Building an Activity Log for a Healthcare Company to Improve Efficiency and Ensure Compliance by 25%.
Problem at hand
How does the lack of visibility into user activities impact troubleshooting and compliance efforts?
My role
Product designer
My team
1 Project manager, 5 Backend & 3 Frontend engineers, 1 QA
Timeline
5 months, 2023
Industry
Healthcare, medical software
Tools used
Figma, Jira, Confluence
Overview
HALO Precision Diagnostics is a company that provides healthcare through advanced imaging diagnostics and genetic testing.
The activity log was integrated into the SAAS platform to give staff a clear overview of user actions such as adding or modifying patient data, scheduling appointments, and updating orders. This improved both operational control and error resolution.
*For compliance reasons, no actual user or patient data is displayed. Instead, placeholder values represent fields that would typically contain sensitive information.
Defining the problem
Staff couldn’t determine who made changes to patient data or why certain orders were modified. This created issues in accountability and error resolution.
The lack of a detailed, centralized activity log created blind spots in accountability, error resolution, and cross-system communication. Staff needed a more transparent and accessible way to track changes and understand how updates in one part of the system affected other areas.
What stood in our way
Complex relationships
Cross-system modifications from LIS, RIS, Client Portal, and PT Portal.
Handling nested objects (e.g., guarantor linked to insurance).
Design clarity
Ensuring the log remained user-friendly despite complex data.
Handling edge cases like order cancellations and reassignments.
The mission behind the design
Build a clear, accessible activity log that improves accountability and workflow efficiency.
Enable quick filtering and searching.
Provide direct links to affected objects and related files.
Improve error tracking and resolution time.
Research
Before the log, staff struggled to trace changes to patient records, insurance details, and order status.
Persona
User Stories
Goals
Motivation
Frustrations
Personality
As a clinical staff member, I need to see who updated the patient’s insurance information so that I can determine if it was an error and correct it.
PRICE
INTROVERT
EXTROVERT
COMFORT
ANALYTICAL
CREATIVE
CONVENIENCE
LOYAL
FICKLE
SPEED
PASSIVE
ACTIVE
Ruth Manning
37, Los Angeles
Clinical Staff
Track changes to patient data (e.g., insurance, contact info).
Identify discrepancies quickly and resolve them.
Filter logs by patient, activity type, and date.
Lack of clarity on who made changes and why.
Time-consuming manual work to identify errors.
Difficulty tracing system-wide changes across LIS and RIS.
User Stories
Goals
Motivation
Frustrations
Personality
As an administrator, I need to track who modified billing settings so that I can reverse the change if it was incorrect.
PRICE
INTROVERT
EXTROVERT
COMFORT
ANALYTICAL
CREATIVE
CONVENIENCE
LOYAL
FICKLE
SPEED
PASSIVE
ACTIVE
Monitor system health and ensure consistent data across systems.
Track configuration changes and administrative adjustments.
Quickly access logs for audits and internal reviews.
No unified log for system changes.
Inability to filter by administrative tasks vs. clinical changes.
Maria MacDonald
40, Los Angeles
Administrative Staff
Types of activities
These activities can happen within the order, procedure, and patient records throughout the LIS and RIS portal.
edit
Create
Create a new patient record
Create a new order
Create new procedure
Add new insurance information
Register a new referring provider
add
Update
Modify patient demographics
Update order details
Change insurance information
Edit procedure details
Adjust billing details
Modify referring provider information
delete
Delete
Delete a patient record
Cancel an order
Remove a procedure
Delete insurance information
Remove a referring provider
visibility
View
Open patient chart
View order details
View procedure details
Check insurance details
Access referring provider information
ios_share
Action
Send order report
Share patient record
Send procedure status update
Forward insurance details
Share referring provider details
Mapping the user’s path
We want to help staff trace key actions efficiently
To achieve this, we created a structured user flow that illustrates how staff can navigate the activity log, filter data, and identify key changes quickly, ensuring accountability and simplifying error resolution.
Implemetation
The final solution
Theming
To accommodate different user preferences and accessibility needs, the activity log will support both light and dark themes.
See more
To improve usability and prevent information overload, the activity log will support expand and collapse functions for each logged activity.
Search and Filters
Our research and user feedback have led us to identify four filtering options that enable staff to efficiently find and review logged activities:
Search
Users can type keywords (e.g., patient name, order number, status) to find relevant logs quickly.
User
Allows filtering by the staff member who performed the action.
Activity type
Users can select specific types of actions (e.g., Create, Update, Delete, View, Share) to narrow down results.
Date range
Users can set a start and end date to filter logs within a specific timeframe.
Empty States
We created two distinct empty states to address different scenarios:
No Records Available (Pre-Launch State): If the activity log is empty due to no data being recorded yet.
No Results Found (Post-Launch State): If no records meet the search or filter criteria.
A milestone in design & collaboration
Designing the activity log was challenging but rewarding. We created a system that gives staff clear visibility into user actions while balancing detail and simplicity.
To improve usability, we added color-coding and icons to help staff quickly scan and understand actions. Handling complex scenarios like multi-object changes required careful structuring and clear communication.
User feedback helped refine search, filtering, and expand/collapse functions, making the log easy to navigate and use.
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