How it relates to us
Fast forward to 2025, Manal, a fellow designer, and I initially worked on separate features within ClinicalPath—biomarkers and trials by location. As we progressed, we started to notice a common issue we were getting similar feedback about the visibility and clarity of the new features. This pushed us to pause and step back and look at the screen more broadly. It became clear that the challenge wasn't just about integrating new elements, it was about improving the foundation.
01
Establish Diagnosis
Review patient records & document key information
02
Determine Treatment
Determine treatment
options & order treatment
03
Treat & Monitor
Prepare patient & provide
treatment
Oncologist Process Map
The tool I support is ClinicalPath, a tool that helps oncologists quickly find and follow the best treatment options for their patients.
Product Objectives & Goals
Clinicians using Elsevier's ClinicalPath tool faced challenges in efficiently navigating patient treatment pathways.
01
Minimize time to treatment recommendations
Improve overall user experience by redesigning the ClinicalPath interface to reduce perceived clicks & cognitive effort required for navigating treatment pathways.
02
Increase workflow efficiency for all user types
Move the treatment search feature up stream in the navigation, allowing oncologists to input known treatments and bypass unnecessary steps, while providing guided navigation for more rare cases.
03
Ensure availability of clinically accurate content
Ensure the redesign does not compromise the quality and accessibility of ClinicalPath's oncology content, continuing to support guided decision making for both generalists and specialists.
04
Align with organizational objectives
ClinicalPath collects user data, which is then provided to life science and pharmaceutical companies to support their drug research and development efforts. Certain data points are essential for maintaining and strengthening these partnerships.
Target Audience:
Needs quick access to known treatments with minimal steps, as they are often ahead of guidelines due to their deep involvement in research.
Specialist Oncologists
Target Audience:
Needs reliable guidance for making treatment decisions, particularly in cases where they need to refresh their knowledge or navigate complex cases.
General Oncologists
USER RESEARCH
Who am I designing for?
In collaboration with the cross-functional user research team at Elsevier, we engaged with end users to evaluate workflow challenges and identify opportunities, ensuring the solutions I designed integrated both expert insights and real-time user needs.
RESEARCH METHODS
(1) User Interviews
Conducted detailed interviews with both specialist and general oncologists to understand their workflows, information-seeking behaviors, and decision-making processes.
(2) Surveys
Utilized System Usability Scale (SUS) surveys to collect quantitative data on user satisfaction and pain points with the ClinicalPath tool.
Insight 1
Varying types of support needed
Generalists have a greater need for guideline-based support, while specialists rely more on collaborative decision-making and peer consultations.
“Generalists have a greater need for guideline-based clinical decision-support.” (Generalist)
Insight 2
Reduce administrative burden
There is a significant administrative burden associated with pathway navigation in ClinicalPath, which often detracts from the decision-making process.
“Pathway navigation tends to become an additional ‘administrative’ workflow wherein the oncologist re-enters information into ClinicalPath after making a decision.” (Generalist)
Insight 3
Increase workflow efficiency
Decision-support should integrate seamlessly into the oncologist's workflow, with intuitive navigation, actionable insights, and quick access to critical information.
“To support their decision-making, they likely require a more transparent pathway navigation experience at minimum.” (Specialist)
USER RESEARCH
User Interviews
The team conducted 12 double-blinded, 1-hour interviews were conducted with non-customer medical oncologists, including both generalists and specialists in academic and community settings
Goals
We aimed to understand the oncology workflow and decision-making to improve the ClinicalPath user experience, especially given oncologists' negative perceptions indicated by the Q2 System Usability Scale (SUS) survey.
Insight 1
The System Usability Scale (SUS) survey results for ClinicalPath have shown a concerning decline in usability over the past two years, with scores dropping from a D rating to an F rating by Q2 2022. This decline reflects oncologists' negative perceptions regarding the utility and usability of the platform.
Decline in usage due to negative perceptions
Insight 2
By late 2022, several customers chose to cancel their licenses or switch to “content only” renewals, citing user adoption challenges as a key factor. Insights from the Oncology Clinical Pathways Conference (OCPC) emphasized the need for streamlined workflows, with competitors promoting their pathways for requiring only three clicks for navigation.
Competitive insights from the industry
Flatiron novel, streamlined Ul piloted in 2022
• Median session length decreased from 106.4 seconds to 39.9 seconds
• Provider utilization increased from 29% to 74%
• Usage of the hot button increased from 27.6% of sessions to 41.8
USER RESEARCH
Surveys
The System Usability Scale (SUS) is a widely used tool for measuring the usability of a system or product. It consists of a simple 10-item questionnaire that evaluates users' perceptions of the usability of a system on a score of 1-100.
Survey Result
68.1
The SUS survey revealed a score of 68.1, reflecting a mediocre level of user satisfaction.
DESIGN
Guided Navigation
"Guided Navigation" leads users through a step-by-step through questions about the patient’s condition, such as the type of cancer and its stage, and then recommends the best treatment plans based on that information
DESIGN
Search
Leads users through a step-by-step through questions about the patient’s condition, such as the type of cancer and its stage, and then recommends the best treatment plans based on that information
CONCLUSION
Project Impact
This project set out to simplify the steps oncologists take to reach a treatment recommendation. By reducing unnecessary clicks and focusing on clarity, we aimed to support faster, more confident decision-making.
We introduced the prototype to clinical users early and used their feedback to refine the experience. Moving forward, we’re continuing to test in real-world settings to understand how this approach influences clinical outcomes.
PROJECT OVERVIEW
ClinicalPath Oncology: A lesson in foundations
While working on features like trial search and biomarker display, we saw recurring feedback around clarity and navigation. Instead of patching components, we stepped back to rethink the screen holistically—leading to a more intentional, flexible framework built for future growth.
DATES
April 2025 - June 2025
SERVICE
Clinical Decision-Making
ROLE
User Experience Designer
CLIENT
Elsevier
Initial Concept
“Relapsed or Progressive Disease” Card
Overview
Virtual staining employs advanced computer algorithms, particularly deep neural networks, to mimic the visual effects of traditional histological stains on medical images.
Sorted by Disease
Open/Closed States
PART 01
Sketch
PART 02
Figma Design
DESIGN
High-Fidelity Designs
The layout of the screen was divided by the two main workflows (1) guided navigation and (2) searching for a treatment based on relevant patient presentations
Initial Concept
“Relapsed or Progressive Disease” Card
Overview
Virtual staining employs advanced computer algorithms, particularly deep neural networks, to mimic the visual effects of traditional histological stains on medical images.
PART 01
Sketch
Sorted by Disease
PART 02
Figma Design
Open/Closed States
USABILITY FINDINGS
What did we learn from user research & feedback?
Through user research, we identified key insights about ClinicalPath's impact on specialist and general oncologists.
Streamlined Workflow for Faster Clinical Decisions
Users found ClinicalPath to be time-consuming and minimally impactful in their workflows. We respond by simplifying the interface, eliminating unnecessary steps, and optimizing navigation to align more closely with clinical needs.
Enhanced Search to Reduce Workflow Friction
A transparent and flexible search experience is required to allow users to access relevant information more efficiently. This update will minimize workflow disruption and supports quicker, more accurate clinical decisions.
Guided Navigation and Data Collection
ClinicalPath must continue to support guided navigation while expanding data capture capabilities for life sciences. We are working to ensure that essential clinical information is both accessible and accurately recorded, enhancing data collection and usability.
CLIENT OVERVIEW
Leaning Tower of Pisa
The construction of the tower started in 1173 and it didn't start leaning until they got to the third floor. At that point, the builders could have scrapped the project, but instead they decided to investigate the root of the problem. foundation.
Although they couldn't completely stop the tower from leaning, they spent time to analyze the underlying soil mechanics and managed to stabilize the structure without changing its appearance. The story of the leaning tower of Pisa's lean is one of strategic thinking and problem solving; instead of changing the appearance of the tower, they focused on the foundation.
DESIGN
Sketching & Brainstorming
The design process for QuickPath was driven by two primary goals:
1. Creating a robust guided navigation system essential for accurate data collection and treatment recommendations
2. Developing a flexible search experience to allow users to quickly find specific information or treatments without navigating through every step
This dual approach was essential to meet the needs of our diverse user base, which includes both specialists and generalists.
Messy screen capture of the team's initial thinking around the feature