Overview
As part of Heartland Dental’s migration to SAP S/4HANA, this project delivered an MVP centralized dashboard that streamlined how Business Assistants manage scheduling, financial, and administrative workflows.
Role
UX Designer
Industry
Dental Support, Enterprise B2B
Team
1 Designer, 1 Product Manager, 1 Project Lead, 5 Engineers
Tools
Figma, SAP Fiori
Timeline
2021 - 2022
My Scope of Work
Partnered with business stakeholders to understand existing workflows and pain points across legacy systems during the transition to SAP S/4HANA
Rapidly onboarded to the SAP Fiori design framework, applying its patterns, components, and interaction principles to ensure platform consistency
Planned and facilitated usability testing with internal users to validate redesigned workflows and ensure the system supported real operational needs
Design Impact
Preview:
Dashboard Design
Identifying the Problem
Business Assistants in dental offices were responsible for managing scheduling, patient information, and financial tasks across multiple disconnected systems. This fragmented workflow made it difficult to access the right information quickly, increased cognitive load, and slowed day-to-day operations.
How Might We...
How might we centralize the information, tools, and tasks Business Assistants need—so they can work more efficiently without increasing complexity or compromising compliance?
Goals
Design a digital workspace experience that allowed BA’s to quickly access the information and features they need to complete their day to day tasks more efficiently.
The Approach
Discovery
At the start of the project, there was limited visibility into user goals, behaviors, and existing workflows. To close this gap, I conducted a focused two-week research sprint that included:
Stakeholder interviews
6 user interviews with Business Assistants
Initial benchmarking surveys
Secondary research and platform analysis
The Business Assistant
A typical work day for the Business Assistant(BA) in a dental office setting requires the BA to access various information across multiple systems to complete certain tasks.
Friction Points
Visibility
Difficulty tracking completed vs. outstanding tasks
Performance
No clear view of performance and quota progress
Clarity
Unclear task guidance and limited access to self-serve resources
Efficiency
Fragmented workflows across multiple systems to access required data
Key Insights & Strategy
Due to timeline changes, the scope was refined to focus on three high-impact MVP features:
Task Management
A streamlined task manager with clear visibility into priorities and status
App Access
A centralized hub for quick access to frequently used systems
Performance Visibility
Prioritized metrics and goal tracking surfaced at a glance
The Product Ecosystem
The solution was built using SAP WorkZone, requiring strict alignment with the SAP Fiori design system. I quickly ramped up on Fiori principles—favoring card-based layouts, minimalism, and clarity—to ensure consistency across the SAP ecosystem.
Technology Opportunity
To better understand the platform’s capabilities, I collaborated with SAP partners and technical experts and conducted independent research through documentation, blogs, and demos. This surfaced three key features to support an employee-centric digital workspace and improve communication and collaboration:
Launchpad: Centralized access to all system applications
Workspaces: Group-based collaboration spaces
Feed: Streamlined information sharing between the organization and users
Final Design
Overview Tab (Homepage)
The homepage provides Business Assistants with a daily operational overview, including:
Task summaries and accomplishments
Quick access to apps and documents
Office updates and managed resources
A Summary Reports feature highlighting prior-day performance
Task List Manager App
At the heart of the experience is the Task List Manager, providing:
At-a-glance visibility into daily, weekly, and monthly tasks
Intuitive filtering to quickly identify priorities
Clear task details and instructions to reduce ambiguity
Schedule/Produce/Collect
Research revealed that BA responsibilities naturally fell into three categories:
Schedule
Produce
Collect
Dashboard tabs were structured around these categories, with metrics and tiles curated based on priority and frequency of use. Quota and goal tracking were surfaced prominently to support performance awareness.
Launchpad
Using SAP Launchpad, Business Assistants can access all required apps from a single screen and customize their experience by pinning frequently used tools to My Favorites.
All designs ensured HIPAA compliance, avoiding the display of sensitive patient data on dashboard tiles.
The Outcome
Qualitative and quantitative feedback confirmed improvements in clarity, efficiency, and confidence when performing daily operations.
Overall Sentiment
+68% improvement in overall sentiment scores compared to baseline workflows
Overall Sentiment Score
Task Completion
83% of participants successfully completed all tasks with no more than one error, meeting benchmark expectations
*Benchmark of 80% Participants
Final Thoughts
This project required balancing enterprise constraints, platform limitations, and evolving scope—all while designing within an unfamiliar SAP ecosystem. Building within WorkZone and Fiori was technically challenging, but collaboration with SAP SMEs accelerated learning and ensured feasibility.
While the MVP excluded features like workspaces and feeds due to timeline constraints, the final solution delivered meaningful value and validated the core direction.
With additional time and scale, future iterations would include:
A larger user testing pool to strengthen quantitative insights
Deeper measurement of engagement, particularly for the task manager
Iterative expansion of deferred features based on usage behavior and adoption patterns
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