Redesigning Coldtrace Transport: Enhancing Usability for Healthcare Workers.
From a challenging design with multiple pain points to a streamlined, user-centered solution. Improving navigation and usability for healthcare professionals transporting vaccines.
Overview of ColdTrace Transport
ColdTrace Transport plays a critical role in helping healthcare workers safely transport vaccines, ensuring they remain at the correct temperature to avoid spoilage. However, users faced significant challenges completing trips efficiently while managing vaccines on the ground, a bottleneck with real-world consequences.
As the lead designer, I conducted in-depth user research, advocated for user needs with the rest of my team, iterated on designs, and optimized the interface to streamline workflows. These efforts resulted in a 22% faster trip completion time and a noticeable boost in user satisfaction.
And through this improved interface and experience, Coldtrace Transport was able to expand to countries like Kenya, Malawi, and Pakistan. Selling over 80,000 new units of remote temperature monitoring devices within the first year of launching my new design.
Introduction
When I first reviewed ColdTrace Transport, I discovered the app had been created by engineers without the input of a designer, leading to significant usability challenges. To address these issues, I set out to gather insights from both internal stakeholders and end users.
A key challenge was that many internal stakeholders lacked a comprehensive understanding of user workflows, as our end users were based in East Africa and South Asia. Regions where direct collaboration was needed proved difficult. To bridge this gap, I partnered with program managers and impact consultants who worked closely with users in their respective countries. Their insights became invaluable in helping me understand the unique needs and pain points of healthcare workers on the ground.
This process laid the groundwork for a structured and user-centered research approach, forming the foundation for the redesign of ColdTrace Transport.
How do we ask the right questions?
My goal for this first phase of designing the app is to understand the user experiences with transporting vaccines. The program managers I collaborated with were located in east Africa and were able to experience our end users' frustrations in person. Initially, the questions they shared were one-dimensional and leading, often asking users whether they "liked" the app.
Instead of framing questions around satisfaction, I focused on eliciting more constructive feedback. This meant avoiding yes-or-no prompts and instead asking users about their most recent experiences, any challenges they faced, and how those moments differed from their expectations. By reframing the conversation, I was able to uncover deeper insights into their needs and frustrations.
Initial Insights
I was able to interview end users with the help of the program managers and gather the main user journey along with insights and direct feedback in each step of the transport journey.
From these main insights I could see evident issues from the app and how it is lacking in terms of what users are needing to complete their trip efficiently.
Tisaye: The Healthcare Worker
One user in particular I would like to highlight is Tisaye, he is a healthcare worker in a clinic in Tanzania. He has used Coldtrace Transport a handful of times to make sure his vaccines were safe when transporting. When hearing about his first experience using the app, Tisaye had the vaccines in his truck, ready to go. But he had to connect his phone to the temperature monitoring device, complete a lengthy, (in his words) unnecessary pre-trip survey, and double check to make sure everything was connected before driving off. All this took approximately 10 ish minutes which was 10 minutes of the coldbox and vaccines warming in the back of his truck which could lead to spoiling.
While this was just his first experience using the app, this makes it evident that many users would have usability issues when transporting vaccines, which is a major vaccine safety concern.
Usability Testing
To address the challenges highlighted during user research, I decided to conduct usability testing to observe how end users interacted with the app in real-world scenarios. By transforming the main objectives identified during interviews into actionable tasks, I aimed to pinpoint specific pain points and areas for improvement in the current design.
The results showed me critical usability issues, which I synthesized into actionable next steps. I presented these findings to my team, paving the way for informed design decisions that directly addressed user needs.
Main Takeaways
From conducting usability tests, the actionable items included: Less time to begin the trip, Improving the information architecture, giving users improved visibility during and after a trip.
The Wireframe
From these insights, I took the user journeys and usability test insights to create a low fidelity wireframe highlighting the flow for each user objective keeping in mind pain points highlighted within the usability tests.
I then lead a design review session with my team. I shared an overview of the user research I had done, and explained why I designed each page of the wireframes based on the research I had conducted.
“I want to start my trip a.s.a.p.”
One of the first insights gathered from interviews and usability testing was that users had to jump through multiple screens from selecting their device to filling out surveys for internal analytics.
Old Pre-Trip Survey
Pre-Trip Survey redesigned
As an advocate of user centered design, I wanted to make sure we only included questions absolutely necessary for the trip. From there we were able to go from 16 questions to 7.
Truncating the survey to just seven questions took longer than anticipated. I had to negotiate with the analytics team, ensuring that every remaining question added value without burdening users all while providing the insights that were necessary for the analytics team to collect.
It was tricky to cover all this within a short amount of time which led me to really focus on the key pain points and how I was able to address them.
Because time was limited, and there were smaller details to explain, I made sure to share the early wireframes with my team to dissect on their own after our meeting and leave questions or comments I could address asynchronously.
New Pre-Trip Survey
Information Architecture
Another issue users were having was trying to find their previous trips. They were also confused with pages that seemed unnecessary that had nothing to do with transporting vaccines.
Below is a before and after of the sitemap of ColdTrace Transport.
Previous Transport Site Map
A couple issues with this site map is that the pages people use to complete their main objectives are scattered and buried into pages that users have little interest in using.
Updated Transport Site Map
On top of starting their trips quickly, users also wanted a way to share their trips and have a log of previous trips they have done. Although this was in the original map, it was buried deep into the menu. I decided to move this important page into its own section and create a new section for users to start a trip right now or plan it in advanced.
Because of this new and improved site map, the information architecture of the app is now seamlessly tailored for the users main objectives.
Increasing visibility: Trips Page
What’s wrong with the trips page?
Speaking to users about their main objective as they begin their trip, the objectives is to transport these vaccines safely without any temperature excursions. And if there are any excursions, they want to know when, and what temperature it is at.
The current trips page is lacking visibility especially when a healthcare worker is driving, they don’t have much time to read through the small text explaining their vaccines current temperature.
Focusing on the user need
The main thing I wanted to focus on for this pages design was to give the user a quickly digestible snapshot of the vaccines health currently. This was done with the use of visuals as the user can view a visual faster than a string of words.
Previous and Current Trip In Progress Page
Designing the trip summary page
Although the trip summary page had information the user needed to share with their supervisor, there was an excess of information the user did not need and/or did not understand. Because of this, I wanted to trim down what is shared to the user to make sure it is only what users need to know.
I also wanted to change this design and create something new that emphasized simplicity and scannability. I started by breaking up the list of information in the bottom card and worked on the overall composition of this page to share the most important information first.
Previous and Current Post Trip Summary Page
Post-Launce Success and Impact
After the launch, I prioritized gathering updated feedback from end users to evaluate the real-world impact of the redesign. One user, Tisaye, a healthcare worker from Tanzania, shared, “I can now start a trip in under a minute. This has been a game changer for my work.”
The quantitative results were equally compelling: incomplete trips decreased by 41%, and user sessions increased by 22%. These metrics validated the effectiveness of the new design and underscored how user-centric improvements could transform usability.
The success of this redesign extended far beyond the app. ColdTrace Transport’s enhanced functionality facilitated expansion into new regions, including Kenya, Malawi, and Pakistan, and contributed to the sale of over 80,000 remote temperature monitoring devices within the first year of launch.
By focusing on user needs and overcoming initial challenges, I was able to lead a transformative redesign that improved workflows, boosted user satisfaction, and supported ColdTrace Transport’s growth on a global scale.
