VISION-X HELIX System (Back-OFFICE)

Massive undertaking, introducing this new product to our ECPs (Essilor Certified Practitioners) to meet their ever-evolving needs and bridge the gaps between integral systems, while staying true to a global design system.

Role: UX / UI Design & Research

Timeline: Iterative, over 2 years (Multiple Sprints)

Tools used: Figma, Illustrator, & Photoshop

OVERVIEW

Working with both local and international teams (out of Milan Italy) our team pulled together five (5) systems including:
EHR, Online Booking, Product Ordering, Practice Management (PMS)/Reporting, and Patient Engagement

Unifying all legacy systems by mapping them to a single front end styled across the entire system with a global design system, created by the Milan team with help and feedback from our US team.

This complete system, competes with other products either in existance or in the process of creation, while additionally offering tiered subscription levels to allow users to pick and choose what services are aligned with their personal business needs.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

BACKGROUND
Current systems were both disparate (separate), with original legacy branding and seriously outdated interfaces. Users were forced to toggle between systems, with separate interfaces and login credentials. Interaction with daily tasks was overly complex, while cognitive load was high.

USERS AFFECTED
ECP's (Essilor Certified Practitioners) were directly affected. As a vision care global leader EssilorLuxottica was seriously behind in their technology offerings to existing and new ECP customers. Additionally, outdated systems left out some newer technologies and product features needed for current eye care practices, as well as competitive features offered in other systems. Creating both a loss of current users (via attrition) as well as onboarding new ones.

IMPACT
The impact was significant, and if not dealt with, seriously jepordized EL's ability to both service current customers, as well as successfully attract newer ones. This affected EL's potential reputation as a global leader, market share, customer attrition rates, onboarding rates, as well as ECP's ability to effectively market their practices and services, and order the latest product offerings in the market.

Who is affected by the problem? Virtually everyone across the business: Practitioners, staff, end user customers, stockholders, as well as EL's support staff.

What is the problem? Severely outdated systems and processes. Negatively impacting the overall business across virtually every space/modality.

Where does this problem occur? In back-office systems and support. Outdated systems are both clunky and separated causing frustration and (in some instances) customer loss, due to an inability to perform some more modern (needed) business functions.

When does the problem occur? Daily, when ECP's interact with any of the five systems, as well as the increased cognitive load of all users involved, when required to bounce between multiple (separate) systems. Many processes and the ability to surface data, is a much more complicated process.

Why does the problem occur and why is it important? Simply put, technology is an ever-evolving animal, in continual need of updating to ensure systems are running at maximum efficiency, while also creating a seamless and easy-to-use front end, so that users have significantly reduced cognitive load, while accomplishing daily tasks (needed for smooth business performance) to keep the business profitable.

USERS (AUDIENCE)

Users fall into two tiers: B2B Service Providers (aka ECP's) and end user, B2C customer/consumers. In order for the business to run efficiently/effectively, both groups must be addressed.

Essilor Certified Practitioners (ECP's): This affects all staff members associated with the running of multiple eye care practices, both independent practice businesses, and their associated locations.

Consumer/Customers: This affects the end-user customers as well, by limiting access to updated services and product offerings, consumers notice a gap in the services and products offered and comparison shop, leaving for a more updated/streamlined
business experience.

ROLES & RESPONSIBILITES

After serving as the only User Experience person on my team of over 20 people, I was involved in the day-to-day leadership of digital product creation for my team (digital product creation), as well as introducing and incorporating some basic research models and processes for meeting with stakeholders, ECP users and end-user consumers. Much of my other team members were more involved with the actual interviews and data reporting, as well as using surveys.

This extremely involved project, switched hands and leadership and then began working hand-in-hand with an international UX team out of Milan, Italy, in an attempt to fast-track this project before we lost it to another team. In the process, an outside agency, given the task of design system creation was let go and the Milan team took the reins.

Additionally a second UX designer was absorbed through a company acquisition and brought onto my team to help facilitate all of the work needed to get this project across the goal line. In combination we worked on the consumer experience. While, I tackled Onboarding and Migration, as well as provisioning Business Package offerings, my primary focus was on the Ordering portion of the project. That being how our ECP's ordered their products via the EL network to provision orders for their customers. This was broken into two systems, Integrated and Stand Alone. Integrated was the full system offering, providing all of the resources our ECP's needed for running their practices, while Stand Alone, provided a 'bolt-on' experience for ECP's, allowing them to use their existing systems, and add in the services they needed. This approach allowed the business to give our end-customers everything they needed, while not making them give-up systems they had grown used to.

Additionally I created the Admin back-office system, Created the Reporting, Customer Surveys and partnered in Patient Engagement, while the other UX designer created the other systems front-ends. We worked in conjunction with the Italian team to ask questions and refine the design system to meet current business needs. Additionally, I worked on the creation of the WebStore, a consumer sales product for ECP's to use to sell EL products.

Through this process, we worked with stakeholders, ECP's and some end customers to determine needs and fill knowledge gaps with system requirements. We then collaborated with development teams, international UX teams and Reply to refine our designs and present to global leadership.

This multi-year process was extremely enlightening and challenging. Merging knowledge about processes, strategies and workflows with business, customer and consumer needs, creating a first-of-its-kind system for EssilorLuxottica.

Research Models Used:

Google Analytics
Direct Customer Interview
Stakeholder Interviews
Comparison Modeling

INITIAL USER PROFILE - PERSONAS

SCOPE & CONSTRAINTS

This was a monsterous undertaking, especially for just two designers. With the help of all our teams we managed to build all of this within roughly 2 1/2 years, mainly due to leadership changes, and wasted efforts.

We were successful due to the combined efforts of everyone involved and the tireless dedication to seeing this project to fruition. We successfully hit our 'redefined' targets and have given the business (and more importantly), our ECP's and their end consumer/customer's the unified and adapted modern system they both wanted and deserved.

But work is never done. Additionally a team is working on recreating an entirely new system from the ground up. As, although we patched together one heck of a system, it too will run its course. The next phase of this project will be even better!

PROCESS & WHAT I DID

I met with other designers, here and abroad, as well as stakeholders, ECP's and end customers to determine usage needs and requirements... what was missing from current infrastructure, as well as incorporating business needs, while proofing and proving our concepts, refining and reiterating to build a unified system that all (or most) were thrilled with. This involved meeting multiple times a day with varied team members to clarify understandings of both what was expected and what was possible, within our limited time frame. I acted in a Research facility by questioning stakeholders, other UXer's, leadership, development and ECP's.

OUTCOMES & LESSONS LEARNED

By meeting with ECP's and customers we were able to extract enough information to determine needs and even some 'nice-to-haves', we then came back with fast-iteration prototypes to test assumptions. Many of the prototypes I built were also refined and used for Sales and Marketing to sell and Onboard new ECP's into the system. As we presented screens to internal stakeholders and leadership we also learned where we missed the mark, but also got a ton of support for all that we'd accomplished.

Through multiple iteration cycles and working with Reply, our external proofing process, we found holes in designs and bridged gaps ensuring we had covered all the bases. This continual process of design, test, reiterate led to us meeting our combined goal in a reasonable time frame.

Through it all we learned a lot. Not just what to do, but also what not to do. We found agreement across channels and teams and created something massive... something great!

COMPED SCREENS

Samples below are a subset of hundreds of screens designed and developed for this project.
All designs are built using Figma.

ONBOARDING