Cardinal Health
A UX Case Study (2017)
OVERVIEW
Cardinal Health is a massive distributer of medical-related products. Independence Medical, a B2B operation owned by the company asked my UX team to redesign functionality from the website and improve the experience in key site locations.
MY ROLE
UX Designer
Interaction design, prototyping and wireframes
Research, analysis and reporting
RESULTS
The project was incredibly successful and allowed us to implement a new unit of measure functionality which allows users to quickly and easily selection products. In addition the entire browse, purchase and checkout experience was optimized.
Designed for Cardinal Health.
PROBLEM
Cardinal Health company Independence Medical needed new design and functionality to account for 35,000 SKUs on their B2B site.
"The site is old. It gets the job done but it can be a lot of work."
"I have no visibility of any orders that I put into the system - I have to call to get information!"
"If I'm looking for a box I specifically have to find that Box SKU - it is time consuming."
HOW MIGHT WE
Redesign the Independence Medical site with unit selection functionality?
OVERVIEW

Old Site, New Tricks

More than a coat of paint. This project was a yearlong process to refresh a Cardinal Health owned B2B medical supplies website called Independence Medical with new functionality and specifically to implement a product-size selector for all 30,000 products with multiple sizes.
Project Goals
1
Redesign and update the shopping experience.
2
Implement a unit of measure selector for 30,000 items.
3
Streamline and simplify the checkout experience.
4
Increase year-over-year sales 10%.
My Role
My role on this project started as a UX consultant and ended with getting hired full-time for the UX role. My previous position at a usability agency primed me for not only the user research aspects of the gig but also the interaction design and prototyping needs that the project required.
User Insights
I worked with multiple purchasers of Cardinal Health products to understand and identify needs, pain points and solutions for the new website.
UX Strategy
Worked with both internal business leads and external users to define requirements, wireframes and a working prototype for usability testing.
UX Design
The UX team pushed for UX testing and was able to test usability of the prototype which was immensely helpful in tightening it up before development.
Usability Testing
Planning, coordinating and executing usability testing sessions and reporting using best-in-class methodologies which allowed for quick iteration that ultimately improved the product.
Project Summary
UX project to design and deliver an iOS app for the Camping World sales team.
My Role
UX Lead, Project Management, Wireframes, Interaction Design, User Research and Analysis. The design team on this was a vendor partner UI Designer and myself.
Introduction
Camping World is a leading retail company that sells RVs across the USA. This project was a multi-part project to design an iOS application built on the back of Salesforce that employees can use to manage the sales process.
The Challenge
Sales associates had been using the out-of-the-box Salesforce and were very confused by it. The challenge was to provide a tool built on the back of Salesforce that was simple to use and effective in sales.
Discovery
tl;dr The UX team created a prototype to test with users with the goal of concept validation and usability testing the designs.
Executive Summary
Prologue
Summary Video
Short on time? Please take a look at the 6 minute video overview below to fill in any gaps and provide a bite-size overview of the project.
User Research
Initial user research sessions with 8 purchasers and 4 Directors was conducted via remote sessions to determine how users were working with the site. The sessions focused on both learning about process as well as usability testing with the in-progress prototype.
50+ Insights Learned
Through the prototype usability testing the UX team was able to learn many insights from users and how they used the system. These findings directly influenced the project requirements.
Remote Usability Testing
The method we chose to use was remote usability testing for quickness and efficiency in getting user feedback. The prototype was created along with a session guide and we tested 8 users and got great feedback.
USER QUOTE
"Search is the worst! It is so bad that I don’t use Search at all, we only go through WebExpress. I have never even searched for an item before because you can't find anything no matter what you search."
~ Avelis, Purchaser
USER QUOTE
"To add a product I need to locate it, find the right SKU and then add it to the order. It becomes a nightmare when I have a list of over 100 products to purchase."
~ Brian, Purchaser
USER QUOTE
"I put in an order and I literally have to call to see where it is at - that is pretty bad. My customers then get mad at me because they need supplies and I have no idea where their order is at!”
~ Chris, Director
Key Findings
Below is the summary of issue themes that were learned through the contextual interviews with RV Sales Associates during the Discovery process.
NO ORDER TRACKING
Users reported no way for users to track drop shipped orders drop shipped which adds frustration and confusion.
OUTDATED SITE
Users reported that the outdated style of UI conventions used on the site were reducing site efficiency.
FINDABILITY ISSUES
Users reported that every item has multiple SKUs so it takes time sifting through multiple similar products to find the right one.
SEARCH ISSUES
Users reported issues with  search functionality and being unable to locate items consistently.
Design
tl;dr The UX team continued to refine the prototype and all the shopping and checkout screens while working with users.
Design Process
The designs began as sketches and moved to static wireframes which were iterated into a final working prototype. The process of working with the business to share designs and ensure all requirements were met and product usability were high were of utmost importance.
Sketching
Sketching is a great way to get the bad ideas iterated into decent ideas with minimal effort. I always start with sketching or white boarding to get the basic foundation down.
Wireframes
Wireframes in this case allowed me to build on my sketches with a bit more fidelity and subsequently get them in front of users for feedback.
Prototype
Once the structure was nailed down, the interaction design was layered in using a prototype designed in Axure (my favorite for IxD) and for user testing.
DESIGN PROCESS
1. Wireframes
DESIGN PROCESS
2. Prototype
DESIGN PROCESS
3. Prototyping
DESIGN PROCESS
4. Prototypes
Personas
Piecing People Together. Personas were borne from the contextual interviews and understanding the business process to a higher fidelity. Armed with that knowledge we then understood what problems we were trying to solve for Sales Associates and who we were ultimately designing with in mind.
Camping World Sales Associate
Josh the Super Salesman | 47
"I just want to talk to customers. All I want or need is an RV model and a phone number and I'll take it from there."
AGE
25-47
OCCUPATION
Sales Associate
INCOME
50-75k
TECHNICAL
Mid-Low
Overview
Sales Associates are the face of Camping World. They are motivated by selling and communicating with customers. They have little interest in busy-work associated with sales CRMs and believe that slows them down.
Overall they dislike Salesforce and feel it does not support them in their processes. More than that however, they do not believe they need a platform to help them with their role.
Needs
  • Simple, quick designs that enable them to reduce time in the system
  • Design should be non-intrusive to their sales process
  • Design that should be 'lightweight' and quick
Frustrations
  • Navigational issues within Salesforce
  • Time on task for each 'Activity' required
  • Hidden information and the need to find it
  • Too many options leads to paralysis and rebellion
DESIGN
Sketching Solutions
Putting Ideas to Sketchpad. Sketches were used to get the basic layout of the app completed ahead of moving pixels. Below are some examples of sketching done prior to moving toward a finalized design. The purpose here was to get the basic flow and layout structure before wireframing.
Prototypes
A Higher Fidelity.  For this project instead of wireframes, we chose a prototype to focus on the interaction design of the app. The overall flow would be worked out in mini-user research sessions with Sales Associates. The intent was to reduce the amount of information and time associated with all activities in the app and provide everything in 4 simple tabs: Tasks, Customers, Communicator and Showroom.
View Prototype
Design Solutions
Salesforce presented a lot of issues for users. The UX team wanted to reduce the complexity and simplify the experience into an easy-to-use pocket sized app. The solutions below are some highlights that directly resolved some of the most common pain points.
Design Solution
Search Result Upgrades
One central focus and customer complaint was that search results were unusable. For this project, we improved the experience of Search. Search results were updated from a list-view and presented in a grid-view which the customers loved. In addition, we added a new Quick View functionality to allow quick and easy purchasing from the results page. The result was a slick experience that was unheard of on a B2B website.
Design Solution
Size Selector Functionality
The other big focus of this project was implementing functionality for selecting SKU size selection functionality. The benefit for users that it simplified the ordering process. Due to the new interaction design when you hovered over boxes you received information about size count and price. Users really appreciated it and are still using it to this day - 4 years later.
Design Solution
Order Tracking Functionality
Customers were vocal about the issue of needing to call to get an order status rather than visiting the website. It was unheard of and the company lost customers with the lack of order transparency. With this project we were able to implement a system to allow our customers to review and track their dropshipped orders to determine when they would arrive to their own customers - in realtime!
Design Solution
Inventory View
The remaining pain point that we intended to fix during this project was to add an inventory View. Prior to the project there was no way for customers to understand how many of a product was in stock to be ordered. We added a tabbed interface that allowed real-time updating of stock numbers for products.
Screen Flows
Overall Screen Composition and Flows. The app was deceptively simple but had a lot of avenues users could go down to complete tasks. The workflows were prototyped and determined during and below are wireframes showing the first and second navigational levels of the app from the prototype.
Camping World Prototype Screen Flow
The USERS
The users detailed below are the users who the solution was designed with in mind. Below is some relevant information about them and their personas.
Camping World Sales Associate

Camping World Sales Associates

Testing
tl;dr I managed the planning and usability testing for the project and was able to get some helpful feedback for refining the initial version.
Usability Testing
We did a couple rounds of usability testing and and kept collecting feedback. The sessions were always illuminating and they were typically conducted via observing and remote facilitation.
TYPE
Usability
PARTICIPANTS
10
TYPE
Purchasers
FINDINGS
25+
USER QUOTE
"I love the Inventory Details! Before this, I would have to pretend like I was buying an item and add it to my cart to check warehouse information. I really like that I can see it all here.”
USER QUOTE
"Search results is a lot more organized! I like that there are a lot more details in ilike the selector and new icons – that helps a lot as far as seeing pricing and details like that.”
USER QUOTE
"WebExpress looks more user-friendly now. Before, I would have to click ‘Continue Shopping’ to use it at this point. I like that you can quick add right here!"
USER QUOTE
"You all have made it so much easier to find items. I'm so excited that there is a way to easily select a size without having to go through and search each one, then make my selection."
Project Results
The Results. The usability testing and initial release of the app went very well. Sales Associates were thrilled with the ability to communicate with customers in the app. The simplification of the Salesforce UI helped to increase usability and efficiency across the board.
7%
YEAR SALES INCREASE
Site upgrades allow customers to find more and subsequently purchase more than the old site.
09
AVG SALES PER ORDER
Site upgrades reduce friction and allow customers to order quicker and with more frequency.
12
REDESIGNED EXPERIENCES
Including Search, Shopping Cart, Quick View, Product Details and the overall shopping experience.
35
CONSOLIDATED PRODUCTS
Consolidated from multiple sized SKUs to a single SKU with multiple sizes allowing easier shopping and inventory.
16
PAGE TEMPLATES
Designed by the UX team to cover the gamut of insurance products and services.
06
MONTHS
From pushing pixels with wireframes and prototypes to live deployment for customer use.
05
SELF SERVICE TOOLS
Tools for customers to use including Agent Finder, Career Portal, Size Up Tool, Payment Tool.
01
AWARDS RECEIVED
Recipient of the Silver 'ADDY' award (American Advertising Awards) for the new branding and design.
The IMPACT
The Independence Medical site was refreshed and redesigned. Customers were happy and the company was happy. The site was still built on old architecture but it had a new coat of paint and increased usability. The site also adhered better to the business processes of it's customers resulting in revenue increases across the board.
What did you think of this case study?
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