Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Abbott wanted to transition their manual software update process to a digital platform where technicians could update accounts remotely. In addition to reducing exposure risk, they wanted to create an avenue for lab technicians to spend less time on the road and boost productivity. We were tasked with creating the interface and rigorously testing it to ensure efficiency.

With the amount of accounts per employee, outdated contact information, time-consuming processes, and pandemic restrictions, technician efficiency was severely impacted. This lead to poor time management and an increased number of errors.

Our UX research team conducted interviews with Abbott’s internal stakeholders and field technicians and studied all the details about a technician’s daily workflow. We discovered that on top of lengthy manual update process, their existing system was bogged down by disorganized client data documentation.

When we assembled our wireframes, our design team took potential friction points into consideration. The goal was to illustrate how common tasks and patterns would be executed in the portal. We cut each task down to a few simple steps with unambiguous designs, flexible tables, and charts.

Once we had the basic content structure in place, we started on the high-fidelity design. Our UI designers applied colors, logos, fonts, and imagery sparsely throughout each screen to create a polished look emphasizing the overall usability of the product.

We tested the clickable high-fidelity design in Zoom meetings with Abbott’s field technicians and asked them to complete a series of tasks. We also drafted a series of questions to understand what worked, what didn’t, and what would need to be fixed before launching the new platform.

Because of our ID NOW web portal redesign, Abbott’s technicians are saving a substantial amount of time by remotely updating devices for 100+ accounts:

• 135% increase in usability
• 202% increase of target feature usage
• 161% productivity increase
• 9,900% return-on-investment