Introduction

I designed a dashboard to help national vaccine officers (NVOs) and healthcare workers (HCWs) monitor vaccine temperatures across their assigned regions.

My goal was to understand their unique needs and workflows in order to create an interface that provides timely, actionable insights about vaccine health.

Discovery

Through interviews with internal and external stakeholders, I discovered that NVOs typically received monthly reports detailing the health of vaccine inventories and regional temperature excursions. These reports were lengthy, hard to parse, and most importantly, outdated by the time they arrived. As a result, many excursions were only identified weeks later, leaving NVOs unable to respond in time.

The users who typically fill out the reports for national vaccine officers are healthcare workers. On the ground, healthcare workers were responsible for maintaining vaccine temperatures—among many other duties. From interviews, I learned that temperature monitoring was not a top priority for them, and filling out manual temperature logs often took time away from other critical responsibilities.

Problem Summary

NVOs rely on outdated monthly reports to assess vaccine health

I discovered that NVOs typically received monthly reports detailing the health of vaccine inventories and regional temperature excursions.

Excursions were identified weeks later, leaving NVOs unable to respond in time.

These reports were lengthy, hard to parse, and most importantly, outdated by the time they arrived.

HCWs struggle to log data amid competing responsibilities

Healthcare workers typically are the ones filling out reports monthly for NVOs.

Understanding the users

To share my findings with the rest of my team, I created user personas outlining the research I conducted in a packaged format for my team to understand the key design decisions I plan to make.

Design Goals & Principles

Same system, two experiences

HCWs Experience

A large challenge was determining where each user would land on the dashboard. What was important for me was to create a dashboard that was streamlined for both NVOs and Healthcare workers.

NVOs Experience

A large challenge was determining where each user would land on the dashboard. What was important for me was to create a dashboard that was streamlined for both NVOs and Healthcare workers.

ColdTrace user flow

When designing the user flow, I had to think about two very different types of users—national vaccine officers and healthcare workers. Each one enters the dashboard with a different mindset and priority, so I designed their entry points and navigation paths to reflect that.

For NVOs, the flow starts with a regional map view—this gives them a high-level scan of where problems might be happening. They can click into regions, drill down into facilities, and identify which CCEs are causing temperature excursions.

On the other hand, HCWs land directly on their facility view. Each card includes a real-time temperature graph. Their flow is designed to minimize friction, to quickly scan for issues and move on with their other duties.

The structure prioritizes clarity and actionability for both user types, while keeping the experience clean and easy to navigate—even in high-pressure situations.

MVP: NVOs UX

I structured the product to include a map of the region(s) a vaccine officer has access to. It was also important to include a sidebar detailing the overall health of a particular region along with a list of the facilities, and CCEs.

Vaccine officers would be able to quickly scan for problematic regions/facilities in real time to take immediate action. They can drill down into problematic regions to see what facilities/CCEs are the main contributors to the issue and find the contact information of said facility.

MVP: HCWs UX

Healthcare workers will land on a page outlining the different CCE’s within their facility. Each card representing a CCE includes a real time temperature graph giving users a clear understanding of the health of all the vaccines within their facility. Vaccine officers will also be able to access these facility pages as they have higher access to view multiple facilities within their given region(s).

And lastly, users will also be able to click into any CCE and view a detailed interactive graph outlining the historical temperature data of the CCE. Outlining any excursions that may have happened to identify any spoiled vaccines.

Feedback and Next Steps

After launching the first iteration, my team and I received positive feedback from our end user panel highlighting the clarity of the dashboard and the intuitive flow. NVOs appreciated how easy it was to identify regions needing attention, and HCWs found the real-time graphs helpful for prioritizing vaccine safety. From a quick glance of the dashboard, both user types expressed how they can quickly point out problematic regions/facilities/CCEs and focus more of their time into that. Which became a huge time saver.

One feature we plan to introduce in future iterations is an in-app messaging system. This would reduce the reliance on phone calls and encourage faster collaboration across teams.

Conclusion

What I Learned Designing for users with such different roles (NVOs vs HCWs) taught me how to create targeted interfaces within a shared system. It was my first time working on an interface with multiple different personas with different needs. Having a team to bounce ideas off of was important and helped me a ton in knowing what to prioritize. Balancing simplicity with depth was key—especially when working in a space where timeliness can have a major impact on public health.

ColdTrace