BACKGROUND
Customer Base
7,000
Eye Care Practices
Customer Types
Single and multi-location
Eye Care Practices
User Types
4
User roles
PROBLEM
Complex workflows requiring too many clicks for completing simple tasks
With an NPS of -18 against an industry average of 30+, Encompass ranked nearly 50 points below its competitors. Nearly half of user complaints came down to one thing: the platform was exhausting to use.
10 clicks, one dead end, 20-30 times a day
The platform's dashboard relies on users’ recognition of tasks and understanding of which tasks to prioritize
An initial heuristic evaluation revealed key issues with system visibility due to lack of real-time information regarding practice health and a standard template of navigation links which are not contextually prioritized based on various user roles' needs.
DESIGN BRIEF
RESEARCH
High information exchange and coordination between staff during appointment scheduling and during patient procedural visits as they use the platform
I created a service blueprint which captured main actions, user interactions with the software and backend flow of information. This revealed that all Encompass workflows revolve around three patient visit phases - pre-visit, during visit and after visit.
Although practice needs may differ based on business size and operations, appointment scheduling and user coordination during patient visits play a key role in supporting business operations and driving value for patients.
User Research
Task redundancies, manual entries and and navigating several modules to access salient practice and patient information was causing efficiency issues and user frustration
An analysis of over 3,800+ NPS responses collected through the platform between Feb 2025 to June 2025 was conducted in order to gauge user sentiment and understand the key pain points.
NPS Responses
3,800
Multi-role users
"There are too many windows to navigate."
Front Desk Staff
"There's absolutely no way to customize the product to our office"
Optician
“Everything requires way too many steps”
Office Manager
…and office managers as well as users in flexible roles seemed to be one of the most impacted by this lack of efficiency
Further analysis into individual user roles' ratings on the software against metrics like usability and feature availability indicated that office managers and staff in clinics who work across different roles' tasks in a flexible manner reported lowest ratings.
Dashboard Redesign Scope
the office manager view was a primary north star version that dictated the conceptualization of the new dashboard (through discussions with PM’s about practice priorities and previous discovery efforts)
Redesign Goals
Reduce redundancy
Support role diversity
Surface business health upfront
Key Touchpoints
Administrative oversight
Day-to-day practice coordination
IDEATION
Two initial concepts were mapped out to conceptualize dashboard iterations that provided action points that support the specific roles' workflows as well as provide flexibility for users to access information or take actions based on general utility information such as appointment schedule metrics, eyeglass orders' information and patient communication features.
Concept 1
General utility dashboard
Concept 2
Role-based access dashboard
To support the office manager role as well as users who may work across workflows in practices like independent practices, the goal was to provide flexibility yet maintain efficiency through the new dashboard design. Our service blueprint revealed overlapping workflows but vastly different priorities across user roles. This divergence shaped the core ideation challenge…
Should the dashboard prioritize flexibility for all users, or provide tailored action points for each role?
Choosing the role-based access view would provide custom action points at the cost of overall visibility while a generic view would provide flexibility at the cost of customization
A hybrid solution: A modern bento box layout with a set of static widgets displaying general practice information with one main actionable widget that can be customized
Through discussions with PMs and the development team to assess technical feasibility, a hybrid concept was chosen which included a bento box layout with one main interchangeable widget as other static widgets. This provided users with the flexibility of having general layout while also allowing users to switch the main widget with actionable entry points to workflows, balancing engineering effort and user efficiency gains.
Designing widgets that map directly to how office managers run their day: managing reports and tracking the practice's business health
Since report generation and metric tracking were high-friction points for office managers, I proposed surfacing KPIs and quick-access reports within configurable widgets to reduce cognitive load and repetitive navigation.
Office manager needs identified through discovery informed the widget options, which were built on Eyefinity's existing design system and extended with new data visualization components.
DESIGN
I designed a Bento layout dashboard tailored to how office managers actually move through their day from checking revenue to managing frame sales and tackling urgent practice issues.
Surfacing what matters most to office managers: Drilldown views of salient KPIs
Detailed visualizations of business performance metrics to help managers monitor salient information such as revenue breakdown based on categories such as product or exam type
Enabling report downloads and saving for reference
List of pinned reports generated by the manager for future reference in order to support administrative tasks and practice operations' planning
TESTING
Online moderated usability test sessions were conducted with practice managers working at small business practices as well as multi-location eyecare practices. The goal was to test alignment of widget functionality and layout approach with the needs of office managers to support their day-to-day tasks.
The front desk and doctors were included in the testing to validate that the dashboard remained useful beyond management roles, but the design direction was led by the office manager’s workflow priorities.
Test Plan
Sample
7
Participants
Average session duration
35
Minutes
Task range
4
Tasks
Iterations created to reduce cognitive load through progressive disclosure of business health information as well as retaining quick navigation links
The test sessions conducted with office managers resulted in positive feedback from them about the ease of viewing real-time practice information as well as the ability to use a custom layout to support daily monitoring of KPI's as per each practice's needs. However, 80% of participants indicated that the initial iteration was cluttered and slightly overwhelming to view right after logging in to the platform.
Thus, refinements were made to the data visualization elements within the UI and the progressive disclosure principle was used to surface only numeric values initially, with the complete data charts being displayed only once the user clicks 'view more'.
User quotes
“This page is a neat little snapshot of the practice — exceptional”
Office Manager,
small business
"It's definitely more supportive than the landing page we currently have"
Office Manager,
small business
“This would save our practice 3-4 hours every week in managing appointments”
Doctor,
enterprise business
IMPACT
Reduced Task
Time
Pulling reports to monitor practice metrics
36%
Reduction in task time
Scheduling appointments and managing patient flow
40%
Reduction in key workflows
Improved Navigation
Dashboard experience optimized
4/5
Rating indicating improved navigation
Doctor and staff workflows
29%
Increase in navigational clarity in finding salient patient info
