Digital Sample Solution for Healthcare
Designing an end-to-end RFID-enabled system to track clinical samples across hospitals, reduce loss, and improve operational visibility in high-risk healthcare workflows.
Role
Senior Product Designer
Devices
Tablet, Desktop, TV
Duration
3-4 Weeks
What was the Problem?
Clinical samples were being tracked through a mix of manual logs, labels, and disconnected systems. Once samples left the clinic, there was no real-time visibility into their location or status. This led to :
Delayed diagnoses
Lost specimens
High operational stress across clinics, couriers, and labs
Why was this hard?
Multiple roles with conflicting priorities (clinicians, couriers, lab admins)
Zero tolerance for errors or ambiguity
Time-critical workflows under pressure
Need for real-time visibility across locations
The Simplified System
Instead of designing isolated screens, I focused on the full sample journey as a single connected system from clinic creation to lab confirmation.
A simplified view of the primary sample journey across clinic, transport, and lab.
Heading 6
Core User Journey
How the primary sample flow moves from clinic to lab in practice
A. Sample Association Clinic
Pathologists associate each physical sample with an RFID tag before handoff, ensuring traceability from the very first step of the journey.
Action-based entry point that lets clinic staff begin scanning immediately
Linear scanning flow guides users through sample and RFID association
Clear confirmation and visibility reduce the risk of incorrect associations
Users can associate multiple samples before proceeding to cooler assignment
Why the flow is linear
Why confirmation matters in healthcare
The sample association flow was intentionally designed to be linear. In a time-critical clinical environment, reducing branching decisions helps clinicians move quickly while minimizing the risk of missed or incorrect steps during sample handoff.
Clear confirmation states ensure that each sample is successfully linked to its RFID tag before proceeding. In healthcare workflows, ambiguity at this stage can lead to lost samples, delayed diagnoses, and compliance risks later in the process.
B. Courier Pickup & Exit Validation
Once samples are placed into a cooler, couriers are guided through a controlled pickup and exit validation process to ensure the correct samples leave the clinic.
Couriers select the assigned cooler and verify their identity before initiating pickup.
The system validates courier before allowing to see sample and cooler details.
Clear confirmation ensures only authorized shipments leave the facility.
Why validation is a gate
Why this step matters operationally
Exit validation was designed as a mandatory gate rather than a passive confirmation. This prevents incorrect or incomplete handoffs by ensuring that samples, coolers, and couriers are properly linked before leaving the clinic.
By validating pickup at the point of exit, the system reduces downstream errors that are difficult to detect once samples are in transit.
C. Monitoring & Visibility
Once samples are in transit, the platform provides real-time visibility across both workstations and shared lab spaces, enabling teams to anticipate arrivals and intervene before issues occur.
The same underlying data powers both active monitoring at workstations and ambient awareness within the lab environment.
Why visibility matters
The TV display provides shared, at-a-glance awareness of incoming coolers, allowing lab teams to prepare storage and handling in advance without actively checking the system.
Web Dashboard
How this prevents damage or spoilage
By surfacing arrival status and timing early, the system helps reduce temperature exposure, delays, and missed handoffs that can lead to sample degradation.
TV Tracking Dashboard
Impact
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Reduced the risk of lost or misrouted samples by enforcing clear, validated handoffs
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Improved real-time visibility for clinic, courier, and lab teams across devices
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Enabled lab teams to prepare for incoming coolers in advance, reducing delays and risk of sample degradation
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Created a shared system of accountability across the end-to-end sample journey
Learning
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Designing for healthcare requires prioritizing safety, clarity, and error prevention over flexibility
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Linear, guided workflows can significantly reduce cognitive load in time-sensitive environments
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Thoughtful constraint and simplification can be more impactful than exposing every possible option
