Portfolio: eRx NOW from Allscripts

Electronic prescribing can reduce errors, save lives, save money and increase efficiency. Allscripts developed eRx NOW™ – a tool that achieves those goals. The company released eRx NOW through the National ePrescribing Patient Safety Initiative™ (NEPSI).

Jump down to read about the design process after these examples:


eRx NOW running on a tablet PC (left) and on a phone (right). It also runs on full-sized PCs.

As always, we customized our design process for this project

Discovery phase: We reviewed an internal prototype, noting what would help users be successful. Discussions with the development team helped us understand the business and user goals for the product. Along the way, we streamlined the prescribing process to help meet the basic goals. Once we understood the requirements, we developed a series of workflows to show what the experience would be for different classes of users.

Allscripts was planning versions for Web browsers and handheld devices. We created separate, but related, designs to satisfy the unique needs of both platforms (see the examples above).

Design phase: We developed a basic design model for interactions and the visual design. We then iterated through the design/review process, applying the design model to a few pages at a time so we could show them to the client.

There's more to a good UI than just appearance, so we developed a set of click-through demos from the page designs. We used these in demos and usability walkthroughs to get feedback, both from internal and external people.

Delivery phase: We delivered detailed visual design specifications and a brief written description of the interactions. Together with the click-through demos and flow charts, this allowed the development team to quickly develop initial implementations, which we reviewed with them.

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