Missing context
Inconsistent titles and notes made recordings difficult to identify.
MEDSIM · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Clinical video
database redesign.
Making a clinical simulation archive easier to search, organize, and share.
- My contribution
- Information architecture
Usability testing
Selected UI design - Team
- 3 designers
- Timeline
- Sep 2022–Jan 2023
- Deliverable
- High-fidelity prototype
FROM RECORDINGS TO RESOURCES
One archive.
Four perspectives.
Students · Faculty · Researchers · Technicians
- 01FindSearch relevant recordings
- 02ReviewWatch and take notes
- 03Collect & shareReturn to useful material
Within a three-person team, I focused on information architecture and usability testing, and contributed to part of the interface design.
01 / THE PROBLEM
Even finding one video
was a challenge.
Older simulation recordings lived in Google Drive. Their searchable information lived in a separate spreadsheet. Finding a recording meant switching between both.
- 01
Google SheetsSearch the spreadsheet
Find a matching record.
- 02Recording date
Copy the date
Use it to locate the session.
- 03
Google DriveFind the Drive folder
Switch tools and search again.
- 04Video file
Identify the video
Interpret camera-generated filenames.
A workflow to learn
Users needed to understand the spreadsheet, folder structure, and naming conventions.
Access depended on others
Students often relied on faculty or technicians to retrieve videos.
Based on interviews with a faculty member and a technician, plus an observed search session with a graduate student.
02 / INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
Different roles and needs.
Bringing their workflows together.
The archive needed to support people using the recordings and the people maintaining them.
Students
Find and review relevant simulation recordings.
Faculty
Assemble and share material for teaching.
Researchers
Collect recordings across sessions and years.
Technicians
Maintain video information and manage access.
Learning & research
Find → Review → Collect → Share
Archive management
Upload → Describe → Maintain → Manage access
03 / DESIGN DECISIONS
Make the archive useful,
one decision at a time.
01 / SEARCH
Start with searchable content.
We prioritized metadata and audio transcription, balancing search usefulness with processing cost. Image search and AI-generated tags remained secondary options.
PRIORITIZEMetadata + transcripts
Build on structured information and spoken content.
EXPLORE SECONDImage search + AI tags
Powerful options with greater processing cost.
View the original search trade-off diagram
02 / ORGANIZATION
Keep useful recordings together.
Collections give teaching and research work a place to continue: save relevant videos, return to them, and share the selected material.
- Find relevant videos
- Save to a collection
- Return or share
03 / MANAGEMENT
A dedicated path for technicians.
Managing the archive requires different tools from browsing it. We separated content and account management from the learning workflow.
ContentUpload recordings
Update metadata
Update metadata
AccessManage accounts
Review permissions
Review permissions
04 / USABILITY TESTING
Watching was clear.
Taking notes was not.
Five participants tested the general-user paper prototype. The viewing-and-note-taking task exposed the greatest difficulty.
Log in14/15
Search: anesthesia view13/15
Add to collection12/15
View video & take notes8/15
Copy shareable link14/15
Task rating scale: 3 = completed easily · 2 = completed with difficulty · 1 = could not complete.
FINDING → DESIGN CHANGE
Make note-taking discoverable.
Two participants could not complete the task; three struggled. The report identified confusion about where to take notes.
Final prototype responseOne entry point for notes and comments.
TECHNICIAN WORKFLOW · 1 PARTICIPANT
Make the entrance explicit.
The mid-fidelity test revealed difficulty finding the role-specific login. The final prototype added the label “technician portal.”
What still needed work
Upload and metadata-update sequences required learning. Clearer guidance and testing with experienced clinical users remained important next steps.
05 / FINAL DESIGN
A connected archive
for clinical learning.
The high-fidelity prototype brings search, video review, collections, and management into one system.
01 / FIND
Search with useful context.
Combine keywords, dates, and recording views. Highlighted matches help users scan the results.
02 / REVIEW
Keep the recording and its context close.
Camera angles, comments, and transcription are available within the video detail page.
03 / MANAGE
A workspace for maintaining the archive.
Technicians can review video records and access management actions from a dedicated workspace.
What I took forward
Information structure and discoverability need to work together. Making a video searchable is only the beginning; users also need clear ways to review, save, and share it.
The project concluded with a high-fidelity prototype. Testing did not include medical specialists; production performance was not evaluated.