Work
Helping a local acupuncture clinic digitize 500+ paper records to save costs in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Overview
Overview
Context
Following the onset of the COVID-19 🦠 pandemic, a lot of small businesses took a financial blow and were not able to afford rent due to the lack of in-person customers. Joy's Acupuncture & Massage Clinic was an example of one of these clinics that was about to be evicted from the shopping mall they were located in. Due to this issue, they were in need of a way to digitize their paper-based patient database.
"All of my patient records are currently on paper … my business may be evicted out of this mall and I need a way to transfer these records easily."
As part of a school project, I was tasked with creating a relational database software and to make it more fun, I cold-called various clinics to create an app for a real client. I came across Joy's Acupuncture & Massage Clinic and had the privilege to offer a helping hand. I offered my services as a designer and a developer to create a software that could digitally house the patient records so that my client wasn't physically bound to a location.
The Current Situation
Joy's Acupuncture & Massage Clinic currently kept hundreds of patients' appointment forms in a physical paper-based filing cabinet. The filing cabinet had issues with disorganization and many patient files would get mixed with other patient's files or even lost sometimes. This was dangerous as patient data is highly confidential so we deemed a digital solution to be more appropriate and secure.
The Solution
The solution I proposed for the clinic was to have a localized electronic medical record (EMR) that resembled the information architecture and structure of the current appointment flows and patient forms.
Design Decisions
Improvement 01
Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) Shortcuts
Through user interviews and analyzing current paper forms, I was able to identify the common jobs-to-be-done and created shortcut CTAs for these in each patient's profile to encourage System 1 thinking.
Improvement 02
Interactive Anatomy Chart
The acupuncturist shared that they frequently mark pain symptoms directly on an anatomy chart as part of their case documentation. To mirror this familiar workflow in a digital setting, I designed an interactive anatomy chart that allows for intuitive symptom mapping.
Improvement 03
Progress Indicator
A common pain point with the paper-based forms was that they often became disorganized, with pages coming undone or ending up out of order. To bring clarity and structure to the digital experience, I introduced a progress indicator that guides acupuncturists through each step of creating a new case, while clearly showing how much is left to complete.
Results
Results
Impact
2025
William Lee
