In high-stress healthcare environments, retaining skilled professionals is one of the industry’s biggest challenges. This project focused on creating a gamified platform that helps healthcare organizations better understand and respond to the needs of their frontline staff. Through extensive user research and testing, I designed a simple, approachable tool that makes it easy for workers to share feedback and feel heard, ultimately helping organizations improve morale, reduce burnout, and retain top talent.
Challenges
Low engagement: About 20% of users were actively engaging with the platform
Minimal retention: Over half of users signed up for the platform and never used it, and there was consistent drop off from users over time
Lack of insights: Because of low use, there wasn't information from users on what needed to be improved
My Approach
Deep User Research
Competitive Analysis: I compared 4 competitor companies, with a focus on features and success statistics.
Surveys: I surveyed 21 healthcare managers and 18 healthcare workers, learning valuable information from both perspectives.
Interviews: Spoke with 3 managers and 3 nurses across different healthcare companies.
Process Mapping: Documented how they currently handled giving and receiving feedback, and why this wasn’t working.
Turning Insights into Strategy
Through the research, I identified the platform's core needs: gamification, simple ways for users to give feedback, and a system for rewarding goal completion. I then prioritized features based on user urgency and business value, cutting out any “nice to haves” that weren’t critical.
Rapid Design & Testing
I created wireframes and interactive prototypes to begin testing early in the process. After running usability tests with 3 users, I iterated quickly based on their feedback to reduce confusion and improve how smoothly users could complete key tasks.
Results
Identified 3 high-impact features that directly addressed daily operational pain points, which became the platform’s core offering
Created designs for a mobile website that gamified the user experience of providing feedback to managers
Improved user confidence: 90% users said they would be “likely” or “very likely” to consistently use the platform compared to the existing 20% engagement rate
Gave the founding team a clear, research-backed product roadmap to bring to guide future development
Future Plans
Once the product enters the development phase, close collaboration with engineers will be essential to bring the designs to life and ensure a smooth, scalable rollout. As adoption grows, ongoing user feedback will guide iterations to ensure the platform continues to support real-world needs in high-pressure healthcare settings.
Conclusion
At first this project seemed like it would just be the creation of a new interface, part of an existing larger platform. However, it was really about understanding real problems in the healthcare industry and designing a tool that could help keep professionals supported and engaged in their work. It pushed me to think strategically, listen closely to users, and collaborate across teams to turn complex needs into something simple and meaningful. Most importantly, it showed me how thoughtful design can make a real difference not just for the business, but for the people they serve.
