Design | January 2023

Designergatan helped Receptum expand their operations abroad: "Our user experience design outperforms our competitors"

Receptum Ltd. is a Finnish software company specializing in pharmacy systems. The company has customers in Finland, Sweden and Norway, with a turnover of 15 million euros.

A large pharmacy chain in Norway is one of Receptum’s most recent customers. They praise Receptum for the design solutions and for their knowledge of the pharmaceutical industry. Receptum worked closely with Designergatan.

"Design improves the value of a software or service remarkably."

Pia Ukkonen, Product Owner/Functional Designer at Receptum, describes the co-operation as follows:

"The user experience design of our system clearly outperforms our competitors. Together with Designergatan’s Herman Talvitie we produced a detailed presentation of the user interface (UI) already in the demo stage. This prototype gave the customer a concrete understanding of the system that we were creating."

"We knew right from the start that we wanted Herman to work with us on this project."

When we decided to expand our operations, we got in touch with Herman right away. We had already worked with him in cases where user experience demos had been a requirement. We knew right from the start that we wanted Herman to work with us on this project.

Herman set out to work on the user interfaces that were based on the user stories chosen by the customer. I’m very well acquainted with the pharmacy systems in Finland, Sweden and Norway, and with their country-specific requirements. Herman brings in his knowledge of usability and design. Combining our expertise, we worked in perfect unison.

The development process took two to three months. It’s not a long time but the work we put in was enormous. When we were preparing to expand our operations, we developed a user experience prototype that would be the foundation for the new software.

The product is a prescription management system for a Norwegian pharmacy chain. Prescription management is a complicated process with many details and regulatory requirements. Making prescription management smooth for users is no easy task and requires the skills of a UX designer.

During the prescription handling process, the user is expected to react to a vast amount of information. To facilitate a speedy and effective delivery process, the relevant information needs to be presented to the user at the right moment. User interface and user experience design play a key role in this.

Designing the user story into a prototype requires a lot of work. As a Functional Specialist, I collected the necessary data content, all the information that I thought should be displayed at different stages. I also described the process by defining the order of the needed steps. Next, Herman designed the complete user journey and the layout. We worked on the demo iteratively: first, Herman drafted a design that didn’t have all the bits and pieces in place yet. Next, we looked at the benefits and development items together. Then we added new details and repeated the process iteratively, until we had met the targets set for the user story.

"We were praised for our usability, one of the critical criteria."

Delivering the system to the Norwegian pharmacy chain was a result of many things. We were praised for our usability, one of the critical criteria. UX design was a way to demonstrate this.

At a later stage in the design process, a user story made us realize that the model we had used didn’t work for all use cases. So we backtracked. I find this to be one of the best aspects of the design process; you can take a step back if needed. This has become a normal part of the process. Software design requires quite a lot of resources, and identifying possible needs for change at an early stage in the design keeps the costs down in the long run.

"Good design helps the users succeed in their work."

One single prescription has hundreds of pieces of information. Knowing what information should be displayed on the screen at which phase is an integral part of the pharmacy system’s usability. Guiding the user is also important. The medicine reimbursement criteria are a complicated set of rules, especially in Norway, and the user has to select the right reimbursement criteria for the medicine and know what information needs to be filled in to meet the criteria. The pharmacist doesn’t need to remember all the details since the system guides the user and asks the user to fill in the needed information, and also informs the user if the given information conflicts with the criteria for this particular medicine. Of all the information in the system, only the relevant pieces of information are displayed at any given moment. This results in good usability and design. Good design helps the users succeed in their work.

We delivered Receptum’s MAXX system to the Norwegian pharmacy chain. When we enter new markets, we always tailor the prescription management to meet the many country-specific regulatory requirements. So, the prescription management modules have to be remade for each market separately.

"As the pharmacy chain is a large, international operator, this will open new doors for us."

Delivering our system to this particular pharmacy chain not only supported our strategy but also helped us expand our operations in Norway. We had already entered the Norwegian market with earlier cases, but we wanted to strengthen our market position. This pharmacy chain is a large, international company, and this will open new doors for us.

"Good design significantly improves the user experience of our customers"

I would like to say a few words about how Herman and I work together. The process starts when Herman receives the Functional Design. This is a document that describes the user story, use cases, acceptance criteria and the data to be displayed to the user – what we want the user to see on the screen. Use cases describe the process from the user’s point of view. Based on the use cases, Herman creates the preliminary user interface design. When he reaches a suitable phase in the design, we hold a workshop to analyze the outcome together with the customer, for example, the end user. Sometimes we throw in a few alternative designs. After the workshop, we continue work on the design, and Herman communicates with the customer through Teams. Herman delivers the new versions of the demo to the customers for comments and feedback. We work this way until all the items in the original requirement specification are included in the design solution. Good design significantly improves the user experience and the daily routines of our customers. The process starts with the customer needs. When we transform the customer needs into concrete models through user interface design, we have a well-thought-out application before we even start the implementation phase.

From my experience, co-operation with Herman works best when we are facing a process that does not function well, for example, when the customer tells us that the old system has a functionality that isn’t working properly. Herman learns about the problems in the old system, which functionalities do not work properly. Based on this information, Herman is able to create a completely new solution that enhances usability.

I’m also happy when the customer wants a functionality that doesn’t exist anywhere yet. I form a picture in my mind of what the customer expects from the functionality, but at this stage none of us has an idea of how this should be displayed to the user. Next, Herman starts by creating a first draft of the implementation. When the user gets to see and test the user interface, it is much easier for the user to express how they wish us to develop the functionality further.

"UX design helps me as Product Owner to develop things further."

You absolutely need creative design. UX design also helps me as Product Owner to develop things further. In software development, the process always starts with the Functional Design document mentioned earlier.

For example, the document describes the customer search function by detailing the search parameters, such as name and date of birth or social security number, and the information that should be displayed to the user. This is the first step. Then, Herman designs how the customer search is displayed to the user. After this, we carry out technical design for a more detailed architecture. When we proceed in this order, we have the technical designs ready at an early stage. As the product enters the development stage, we have a detailed picture of the outcome and the needed development stages. The Functional Design document alone would not give sufficient support for the next development stages without a visual outline.

I enjoy my work as Product Owner and have been with Receptum already for 20 years. The diversity of my job is perhaps one of the factors that makes my work interesting. I’m able to make use of the knowledge that I have gathered throughout the years in various projects. I trained as a pharmacist and MBA in ICT and have been able to benefit from both lines of education in my daily work. Receptum’s operations in Sweden and now in Norway have brought variety to my work. I have worked on market studies, competitive tendering and defining country-specific product requirements. It’s very rewarding to be able to use my expertise and language skills in my work every day. Herman and I communicate in Swedish. When other people attend our meetings, we switch to Finnish, and when there are Finns and Norwegians present, we switch to English. When it’s me, Herman, and Norwegians, we go back to Swedish. We fluently skip from one language to another.

"Herman’s expertise helps us in designing and decision-making."

I love working with Herman, it feels easy and natural. We have one-on-one sessions, or we join others in workshops and teams, and everyone seems to have the same experience about working with Herman. He always speaks from a design perspective and justifies his choices and options from a professional point of view. Herman’s expertise helps us in designing and decision-making.

It is also such great fun to work with Herman! A week ago, I was talking to a customer, and we discussed the need for another workshop. The customer replied that they don’t actually have the need for one, but it would be fun to meet with Herman again.

When we’re working on the Functional Design with our customer and can’t figure out how the steps in the process should go, it’s always such a relief to know that we can rely on Herman to come up with a solution. We then describe the cases loosely enough to give Herman leeway and allow his creativity to flourish.

"We don’t want to allow technology to determine the end user experience "

Design enhances the value of the software system or service and makes it easier to sell. Good design helps to speed up the process and reduce the number of errors. And as I mentioned earlier, it also helps to keep the development costs down. When you’re working without a designer, you often end up having several rounds of iteration in the development. Even if the software developer has a good eye for the visual aspects, you run the risk of having the technology take the driver’s seat if you skip the design phase. Design helps build the system from the end user’s perspective. Maybe this is the essence of design. We don’t want to allow technology to determine the end user experience.

Herman does such high-quality work, that’s all I can say. He really wants to deliver a good product, it’s truly important for him. The focus is always on end user experience. He puts his heart and soul into everything he does.

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