Swarg
Triage-first design for Electronic Health Records (EHR) Mobile
Reducing cognitive load & alert fatigue through a Triage-First redesign
A concept redesign reflecting my process & learnings
Role : Human Factors Design
Duration : 4 months
Tools : Figma | Adobe Suite
Collaboration : Independent
Responsibility : Interaction Design, Usability studies, HFE (Human Factors)
The Problem
Desktop-first EHRs originally is optimized for documentation and regulatory completeness, collapse into dense, miniature layouts on mobile. Healthcare providers managing 200+ patients a day and 25–50 alerts each are forced into constant cognitive scanning, often cross-checking between devices to avoid missing high-risk events. This increases:
Cognitive load
Decision fatigue
Alert fatigue
Risk of delayed or overlooked critical episodes
Conceptual Archetype: Desktop View.
Key Takeaways from data analytics tool on mobile usage
USER RESEARCH
Discover & Research: Grounding the HFE Strategy
To understand clinician workflow in mobile EHR applications, I went through:
20 clinician interviews (120 structured questions)
SME discussions across med rep teams
Data analysis of Cross-Departmental Alert Routing and usage across devices
Workflow mapping across in-clinic and after-hours usage
Userpersona based on the user insights
General insights from user research:
User wants to immediately review in terms of its priority - red, yellow, disconnected and scheduled
User wants to know the no.of alerts before he starts his day
User wants to know if the patient alert is claimed or not to avoid repeition and delay
USER RESEARCH TAKEAWAYS
Feature Prioritisation using research insights
Features under current EHR Patient list useful in mobile
Patient Name
Date of Birth
Patient ID
Type of Alert
Patient History
Department incharge
Identification of patient
Last checkin
Observations
Current Diagnosis
Lab Results
Previous Department
Patient Medical History
The Triage-First Funnel : Critical Action Data for Mobile
POTENTIAL DESIGN STRATEGY
The Triage-First Funnel
Applying the high-stakes Human Factors principles refined during my work on life-critical cardiac monitoring systems, I developed a three-stage Triage-First Funnel to determine data hierarchy.
Prioritization by Actionability
The prioritization framework was informed by a Heuristic Review (specifically violating Nielsen’s Visibility of System Status and Recognition over Recall) and a structured Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA).
The CTA mapped the rapid mobile task flow:
'Identify patient-at-risk' → 'Determine severity' → 'Initiate contact.
Any data not essential to these three steps was immediately deprioritized or cut. For example, columns like 'Gender,' 'Date of Birth,' and 'Appointment Status' visible on the archetype were identified as irrelevant noise for mobile triage.
INFORMATION ARCHITECHTURE
LOW FIDELITY SCREENS
The Home/Dashboard View (Organizational Status)
A dedicated home screen structured to be highly scannable, while clinician is on the run, either from home or hospital they will be able to glance through.
Contains pending reminders, scheduled appointments, and organizational announcements/webinars. Crucially, it includes summary counts of active Critical (Red) and Urgent (Yellow) alerts to provide an immediate status overview. A global Search Bar is prominently placed for direct patient lookup.
Acts as the filter for administrative noise. By displaying high-level alert counts and organizational data here, the Signal-to-Noise Ratio of the dedicated Alerts tab is dramatically improved, ensuring clinical focus is preserved while maintaining overall situational awareness.
System Status Visibility
The primary patient list needed to convey status instantly. Instead of sorting alphabetically, the list is dynamically sorted by Severity and Urgency, using clear color coding (Red, Yellow, Green) and large, glanceable typography.
Triaged View : Showcases Alerts
Each card shows only the patient’s name, location, status, and the single most urgent, clinically specific metric (e.g., "Critical Vitals: Glucose 55 mg/dL," or "BP Trend Alert: 3/5 readings in Stage 2 range.").
Facilitates a Glance-and-Go workflow by reducing search time and ensuring the highest-risk patients are always at the top of the viewport, addressing Fitt's Law for fast target acquisition.
Users can decide tap on the card to view more details
Expanded View
Action View : Showcases Patient Card Detail
When a card is tapped, the screen immediately shows a prominent drop down with the alert description.
Observations: Shows the system is predictive, e.g., "Insulin Pump Reservoir LOW: Only 8 Units remaining. Expected depletion within 3 hours."
Minimizes decision time and streamlines the physical workflow by providing high-leverage contextual data without forcing the user to navigate to the full chart.
Calendar Page : Scheduling Checkups
A clean, agenda-focused view that surfaces both scheduled tasks and self-managed follow-ups, with customization based on clinician preference.
The calendar allows for proactive event creation (e.g., scheduling a 7-day post-discharge follow-up for a specific patient) and clearly highlights overdue or pending patient tasks from previous days. A summarized agenda is displayed on the Home/Dashboard for quick planning.
The redesign, named "Swarg" (Paradise), focuses on reducing noise and maximizing the immediate visibility of actionable information.
The Swarg Solution: Mobile Experience
Trade-Offs
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Swarg Mobile is not a replacement for desktop, Swarg does not aim to replace full chart review
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Deep clinical data is intentionally deferred,
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Swarg is not a full EHR, or a documentation tool or disease specific.
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It requires more indepth knowledge to be actionable but it is a start to understanding cognitive load in smaller screens
Conclusion
This Swarg project demonstrates that my high-stakes Human Factors expertise is transferable across domains. The triage funnel intentionally collapses complex patient data into a small number of actionable signals, allowing clinicians to defer detailed chart review until risk is confirmed.
The core takeaway is that in critical design, the greatest impact is often achieved not by adding functionality, but by fiercely protecting the user's attention.