Essential CEU Institute

The Essential CEU Institute is a continuing education training platform for healthcare professionals in California. As product designer since 2017 I have helped ship many new features, including the redesign of core platform functionality.

Background

Essential CEU began as a SaaS platform in which healthcare professionals in California could purchase a subscription to access a large library of state-approved continuing education course content. Over a period of four years, our product team helped Essential CEU expand its offerings to become a “one-stop-shop” for teams and individuals to manage all aspects of their training and continuing education. In that time, 29,000+ course certificates have been issued to 3,100+ users on the platform, with 14,000+ certificates issued in 2020 alone.

One important feature we added to achieve a full-service offering was the ability for users to document training they (or their team) completed outside of our platform. Adding this valuable capability created incentive for subscribers to maintain a membership beyond the typical period necessary to earn the course credits they needed. While this feature was a straightforward addition from a technical standpoint, it involved several user experience edge cases that had to be considered. These implications justified a redesign of team and individual user profiles on the platform.

Capturing the Process

When documenting needs for new functionality with non-technical stakeholders, it can be difficult establish shared forms of communication. To facilitate a productive conversation and understand the needs of this new functionality, I utilized a virtual white-boarding tool (Miro) and a process diagram which included:

• User Types

• High-Level Steps of the Process

• Specific User Actions (User Stories)

This exercise allowed us to move quickly and gather the details necessary to get started on the feature. The process diagram not only helped our team understand the process, but also provided validation of accuracy and completeness for stakeholders.

Translating for Software

Preparing a feature for implementation requires detailed explanation that the basic process diagram in the previous step cannot provide. I created in-depth user flows to communicate the process and outline design elements for engineers. Personally, I believe avoiding UI design at this step streamlines the most important work and avoids the pitfalls of time spent crafting unnecessary high-fidelity mockups.

Minimum Viable Fidelity

Another personal product design value I do my best to uphold is the restraint to stop at the level of fidelity required to successfully deliver a feature. For example, if a new feature includes common design patterns that engineers are comfortable with, I may only deliver wireframes along with a few additional written details. That was the case for this “external course entry” feature.

Of course, wireframes do not always suffice and I take pride in the high-fidelity work I produce – but in this case, fully fleshed design specifications were not necessary. I know this practice can vary between teams, but I believe the idea of “Minimum Viable Fidelity” is a healthy concept to consider and provides a helpful tension for delivering value efficiently.

The Results

Empowering users to document training completed outside of the Essential CEU Institute platform increased value for existing subscribers and created greater incentive for potential subscribers to use the service. While a redesign of user profiles was a lot of work, this area of the platform became much more powerful for individuals tracking their continuing education progress. Organizations and teams using Essential CEU can also now manage employee training with better visibility.