Product Type
Enterprise product
Platform
SaaS
Duration
Dec 2023 - May 2024
Team
UIUX, Dev, Product
BACKGROUND
Legacy Central Clinical Workspace
Dolphin Blue is a cloud-based orthodontic practice management platform used by clinicians to manage patient care. At the center of the experience is the Clinical Dashboard—the primary workspace where orthodontists review patient information, monitor treatment progress, and make time-sensitive clinical decisions throughout the day.
PROBLEM
A Critical Bottleneck Hurt Retention and Adoption
The Clinical Dashboard had become a bottleneck for both usability and system performance. Declining satisfaction among existing customers threatened retention, while a complex onboarding experience made it harder for new practices to adopt the product.
COMPLEXITIES
Complexity Beyond the Interface
Designing the Clinical Dashboard required balancing three interconnected layers of complexity: diverse users, evolving workflows, and dense clinical information.
01 Multi-Stage Clinical Workflows
The same interface is used throughout the patient journey, from chairside data collection and examinations to post-treatment documentation and record management.
02 Multi-Persona Collaboration
The dashboard supports assistants, orthodontists, and sometimes office managers, each interacting with the same workspace in different ways depending on their responsibilities.
03 Data-Dense Clinical Decision Making
The dashboard presents large volumes of technical clinical information, requiring users to quickly locate, interpret, and act on critical data during patient care.
DISCOVER SIGNALS
Triangulating Insights Across Multiple Sources
To build an objective understanding of the problem, I gathered evidence from multiple perspectives instead of relying on a single source. Combining domain expertise, user feedback, and system evaluation ensured a more complete and reliable foundation for the next stage of analysis.
01 - Internal Domain Knowledge
01 - Internal Domain Knowledge
02 - Cross-Role User Interviews
02 - Cross-Role User Interviews
03 - UX & System Assessment
03 - UX & System Assessment
I worked with product managers and software trainers, who interact with customers daily, to understand clinical workflows, domain-specific content, and common implementation challenges.
CONNECT THE DOTS
From Fragmented Findings to Design Decisions
Looking across all research findings, two recurring themes consistently emerged. Rather than addressing individual usability issues, I translated these patterns into design strategies that could solve the problem at a system level.
SOLUTIONS
01
Global Patient Context
Keep critical patient information visible across every workflow.
02
Workflow-Specific Workspaces
Tailor the interface to each task, aligned with user roles.
03
Guided Customization
Replace unlimited freedom with guided flexibility.
04
Responsive Layout Framework
Adapt content intelligently across screens and layouts.
RESULT
Beta Validation
The Dolphin Blue redesign was sunset before full release due to strategic decisions beyond the design team’s control. However, beta testing with internal trainers and early adopters provided clear validation.
Design Impact Beyond a Single Product
The guided configuration framework was later carried forward into Fuse for cross-product evaluation. While still in progress, early alignment with product and positive feedback from stakeholders suggest strong potential for scalability across enterprise workflows.
REFLECTION
Solve the system problem, not just the surface issue
In enterprise products, individual usability issues are often symptoms of a larger system design problem. I learned to step back and design for the underlying structure—grounding decisions in usage data, workflow patterns, and observable constraints rather than isolated feedback.
Solving the right problem requires the right people
IFor complex workflows, the most impactful decisions came from aligning early with Product, Engineering, and support teams to identify the highest-friction areas. This helped focus effort where it mattered most while balancing feasibility, business goals, and user needs.