UI Redesign: Qualifacts’ EHR Portfolio

Overview

Role: Project Management and Strategy, Lead UX Designer
Timeline: 2023–2025

In 2022, Qualifacts initiated a major UI redesign project for its three core EHR products: CareLogic, Credible, and InSync. Prompted by strategic direction from a new CEO and board-driven mandates, the goal was to unify the visual and interaction design across the three EHRs, positioning them clearly as a family of products. It was a daunting project, repeatedly shelved in the past due to concerns about significant system disruptions, the complexity of legacy code, and the extensive coordination required across multiple teams and disparate technologies.

Background & Problem

Having spent several years with Qualifacts, it was clear from day one that the CareLogic UI needed significant updating. Initially developed in the early 2000s, the front-end interface was outdated, rudimentary, and largely developer-driven, with over 1,600 discrete pages, many with hardcoded inline styles, and approximately 50 different CSS files. While the front-end was basic, the underlying system itself was robust, highly customizable, dense, and monolithic, posing significant challenges for redesign.

The acquisitions of Credible and InSync in 2020 introduced additional UI disparities:

Credible: Had a somewhat dated UI, with limitations in its codebase preventing branching and necessitating strategic incremental releases. Additionally, nearly a dozen embedded third-party tools required individual reskinning, further complicating alignment.

InSync: Although more modern, its UI was dense and feature-rich, containing nearly four times as many discrete components and heavily reliant on iconography.

Both Credible and InSync were visually inconsistent with CareLogic and with each other, further complicating the objective of achieving a unified portfolio design.

Design System Development

We created a comprehensive design system in Sketch and socialized it using Zeplin, including detailed component specifications and a thorough style guide. The robust system included:

  • Comprehensive style guide covering brand and visual standards

  • Detailed component specifications for consistency across platforms

  • Unified typography to ensure readability and visual coherence

  • Consistent color schemes for brand alignment

  • Extensive component libraries (buttons, forms, grids, navigation elements)

High-fidelity visual designs and interactive prototypes were essential for clear communication with leadership, marketing, clients, and engineering teams. These visual assets provided detailed guidance, aligning all stakeholders and facilitating effective collaboration.

Implementation Challenges

The effort was monumental, involving exhaustive analysis, coordinated release strategies, and intensive stakeholder alignment across three highly complex EHR systems, all while ensuring minimal disruption to daily clinical operations.

  • Legacy Complexity: This was not a simple facelift; the redesign involved architectures and codebases nearly 20 years old. Each platform had distinctly different technologies for both front-end and back-end, requiring meticulous planning and consideration.

  • Technical Challenges: Given the disparate architectures—each developed independently with its own legacy technology stack—the complexity was immense. The modernization had to respect each system's unique limitations and strengths while still delivering a unified visual and interactive experience.

  • Incremental Releases: Due to legacy frameworks, CareLogic and Credible required incremental updates.

  • Internal Coordination: Significant coordination across sales, implementation, support, engineering, customer success and QA teams was necessary to manage expectations and prevent outages.

  • Customization Management: Customizations in CareLogic necessitated new conventions, balancing legacy functionality with the new unified design.

Client Advisory Groups

Advisory groups comprising 10-15 clinicians and system administrators per platform provided iterative feedback and validation of design choices.

Community Engagement

A dedicated online forum allowed continuous interaction with clients, posting release notes and upcoming changes, ensuring transparency and effectively managing expectations.

Outcomes & Impact

Six months post-release, user surveys revealed overwhelmingly positive feedback:

  • InSync Users: Out of 100 respondents, only 4 wished to revert to the previous UI.

  • CareLogic & Credible Users: Client satisfaction surveys showed similarly positive sentiments post-transition.

Additional impacts included:

  • Enhanced accessibility and 508 compliance

  • Faster development of new features and enhancements

  • Creation of a scalable design language used across other Qualifacts products

Lessons Learned

  • Clear Client Communication: Clear, timely, and simplified client communication is vital.

  • Leadership Management: Educating stakeholders that the redesign was more than cosmetic—it was a comprehensive transformation impacting multiple organizational areas.

  • UX Constraints: Clear communication about UX constraints and priorities is necessary.

  • Accessibility Gains: Substantial improvements in accessibility were achieved even within stringent UI constraints.

Final Thoughts

This redesign strategically transformed the visual and functional landscape of Qualifacts' products, demonstrating the importance of robust design systems, effective client engagement, and strategic stakeholder management.