Cosign

Cosign came out of an interview process — I thought this'd be a breeze, but boy was I wrong. The brief was a patient chart portal for a family clinic… and that's about the only simple thing about it. Two views and access levels, timed access that expires, a notes lifecycle, and an audit view only the physician can see. Came together in roughly 5 days.

I'd never designed anything like this, and it had to function just as good as it looked. I wasted a full day designing a chart from scratch — nothing worked, just ugly charts out of a 1980's textbook. So I went a different route and built it brick by brick: make the small parts look pretty and work well, then slot them together. I leaned on a weird mix of references — Google's styling and an art auction house's type — and landed on this type-forward, bento style grid that just worked. If I was a physician, this is the chart I'd want.

A quick demo of how I pulled off the “two view / two levels of access” thing. I leaned hard on these row “footers” — they didn't technically change the chart, but they carried the context and functionality I needed.

Now some of the fun stuff… the restricted access. The PA can see there's a restricted result — maybe he'd want to request it to give proper care — while the confidential note stays physician-only. Easy enough conceptually… whatever. But once that first layer is built and you run through it, you notice a new issue every time. Small stuff mostly, but that's what drives you nuts.

Now the notes and audit duo… thankfully the last things I built, so they slotted into an almost fully designed system. I gave them both a home in the bottom corners. Notes get a few handoffs and a lifecycle, plus a physician-only confidential note — and the audit tab is… well… just an audit tab with a few more features. Even at 90% done I spent more time on the last 10% than the first 90%… story of my life.