Revamping Healthify’s internal admin tools
Research, product design, information architecture, UX writing, process improvementHealthify (acquired by WellSky) was a startup that addressed health inequities by connecting people to social services. Case managers can find resources for their clients, create referrals, and check on progress made.
Our admin tools needed a redesign — they accumulated too much tech debt for new complex permissions.
The challenge
In the background, the product support team uses admin tools them to set up new customers.With a new referral feature, we needed new permissions to allow many-to-many partnerships while keeping patient data secure. However, product support workflows were unsustainable without fixing some tech debt.
What I did
I conducted user interviews, spruced up the information architecture, did UX writing, and designed UI templates. I also ran review sessions and usability tests to validate designs.Impact
We could safely roll out the new referral feature without risking exposing patient data.Admin tools became less intimidating to use. Everyone who uses these tools became more familiar with permissions, and Engineering delivered some low-effort, high impact bug fixes to reduce errors.
Discovering usability concerns
I interviewed the product support team to understand how they set up new customers.There are 4 layers of permissions: individual users, teams, companies, and networks. A customer is represented as a company, and their partnerships are linked in a network. As a result, product support starts with company permissions and jump around layers.
Overall, product support worried about accidentally making a mistake with high-stakes consequences.
- Onboarding was a manual process that took time to learn.
- No one knew what all the permissions did.
- Permissions were all on one long page, without a logical order or any sections.
- Settings have edit and view mode, but there were some editable permissions in view mode.
New permissions framework
Ideally, the product support team should feel comfortable using admin tools.- Manual tasks can be sped up with improved UI.
- Each permission needs a description.
- Similar permissions should be grouped together.
- View mode should not be editable.
The first thing I designed were a set of 3 templates for all permission layers.
- A user would start on an index page with search, edit, and add functionalities.
- A user can see the current settings in view mode.
- A user would access edit mode to update settings.
Organizing permissions by hierarchy
Product support’s ideal process is top-down, starting with networks and ending with users. Permissions are grouped based on tasks.Creating a network can be done in 3 steps.
![1. Edit general settings.]()
![2. Add companies to the network.]()
![3. Edit partnership settings.]()
Same for creating a company.
![1. Edit general settings.]()
![2. Add teams to the company.]()
![3. Add social services that the company manages.]()
Creating a team is simpler, with 2 steps.
![1. Edit general settings.]()
![2. Add users to the team.]()
Same for creating a company.
Creating a team is simpler, with 2 steps.
Defining permissions
I learned what every permission did, so that I could write a brief description for each one. Anyone editing would know the consequences of their actions upfront. This was especially helpful for more advanced settings.
Internal user testing
I ran usability tests with Healthify employees who had different levels of familiarity with admin tools. Some used the pages frequently, and some have never seen them before.They onboarded a fake customer in an open sandbox environment while I observed them. Seeing where testers got frustrated or confusted led to subtle changes like new interactions and revised UX writing.
Negotiating scope
The long-term design included UI templates with an extensive set of permissions that covered the product support team’s needs.Realistically, the number of organizations to onboard wasn’t as much as we’d expected. Plus, there were more pressing product priorities at the time. I worked with the lead engineer, product manager, and delivery manager to reduce scope.
✂️ What got cut
👌 What we can do
- New UI designs for the index and edit pages.
- Sidebar menu. It made navigation faster, but it wasn’t critical.
👌 What we can do
- New UI designs for view mode.
- Descriptions for all permissions as static text.
- Rearranging permissions into intuitive categories.
