Rootwa Sagar is a knowledgable UX designer with years of experience optimizing healthcare technology with clinicians in mind. She is a dedicated student of the intersection between design and functionality, and during her time at Mobile Heartbeat, Rootwa has eased the cognitive burden of over 200,000 end users.
How Did You First Get Started in UX?
I always knew that I wanted to do something related to design, but I also wanted to be it to be helpful and make an impact on the world. I got a degree in visual design, so I was thinking of going into advertising or graphic design.
But then UX design caught my eye. Everything in UX is about helping people understand, making your products and applications more accessible. My father is a surgeon, and I saw firsthand how frustrated he was with the EHR system he used. Once he walked me through the program and it got me thinking that if I could change some of the elements, I could make it easier to use.
I started working on this project and, for research, spoke with other clinicians, and I was shocked at how many of them were burned out having to enter so much information into the EHR and click so many screens just to complete simple tasks. It was amazing being able to reimagine the interface to relieve some of the stress and burden for my father and his colleagues.
Why Did You Come to Mobile Heartbeat?
I came to Mobile Heartbeat because I know that we help people. We help people who help people. It’s fulfilling work that interests me. At Mobile Heartbeat, I get to complete my UX work with a patient-driven focus—it really combines that desire to create design with the desire to leave a positive impact.
How Do You Keep Clinicians a Priority in UX Design?
Well, that’s a great question, and the answer begins with a simple fact: Clinicians do not want to fiddle around with phones. They want to get done with their phone as soon as possible and get back to the real world of caring for patients. So, we try to keep existing workflow patterns in mind so that there’s a minimal learning curve for users.
We tend to let the other industries lead the way in terms of UI design. We want our users to learn patterns on their regular day-to-day consumer applications. Only if the pattern is well established, we bring them on to our platform because lives hang in the balance here and we take that very seriously
Something else that comes to mind is accessibility. We need to be really conscious of that. Users may need to multitask in a chaotic environment that pulls their attention in different directions, and we need to be able to support them in these cases.
What Are You Most Excited to Be Working on Now?
We’ve been working on emphasizing user-centered design for Banyan, which means we rigorously test our designs with the users way before we go into development. These sessions are an outlet for the users to talk about the solution that works best for their workflow. Not only that, but we also make sure to talk about what’s working well today, and what’s not working so we identify the gaps and work towards refining our designs.
What’s more exciting is that we strive to apply this process to the admin console as well. We understand that admin console plays the most important role in smooth function of our product at an organization. We want to make sure that the users setting up the workflows get the same best-in-class experience as our end users.
For this process to be successful, we are always looking for users that we can test with. It’s a chance for everyone to get their word in on early designs and make an impact on the product. If this catches your attention and you want your organization to be a part of it, please contact our sales team so we can get you on the list of our testers.
How Has It Been Working Remotely?
When the pandemic started, I was in the U.S. and I was working from home there, but I wasn’t sure when things would get back to normal. My family was in India, and they were stuck there because there were some situations with their visas, so they couldn’t travel to the U.S. Mobile Heartbeat has been really supportive in that regard. I decided to travel to India to be with my family, and Mobile Heartbeat has been amazingly supportive with my working hours. I don’t think my working from India has affected my relationship with anyone at all—I think that shows the spirit of people that we work with. And I think that’s one of the reasons I really enjoy working at Mobile Heartbeat.
What Has Been Your Experience as a Woman of Color at Mobile Heartbeat?
I would say that my experience here has been very inclusive. Before I got married, they threw me a surprise bridal shower; we always have Diwali celebrations and other celebrations that honor different cultures. One of the memories I cherish most is taking golfing lessons with the Women in Technology group here, it was amazing getting to spend that time with the other women in the company. I love that we have these experiences that can bring all of us together.
