Role

UX Designer (Innovation & Technology Group)

Timeline

Spring 2022 (4 Months)

Design Tools and Methodology Used

Figma, research interview, prototyping, persona, user flow

Overview

WorkSafeBC (WSBC) manages complex insurance and safety workflows across British Columbia. The Innovation Technology Department tasked me with developing a Proof of Concept (PoC) to digitize the 'Return-to-Work' planning process. The goal was to transition officers from a rigid paper-based workflow to a flexible mobile application. Field officers traditionally relied on cumbersome paper forms to document injured workers' conditions and build reinstatement plans on-site, leading to data entry errors and slow processing times.

As the sole UX Designer embedded in the Innovation Team, I owned the full design lifecycle—from stakeholder interviews to high-fidelity prototyping. I collaborated with technical leads to ensure the solution was feasible within enterprise security constraints.

The Challenge

Design an intuitive mobile solution that allows officers to create legal work-plan documents in the field, even in high-stress or offline environments, while integrating with complex enterprise databases.

Field officers needed to quickly capture detailed information about injured workers' capabilities and job demands, often in dynamic and unpredictable settings, for example, at a construction site or manufacturing plant where they cannot hear well and wearing heavy gloves that made writing difficult. The app had to minimize data-entry errors, support multimedia documentation (photos/videos), and function seamlessly offline.

Approach

Since RTW was experimental, it did have any research or documentation. I needed to start over from the research to prove the concepts. So, I started a project document to keep a reference, including project descriptions, project objectives and my research plan.

Furthermore, I had to decide on the technical limitations of the project. Because the project was an experiment, finding out the devices/media to complete the experience was also one of my tasks.

Research

The research have a two stages, initial research and user testing. The initial research is to understand who is the user and their needs. After building persona and prototypes, I would ask the interviewee to try the interactive prototype and collect feedback.

Eventually, I had ten interviews with potential users and their managers. User interviews revealed that while Surface tablets were standard issue, the form factor hindered mobility in field assessments. I advocated for an iPad-based solution to improve ergonomic usability during site visits. Choosing the iPad 10.2 for the solution also keeps the project in budget.

I documented the pain points and my takeaways. For example, an efficient method that helped me think was user flows. In FigJam, I drew two user flows, Before and Imagined Future, comparing the traditional paper-based forms and the digitalized process on the iPad App I planned to design.

Design

To describe the reframed solution, Return-to-Work Planner Mobile is an internal-use app for officers who investigates injured workers’ conditions and help them to create a reduced-workload work plan on site.

🔒 Confidentiality Note: Due to strict privacy regulations and the internal nature of this project, specific screens and sensitive data have been obfuscated or replaced with high-level wireframes. The process shown highlights the workflow improvements while protecting organizational data.

Digitalizing Familiar Workflows from Paper

Officers were accustomed to a specific sequence of data entry on paper forms. I mapped out the existing workflow and designed the app to mirror this sequence, ensuring a minimal learning curve. This approach reduced resistance to adoption and allowed officers to leverage their existing knowledge.

The Dashboard aggregates case files, allowing officers to download specific cases for offline access before heading to a job site.

To reduce the time spent on finding cases, I designed a case selector with a name view and a map view. The field officers can choose who to work with based on their availability and location.

Quick Data Entry

Officers often work in distracting environments. A key challenge was mapping complex insurance forms to a small screen. I implemented conditional logic (progressive disclosure) to only show relevant form fields, significantly reducing cognitive load compared to the static paper forms. I replaced manual writing with smart dropdowns and pre-populated logic based on case history. This minimized cognitive load and ensured data consistency across the old and new data.

Another user's requirement is pre-populated selections to replace the worksheet, so I designed dropdowns for the Job Demand Screen and easy duplication at Planning Screen.

The most significant user pain point is not being able to take notes because the conversation could be too busy, so I proposed video or photo-taking functions. In the second round of interviews, previously interviewed users had positive feedback on my rough mockups.

Conclusion

The "RTW Planner Mobile" is an internal enterprise application designed for speed and accuracy.

Key Contributions

Workflow Digitization: Transformed a rigid paper-based logic into a flexible digital workflow on iPad, reducing form completion time.

Enterprise Constraints: Designed UI patterns that adhered to strict data-entry requirements (e.g., pre-populated selections to replace open-text errors) while remaining usable on a 10.2" tablet interface.

User-Centered Process: Conducted over 14 hours of interviews with officers and managers. Identified that while Surface tablets were standard, the user base struggled with their usability in the field, leading to a pivot toward a more touch-friendly iOS interface.

Prototyping for Operations: Delivered high-fidelity interactive prototypes that simulated real-world field conditions (offline modes, photo documentation), proving the concept's viability to internal leadership.

The proposed solution demonstrated a potential reduction in administrative overhead for 200+ departmental users. The research artifacts, including detailed user flows and personas, established a new standard for UX documentation within the innovation team.