User Management Architecting
Streamlining complex admin workflows for a healthcare technology platform
Lead Product Designer • Initiative Owner
Role
User management · Enterprise systems · Platform administration at Medbridge
Focus
I led the redesign of a user-management experience within a healthcare platform, focused on helping administrators create users, manage access, subscriptions, roles and more with greater clarity and confidence.
Rather than optimizing individual screens, I treated this as a systems design problem: how to make complex, high-risk workflows understandable without oversimplifying them.
Overview
Context & Business Framing
User management is a critical control surface in enterprise healthcare software. Errors can create downstream operational issues, compliance risk, and support burden.
As the platform evolved, the admin experience accumulated complexity:
More roles
More permissions
More edge cases
More filter items
More institutional knowledge required to operate safely
From a business perspective, the goal was not speed alone - it was accuracy, predictability, and scalability.
This framing shaped every design decision that followed.
Design Overview: Prototype Demonstration
This prototype highlights core shifts in workflow, including reduced context switching and streamlined user management tasks.
The Problem
The existing experience reflected the system’s internal structure rather than the administrator’s intent.
As a result:
Common tasks required unnecessary steps
Critical actions were difficult to verify at a glance
New or infrequent admins relied on trial-and-error
The challenge wasn’t missing functionality — it was unclear hierarchy and mental models.
Design Intent
I anchored the work around three priorities:
Clarity over compression
Reduce cognitive load even when complexity must remain visible.Intent-driven workflows
Organize around what admins are trying to accomplish, not internal system logic.Scalable patterns
Design structures that could grow without introducing new friction.
These priorities required tradeoffs, especially between flexibility and guidance.
Approach
This revealed that friction stemmed less from complexity itself and more from ambiguous structure and language.
I explored multiple models — including flatter permission matrices and role-based groupings — and evaluated them against clarity, risk, and long-term maintainability.
We intentionally favored solutions that reduced decision load during critical actions while preserving system flexibility.
Before designing UI, I mapped:
High-frequency admin tasks
Risk-heavy decision points
Where hesitation or backtracking occurred
Key Decisions
Reorganized workflows around admin intent
Admins think in outcomes (“grant access,” “remove access”), not system objects.Used progressive disclosure for advanced controls
Complexity remained available but surfaced contextually to reduce error risk.Prioritized scanability over density
Layouts emphasized verification before action, supporting confidence in high-stakes workflows.
Each decision focused on visual simplicity for operational clarity.
The redesigned experience resulted in
01
Clearer, more predictable admin workflows
02
Reduced dependence on prior system knowledge
03
A stronger foundation for future user-management features
ℹ️ Specific internal performance data is not shared.
Reflection
This project reinforced that strong enterprise design isn’t about simplifying systems — it’s about making complexity understandable. At scale, the designer’s role is to:
Expose structure clearly
Design for growth, not just the current state
Navigate tradeoffs between usability, risk, and business constraints
Want to discuss the design decisions behind this work?
ℹ️ This case study emphasizes design thinking and decision-making. Details have been intentionally generalized to respect confidentiality and intellectual property agreements.