UX Case Study · Mobile · 2024

Better Networking & Personal Development for Healthcare Professionals

A dedicated iOS and Android intranet for profiles, knowledge, groups, and career growth.

Healthcare UXMobile designUser researchProcess mappingInformation architecturePrototypingDesign systemsUsability testingiOS & Android

Role

UX Designer

Duration

3 months

Year

2024

Platform

iOS & Android

Prototype

Figma prototype

Better Networking & Personal Development for Healthcare Professionals

Overview

An intranet mobile app for healthcare professionals focused on networking and career development.

Client: Tech startup affiliated with a healthcare organization · Product: Co-Lab (iOS & Android)

Co-Lab is an intranet mobile application for healthcare professionals who expect networking and personal development as part of their careers - not only clinical work in isolated environments.

Primary users: Any professional or stakeholder in the medical field. Secondary users: Medical company owners and admin staff.

Team: Product owner and UX designer (me), 3 months.

I led user research, process mapping, information architecture, prototyping, and a mobile design system. There is no public demo; validation came from the Figma prototype, usability testing, and a closed beta of 80 users.

Problem

Isolation, workload, and generic social tools block professional growth in healthcare.

Healthcare professionals often work in isolated settings. Heavy workloads and limited resources stall careers; growth depends on networking in the right community with the right resources - not on cluttered general-purpose networks.

Clinical work is often isolated; heavy workloads leave little time for networking or career development

No healthcare-specific professional profile that peers can trust, browse, and search by specialty

Hard to reach the right audience for mentorship, further education, and recognized referrals

Events, industry news, and knowledge are hard to discover outside noisy Facebook or LinkedIn feeds

Paper-based notes and ad-hoc tools for personal work tasks, rosters, and group coordination

Weak connectivity between professionals, groups, and organizational brand pages in one place

Research

81 medical professionals across interviews and surveys, with competitive review of LinkedIn and Facebook.

Participants: 24 interviews and 57 survey responses (81 total). I ran research with support from the product owner.

Competitors reviewed: LinkedIn, Facebook

Insights that shaped the design

Clinicians wanted a dedicated space for medical professionals - not a repurposed consumer social network
Finding recognized professionals for specific needs was the core job the product had to support
A visible, specialty-aware profile other clinicians could access was essential for trust and discovery
General networking apps buried medical relevance in cluttered feeds and non-clinical content

Validation

24 interviews and 57 surveys with medical professionals (run with the product owner)
Usability testing with non-tech-savvy healthcare professionals
Stakeholder reviews throughout prototyping and handoff

Personas

Primary clinical user and admin stakeholder synthesized from interviews and surveys.

Dr. Nimali Perera

Registered physician · General practice

38 years · Colombo · Mid tech savvy · 12 years in practice

Pain points

Long shifts leave little time to maintain a professional network outside the clinic
LinkedIn and Facebook feel noisy and not built for medical credibility or specialty matching
Mentors, CPD resources, and industry events are scattered across chats, email, and paper notes
Hard to know which colleagues are recognized in a given specialty when she needs a referral or second opinion

Needs

A healthcare-only profile peers can trust and search by specialty
Discover events, articles, and groups relevant to her field without unrelated social feed noise
Simple mobile flows - she validated onboarding and profile browsing in usability tests
Lightweight ways to follow professionals and join groups (chat/call are secondary for her)

Rajesh Gunawardena

Operations manager · Private medical group

45 years · Kandy · Mid tech savvy · Admin stakeholder

Pain points

Staff professional development is tracked informally - no single view of who is active in industry networks
Company visibility at industry events and online is inconsistent across Facebook pages and ad-hoc groups
Scheduling meetings and rosters still relies on spreadsheets and phone chains
Worries about adoption: clinical staff are busy and not always comfortable with new apps

Needs

Rosters and groups to coordinate teams around events, training, and internal initiatives
Analytics and brand presence so the organization shows up professionally in the medical community
Calendar and meeting tools aligned with how admin staff already plan work
Clear onboarding and IA so non-tech-savvy users can participate without heavy training

Solution

Mobile-first intranet for profiles, knowledge, groups, and professional collaboration.

Profile & content

Professional profiles with posts, roles, and specialty
Timeline for updates, stories, and notifications
Knowledge hub with industry categories and article archive
Search and browse to discover other professionals

Networking & collaboration

Groups, rosters, and volunteer-led communities
Events, meetings, and calendar scheduling
Chat and calls (lighter use in beta)
Analytics for engagement and organizational visibility

Deliverables

User journeys
Wireframes
Interactive prototype
Design system

Tools: Figma · Standards: General iOS & Android mobile guidelines

Design decisions

Healthcare-specific networking, profile-led discovery, and community over chat-first.

Decision	Rationale
Healthcare-only professional network	Research showed clinicians wanted a dedicated space - not LinkedIn or Facebook noise - so profiles, discovery, and content stay medically relevant.
Profile-first discovery	Users needed to find recognized professionals and maintain visible credentials; profiles became the anchor before feeds or messaging.
Groups and events over chat-first	Beta usage showed strong interest in profiles and voluntary groups; chat and calls were used less, so IA emphasized community surfaces first.
Structured onboarding by specialty	80% of beta users liked onboarding - capturing specialty and role early improved matching and trust in a non-tech-savvy audience.

Process

Discovery through handoff with continuous stakeholder and user validation.

Discovery

Aligned on brief with the PO, then ran interviews and surveys with busy medical professionals to narrow a wide stakeholder idea set.

Ideation

Built personas and user journeys, mapped processes, and explored IA and wireframes in Figma.

Prototyping

High-fidelity mobile prototypes for iOS and Android flows; iterated with stakeholder reviews.

Handoff & testing

Documented the design system, handed off specs, ran usability testing with non-tech-savvy clinicians, and supported a closed beta.

Outcomes

Beta results highlighted onboarding, profile discovery, and organic groups.

Beta users

80 onboarded

Onboarding

80% rated positively

Profile discovery

Most-used path in beta

Groups formed

16 created voluntarily

Beta feedback highlighted onboarding and discovering other professionals. Sixteen groups formed without prompting; chat and calls were available but saw lighter use - informing the decision to prioritize profiles, groups, and events over a chat-first layout.

Prototype

Selected mobile screens from the Figma prototype and design system.

Open Figma prototype

Co-Lab onboarding specialty selection — Onboarding - capture medical specialty

Profile - posts and professional presence

Profile - edit roles and experience

Co-Lab create new post — Timeline - create a new post

Co-Lab knowledge hub categories — Knowledge hub - industry categories

Co-Lab group view — Groups - community space

Co-Lab calendar — Calendar - events and meetings

Co-Lab incoming call — Calls - incoming call UI

Co-Lab analytics dashboard — Analytics - engagement overview

Learnings

What I'm proud of

I narrowed a wide stakeholder idea set in discovery, ran research around clinicians' busy schedules, and validated flows with usability testing in a non-tech-savvy audience - while keeping the PO aligned from brief through beta.

Reflection

I would advocate earlier for simpler, familiar navigation (closer to Facebook or LinkedIn patterns) while keeping healthcare-specific profiles, specialty onboarding, and profile-led discovery that research and beta supported.

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