Designing a unified scheduling experience and scalable design system for a healthcare staffing app.

Client
Gale Healthcare Solutions

Year
2023

My Role
UX/UI Designer

Team
4 person cross-functional product team (PM + engineer + design)

Timeline
2023 (multi-sprint delivery)

Overview

Gale built the Use Gale app to help healthcare facilities staff open shifts. After rapid growth following the 2020 COVID pandemic, the product hit scaling pain: clinicians were dropping off during shift booking, and facilities struggled to fill shifts reliably.

I joined the clinician-facing product team to diagnose workflow breakdowns, improve end-to-end scheduling and booking, and evolve the design system into a more scalable foundation for future features.

My Role

I focused on the UX/UI design of the clinician-facing app, and my work was twofold:

  • Maintain the existing product by fixing UX and UI issues, tightening workflows, and addressing bugs and functional gaps as they surfaced.

  • Build the updated app in parallel by designing a new system foundation (components, patterns, and standards) and creating improved screens and features, which we rolled out gradually to support a smooth transition.

I partnered closely with product and engineering to investigate drop-offs in booking, redesign shift discovery and scheduling flows, and translate learnings into reusable patterns that improved consistency and sped up delivery.

The Problem

User research showed drop-offs were less about “motivation” and more about UX friction:

  • Fragmented navigation forced clinicians across multiple screens to claim shifts

  • Poor information hierarchy made it hard to evaluate a shift quickly

  • Booking flows were overly complex

  • Clinicians relied on external calendars because in-app scheduling wasn’t strong enough

Users

Primary users were clinicians trying to pick up shifts quickly and manage unpredictable schedules. They needed fast scanning, clear shift status, and confidence that their availability + bookings were accurate without extra admin work.

The broader system also served healthcare facility operators on the operations platform, who posted open shifts and managed requirements, eligibility, and staffing status. Those rules had to translate clearly into the clinician booking experience, with the shared goal of filling coverage quickly and reliably.

Core workflows on legacy app was spread out over multiple screens

I designed a unified in-app scheduling experience that reduced booking friction and improved task efficiency.

To remove the biggest workflow bottleneck, we anchored the experience around a single in-app calendar. Clinicians could view schedules at a glance, manage availability directly in the app, and book shifts in fewer steps.

I designed and prototyped end-to-end flows and created a clearer visual system for:

  • Shift status and confirmation states

  • Time-of-day availability

  • Notifications and schedule cues

Key Process

  1. Consolidated scheduling into one primary surface
    Reduced context switching and made “check schedule → confirm availability → book shift” a single, legible flow.

  2. Improved scanability and decision confidence
    Strengthened hierarchy so clinicians could evaluate shifts faster and commit with fewer taps.

  3. Added interaction patterns that matched real scheduling behavior
    Custom date pickers, collapsible calendar views, and streamlined navigation reduced friction in high-frequency actions.

Validation

We validated the redesign through iterative testing with active healthcare professionals using Maze plus clickmaps and heatmaps to measure clarity, usability, and engagement.

Result: task efficiency improved by 30% (timed usability testing, old vs new booking flows), alongside higher user satisfaction.

Fragmented workflow combined into one unified screen

Explorations for a unified schedule, availability and management screens

New calendar component and variants

New shift card component and variants

In parallel, I evolved the design system to improve velocity and reduce design debt.

Alongside feature work, I led the evolution of Gale’s app design system developing scalable UI components, consistent interaction patterns, and unified visual standards. This improved alignment between design, product, and engineering and enabled faster expansion without compromising UX consistency.

Outcome

  • Shipped a unified scheduling experience centered on an in-app calendar

  • Reduced booking friction through simplified flows and improved navigation

  • Established scalable design system patterns to support future feature growth

Impact

  • Efficiency: +30% task efficiency in usability testing (old vs new booking flows)

  • Conversion proxy: Post-launch analytics showed faster shift booking and fewer drop-offs

  • Satisfaction: Higher SUS scores, stronger in-app survey results, and positive clinician feedback in follow-up interviews

  • Team velocity: Reduced design debt and improved build consistency through reusable components and standards

Usability testing new availability feature with maze

New schedule and availability features

additional works