Designing Real-Time Triggers for Care Managers
UX Designer I Platform
The Challenge:
Care managers had no real-time way to view triggered elements after completing one; they had to wait 24–48 hrs for supervisors to notify them of triggered assessments and needs. This caused frustration, slower follow-ups, and missed opportunities to provide timely care.​​​
​
The Goal:
​Provide them with instant visibility and navigation to triggered items, reducing delays and enhancing member care.
​​
The Result:
A redesigned workflow enabling care managers to view, prioritize, and act on triggers in real time.​
​
Impact:
-
Turnaround from 24 - 48 hrs to real-time.
-
Saved ~10 min per call for 60% of testers
​​
Company: Centene Corporation | Timeline: 4 Weeks
My Role: UX Designer – responsible for ideation, prototyping, usability testing, and accessibility compliance.​
Team: Product Owner, Developers, UX Designers, UX Researcher
Tools: Figma, Stark (accessibility checker), FigJam, Jira, Google Meet, Miro, Confluence
Diagnosing the Roadblocks
Partnered with the Product Owner to map the existing workflow.
Key Findings:
-
Triggers were invisible until manually communicated by a manager.
-
4–5 extra clicks and ~2 minutes due to navigation and platform switching.
Current Flow:
Before:
-
Complete an assessment.
-
Return to the landing page.
-
Wait for the manager's notification.
-
Navigate to the landing page to complete other assessments.
New Flow:
After (Optimized Workflow):
-
Complete an assessment.
-
Instantly see triggered assessments and needs.
-
Click directly into them for immediate follow-up.
Evolution of the Design
Getting to know Sarah
Sarah Jackson
Occupation: Care Manager
Age: 45
Location: New Orleans, LA
About:
Sarah is a Care Manager using the TrueCare Cloud platform to conduct assessments for members enrolled in programs like Medicare and Medicaid, aiming to understand their healthcare-related and daily living needs. However, she frequently faces challenges in knowing what the completed assessment triggered additional assessments and/or needs.
Goals:
-
A better way to learn what additional assessments and/or needs that need to be completed.
-
Save time by efficiently accessing and managing assessment results and related information.
"Knowing what additional assessments and needs are triggered from the assessment I just completed would give me the ability to provide timely and targeted support to our members."
Challenges:
-
Difficulty navigating through the platform to access trigger assessments or needs.
-
She needs to wait for her manager to share what assessments or needs were triggered.
Prescribing the Right Solution
My goal for this design is to give Sarah the ability to:
-
Identify the triggered elements.
-
Navigate directly to the new task without leaving the main platform.
-
View the overall score of the completed assessment.
-
Understand what triggered these assessments or needs.
I explored several questions and considerations that are crucial for refining and optimizing Sarah's experience which are:
-
Should assessments be displayed alphabetically, by priority, or by score?
-
Is it helpful to indicate what triggered each assessment?
-
Should only the title of the assessment be clickable for navigation to the tasks that need completion?
-
Should I include pagination for the triggered element scroll to manage larger volumes of triggered assessments?
Sketches:
Wireframes:
The image above displays different solutions for the right navigation on the completed assessment view screen, arranged from left to right. I have selected the first option as the ideal solution for the problem, considering its benefits for Sarah.
-
The first option is crafted to provide Sarah with information about the triggered element, including what triggered it and the associated score.
-
The second option focuses on informing Sarah about the triggered elements. To access the assessments or needs, she will need to navigate either to the landing page or the IMPR platform.
-
The third option offers a link to the assessments and needs along with its name.
From Rough Drafts to Final Flow
Iteration 1 – Card navigation
First Iteration Highlights:
-
Users clicked on cards to access triggered assessments.
Iteration 2 – Play button + tabs
Second Iteration Highlights:
-
Direct navigation via one-click “Play” buttons.
-
Fixed tabs for seamless switching.
-
​View what triggered the element.
Iteration 3 – Final layout with left nav + scrolling
3
Final Design Highlights:
-
Independent scrolling for triggered list and assessment PDFs.
-
Direct navigation via one-click “Play” buttons.
Testing in the Real World
Participants:
-
1 Care Manager I
-
2 Care Manager IIs
-
1 Utilization Manager
Key Insights & Improvements:​
Prioritization:
Enabled care managers to prioritize triggers by urgency/score
Status cues:
Completed vs. pending badges
Navigation Ease:
Added ‘Back to Top’ button.
Data Consistency: Reduced repetitive data entry with pre-filled fields
Designing for Everyone
From the start, accessibility was a priority:
-
Verified color contrast (4.5:1+) using Stark.
-
Enabled full keyboard navigation with visible focus states.
-
Used ARIA labels for screen reader compatibility.
-
Logical tab order and semantic hierarchy for assistive technologies.
A Seamless Experience
​Sarah now has:
-
Instant access to triggered elements post-assessment
-
Effortless navigation between assessments & needs
-
Clear visibility of triggered element scores
-
Independent scrolling for enhanced flexibility
Looking Back & Moving Forward
This project reinforced the importance of real-time visibility, intuitive navigation, and reducing friction in high-stakes workflows. By giving Sarah instant access to triggered elements, she can now act in the moment, closing the gap from days to seconds.
​
Moving forward, there’s significant potential to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to further enhance Sarah’s experience and outcomes:
How AI Could Elevate This Design:​​​​​​​​​​​​
Smart Prioritization: Instead of manually sorting triggers by urgency or score, AI could dynamically rank triggered assessments based on factors like health risk, historical urgency patterns, or predicted member needs. This ensures Sarah sees the most critical items first.
Predictive Assistance: AI could analyze Sarah’s past interactions and member history to suggest the next most likely assessment or care step, helping her work proactively rather than reactively.
Intelligent Notifications: AI could learn Sarah’s workflow patterns and surface reminders at optimal moments, reducing “alert fatigue” while ensuring high-priority tasks never slip through.
Natural Language Summaries: Instead of scanning through long PDFs, Sarah could receive AI-generated summaries of what was triggered, why, and the immediate action required, helping her make faster, more informed decisions.
Anomaly Detection: AI could flag unusual patterns in triggers that might indicate systemic issues (e.g., repeated errors, rising health risks in specific populations), helping managers refine processes and interventions at scale.
​​​​​​​​​Next Steps for the Future Evolution of the Product:
​
-
Expand real-time triggers across additional care management workflows.
-
Layer in AI-driven prioritization and recommendations to minimize manual decision-making.
-
Explore lightweight chat-based interfaces where Sarah can simply ask, “What do I need to act on next?” and receive context-aware responses.
-
Continue validating AI-driven features with care managers to ensure transparency, trust, and usability.
By pairing strong UX foundations with AI-powered intelligence, we can move from simply reducing friction to building a truly proactive care platform, supporting Sarah not just in reacting faster, but in anticipating member needs before they escalate.