivers were still opting to record their workflows on paper because the app's user experience was counterintuitive.
The project's primary goal is to deliver a redesign of ComForCare's existing app in order to phase out the paper flowsheet process and put in place a fully digital flowsheet.
• To prevent errors that frequently occur as a result of manually filling out the
flowsheet
• To significantly reduce the chance of billing and payroll errors
• To save time that employees spend manually recording caregiver flowsheets
(up to 10 hours biweekly)
• To better train caregivers in the flowsheet process
We first met with the owners of ComForCare and current employees to understand their business goals, identify pain points, and narrow our scope. The owners showed us their entire workflow from on-boarding clients to finding caregivers to filling out the flowsheet and processing payroll.
Why couldn't the caregivers use the existing app?I interviewed the caregivers to understand why they didn't use the mobile app. The existing app didn't have sections to fill in required parts of the flowsheet, didn't allow changes to their schedules after initial input of data, and didn't provide GPS-activated alerts and push notifications. For these reasons, they opted for the paper flowsheets instead.
The current schedule and payroll management (operations) software used by ComForCare franchises nationwide.
The current paper flowsheet used by ComForCare caregivers in California.
We created a service blueprint to visualize ComForCare's work process in order to identify where the errors were happening and to optimize the organizational processes.
• Employees spent 25% of their hours each week manually checking for errors
in the flowsheets, such as incorrect dates and clock in & clock out times, and
missing information (tasks, narrative, signature, etc.).
• Not all caregivers submitted flowsheets on time or filled it out correctly.
- Employees had to individually contact caregivers via phone or email to confirm
• Eliminate paper flowsheets
• Save time and reduce stress by eliminating the need to recheck forms and
timesheets
• Reduce mistakes that cause billing errors
How might we alleviate errors and help ComForCare save time during the flowsheet and payroll processes?
We believed that redesigning the current caregiver app would best address flowsheet and payroll needs by decreasing the possibility for errors and significantly lowering the chance of incorrect billing. It would also save the company approximately 10 hours of labor per employee every other week.
We brainstormed possible features that could solve the problems of the existing app and decided which ones to put in the MVP.
Based on our research findings, we incorporated all of the necessary and relevant app features into our initial sketches of the redesigned app. We then received critiques from web programmers and designers that we leveraged to build medium- and high-fidelity wireframes.
We first conducted usability tests with paper prototypes. From the results, we identified areas of improvement that we took into account when building the final prototype, which was also put through usability tests.
OUR FINDINGS
• Staff members prefer a daily system vs weekly
• Ability to edit timesheets and resubmit
Before the final app redesign, we tested various iterations throughout the process to identify the best solution.
Shift Details
Pressed and Inactive Buttons
Review Weekly Flowsheet
Flowsheets
Caregivers can now fill out their flowsheets through the app and submit their ADLs (Activities for Daily Living). They are unable to submit the flowsheets if any errors occur and the app will prompt them to correct it before continuing. If the caregivers need to make changes they may make edits and resubmit before they are due.
Client Signatures
Client signatures are an important requirement with flowsheets, but many times are forgotten. So we enabled a finger signature feature that is required to be gathered before caregivers can submit their flowsheets.
Clock In/Out Alerts and Pop-Ups
We created different types of automatic alerts and pop ups to ensure the correct actions are being made to alleviate the billing errors.
It is a common occurrence for clients to ask caregivers to stay later, so we wanted to ensure caregivers could adjust their time as well as provide a reason.
GPS Alerts
We created GPS alerts, which go off when you are clocked in. This way if caregivers leave the client house before the shift is over, they will receive a push notification prompting the caregiver to select a reason.
We assessed all use cases and concluded there would be only two general reasons a caregiver can leave the house early. They are either transporting the client somewhere (errands, appointments, etc.) or they were asked to end their shift early. Any other use cases would need to be addressed directly with the company itself.
We delivered a high-fidelity prototype to the client, along with examples of the interaction animation and future recommendations.
What I Learned
• I enjoyed learning a bit about service design and how the inter workings of a
business are connected to the service and its customers
• This project easily could have been unmanageable, but drilling down to
(and sticking with) our MVP helped us stay on track
• Task flows, rapid low-fidelity iterations, and group check-ins helped the
team align
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