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Improving usability and personalization for a pharmaceutical sales enablement platform. Note: This is an ongoing project and therefore will not include any images.
March 2026~present
UX/UI Designer
Global pharmaceutical
company
Figma
Powerpoint
Product Owner
UX Designer
Copywriter
Account Team
Current Digital Sales Products (DSPs, a product shown on an Ipad) were primarily designed as static presentations, often exceeding 100 pages of medical content. While global versions had introduced more interactive and modern experiences, the Japanese version had remained largely content-focused.
Healthcare representatives often have limited time with physicians (sometimes as little as 15 minutes), creating a need for a more efficient way to communicate complex medical information.
The challenge was: How might we help healthcare representatives deliver more relevant and digestible information while maintaining the accuracy and compliance requirements of pharmaceutical communication?
As the UX designer on the project, I evaluated the current DSP experience, explored opportunities for improving usability and navigation, proposed new interaction patterns, and validated concepts through user testing with healthcare representatives.
Before proposing new features, I reviewed existing Japanese DSPs, global examples, and technical capabilities with the development team to understand the current experience, limitations, and opportunities for improvement.
Research Areas
Existing Japanese DSPs
Reviewed current structures and content organization to understand common patterns and pain points.
Identified opportunities to improve navigation and reduce the effort required to locate relevant information during physician conversations.
Global DSP Examples
Analyzed global versions to explore more interactive approaches, including personalization, flexible navigation, and richer content interactions.
Evaluated which features could realistically be adapted for the Japanese market.
Technical Exploration
Collaborated with the Canada development team to understand available capabilities, technical constraints, and existing feature libraries.
Mapped potential UX improvements against what could realistically be implemented.
Internal Feature Guidelines
Reviewed the DSP playbook to understand approved interaction patterns and available components.
1. A linear, content-heavy experience increased cognitive load
Existing Japanese DSPs often followed a traditional presentation format, requiring representatives to navigate through long sequences of pages to find relevant information.
Opportunity:
Create a more flexible experience that allows representatives to quickly access the most relevant content based on each physician interaction.
2. One DSP needed to support different conversation scenarios
Representatives may have limited time with physicians, sometimes only 15 minutes, but still need access to comprehensive medical information.
Opportunity:
Enable multiple content pathways that support different needs:
Quick overview for shorter conversations
Narrative-based journey for guided discussions
Full content access when deeper information is required
3. Existing interactions had opportunities for better information discovery
Compared to global DSPs, Japanese versions had fewer interactive elements, making complex information harder to navigate.
Opportunity:
Explore interaction patterns such as:
Expandable sections
Contextual information
Personalized content paths
Improved navigation structures
Based on the opportunities identified during discovery, I explored new interaction patterns to improve navigation, personalization, and content consumption within the DSP experience.
I created an interactive Figma prototype using dummy medical content to demonstrate potential UX improvements while maintaining confidentiality requirements.
The prototype explored concepts including:
Persona-based content journeys
Alternative navigation structures
Interactive elements to reduce unnecessary pages
More flexible ways to access detailed medical information
Before development, I collaborated with the Product Owner and Account team to define testing objectives and create a user testing plan.
Since an iPad environment was not available due to administrative constraints, we adapted the prototype into an interactive PDF to simulate the intended experience.
The goal was to understand:
Could healthcare representatives intuitively navigate the experience?
Would personalized content paths better support physician conversations?
Which interactions improved usability, and which created unnecessary complexity?
To observe natural user behavior, participants were first asked to explore the prototype independently with minimal guidance.
This allowed us to identify:
Where users expected information to be located
Which interactions were intuitive
Where additional explanation was needed
After exploration, we gathered feedback from healthcare representatives regarding their workflow needs and preferences.
User feedback helped validate some concepts while challenging others.
Persona-based journeys improved storytelling
The pilot prototype received overall positive feedback from healthcare representatives, particularly around the more narrative and personalized approach.
Following testing, I refined the experience with the Product Owner and Copywriter. The updated concept will be handed off to the medical design team for further development.
© 2026 Crystal Ma. All rights reserved.