← Work

Lighthouse

A mobile app for the nurses, technicians and managers who keep a hospital's medical devices working, designed for Borda

Year
2021
Track
design
Category
case-study

Lighthouse is the app a hospital's nurses, biomedical technicians and biomedical managers use to keep its medical devices working. I designed it for Borda in 2021, as the only designer, with two developers, a product manager and a head of product. It shipped to real users on iOS and Android. Borda still develops it. It is one of their flagship products, deployed in large hospitals.

Try the app

Where it started

When a device broke, reaching the right person meant endless phone calls and WhatsApp messages. Tasks were assigned to the wrong people, and health workers lost a lot of time. We learned this from interviews, a lot of field research in hospitals and customer tickets, and a beta program with one of the largest hospitals kept giving us feedback the whole way through.

The aim was that everybody knows what to do. Less for health workers to carry in their heads, so they can focus on people.

Three people, one set of data

The app has three roles, and they share one set of data. What one of them does shows up for the others as a change in a list and an alert.

  • The nurse reports a device that isn't working, confirms the fix, and accepts custody of devices on the ward. Not a device expert, and usually reporting in the middle of a shift.
  • The biomedical technician works the repair orders, the planned maintenance and the transfers between branches. The day is a queue, and the time spent on each task is logged.
  • The biomedical manager confirms and assigns incoming requests, keeps an eye on the team's open work, reviews retirement requests, schedules maintenance plans and handles contract renewals.

One action, three phones

The phone below runs a working prototype of the app. Pick someone and use it as them. Report a breakdown as the nurse, then switch to the manager, and the report is waiting to be assigned. Every hospital, person and request in it is made up, and a reload starts it over.

Use the app as

The nurse's Requests screen, with a banner asking them to confirm a closed repair above a list of active requests.

A report goes to a manager first. The manager assigns a technician, the technician gets the order, and the nurse hears who has it.

A report, three phones

The nurse's Requests list with the new Elisa 300 report tagged New and awaiting confirmation.
The nurse sends a report. It waits for a manager.
The manager's To confirm segment showing Leslie Alexander's Elisa 300 request next to a Macbook Pro 13 inch.
The manager finds it in To confirm.
The assign sheet for Leslie's Elisa 300 request, with Greg Simmons picked.
The manager assigns it to Greg Simmons.
The technician's Alerts with a new item: Breakdown order, just now, Elisa 300 in ICU 2B is assigned to you.
The technician gets the order in Alerts.
The nurse's Alerts with a new item: Request picked up, Greg Simmons will handle Elisa 300.
The nurse knows who has it without asking.

When a technician closes a repair, the person who reported it is asked “Is it working again?” and can confirm the fix or reopen it with a note. Doing nothing resolves it after two days, so a request can't stay open forever. A reopened order goes back to the same technician, with the note in a red banner at the top.

A fix that did not hold

The Elisa 300 order with status Awaiting approval and a note that Leslie Alexander needs to confirm the fix.
The technician closes the order.
The nurse's Requests screen with a banner: Is it working again? Greg Simmons closed the Elisa 300 request.
The nurse is asked if it works again.
A reopen form for the Elisa 300 with a note typed in, saying Greg Simmons gets the request back.
It doesn't, so the nurse reopens it with a note.
The Elisa 300 order with a red banner, Reopened by Leslie Alexander, and her note about the alarm.
The order comes back to the same technician, note on top.

Some devices can't be fixed. Closing an order as Cannot be solved opens a retirement request for the manager, and the technician hears the outcome in Alerts.

A device that cannot be fixed

Close reasons in the order's status bar, with Cannot be solved, opens a retirement request, ticked.
The technician closes the order as Cannot be solved.
The manager's Mine segment with the Magnetom Aera on top, marked To review and requested by Greg Simmons.
That opens a retirement request for the manager.
The Magnetom Aera retirement request: requested by Greg Simmons, the reason, the breakdown it came from, and Reject or Approve.
The request carries the reason and the breakdown.
The technician's Alerts with a new item: Retirement approved, Magnetom Aera is retired and removed from the active inventory.
The manager approves. The technician hears in Alerts.

Whose move is it

Every status colour answers one question: whose move is it? Grey is not started, blue is moving, amber is your move or on hold, purple is waiting on someone else, green is finished and red is a problem. So the same request is amber for the nurse, “Needs your approval”, and purple for the technician who closed it, “Awaiting approval”. Anyone can scan a list and see where they're needed.

In lists, status is a coloured dot and a word. Pills are kept for screen headers, and priority only shows when it's High.

A report in the middle of a shift

The nurse scans the device's code, checks it's the right one, and answers two questions: what's wrong, and can it still be used. Not usable raises the priority to High and marks the device Down everywhere it appears. Documents are optional, scanned with the camera. By default the report goes to a manager to confirm. The nurse can also pick people directly, and then they get the order straight away.

One primary action

Each screen has one primary action. The bottom bar holds actions only and goes away when there's nothing to do, since the header already shows the status. Sheets close with an × at the top, so the bottom only holds the primary action.

The technician's orders put this into one bar. Status, the time in that status and the next move sit together at the bottom of the order. Each state has one primary, Start, Close or Resume, with Pause as a smaller button beside it. Pausing asks what it's waiting for: parts, service or approval. Closing asks how it ended: completed, obsolete, or cannot be solved. Pulled up, the bar shows the total time split by status, which is what the time log needs.

Condition first

On every asset, condition comes first: Usable, Caution, Partial down, Down, Retirement requested or Retired. It follows the device's open breakdowns. Maintenance and calibration sit under it, each with a state and a date, and lists show them as two small icons at the end of the title line.

Left on the desktop

Contract renewals stay on desktop. On the phone the manager can see the contract and its files and set a reminder, and Renew explains that renewals happen on desktop and offers to email a link.

Screens

  1. Nurse — Report a breakdown

    The nurse's Requests home screen, with a banner asking her to confirm a closed repair and a list of active requests.
    A repair someone else closed, and a list coloured by whose move it is.
    The scanner screen prompting the nurse to point the camera at a device's QR code.
    Reporting a breakdown starts with scanning the device, not filling out a form first.
    A sheet confirming the scanned code matched the Elisa 300, asking if it's the right asset.
    The scan resolves to a specific device before any details are entered.
    The empty breakdown report form for the Elisa 300, with fields for the problem, documents and usability.
    The report asks only what's wrong and whether the device can still be used.
    The problem field with a description typed in and the keyboard open.
    The problem, in the nurse's own words.
    A captured document page shown as a service report thumbnail, with options to retake or save.
    Attaching evidence is optional and handled with the same camera flow as the QR scan.
    The completed report form with a document attached, "Usable" selected, and the send button enabled.
    Once usability is set, the request is ready to send to a manager.
    The Requests list with the new Elisa 300 report showing as active and awaiting confirmation.
    The sent request appears immediately in the nurse's own list.

  2. Nurse — Confirm or reopen a fix

    The nurse's Alerts screen showing a prompt to review a closed repair and a pending custody request.
    A closed repair comes back to the nurse as a question.
    The FRED Easyport request showing the original problem and asking if it was solved, with Not resolved and Resolved buttons.
    The nurse who reported the problem decides whether the fix actually worked.
    The Requests list with the FRED Easyport moved to a Resolved section.
    Confirming the fix moves it to Resolved.
    A reopen form asking what's still wrong, with a note typed in.
    Reopening asks what is still wrong.
    The Requests list showing the FRED Easyport back in the active list, marked Reopened in red.
    A reopened request goes straight back to the same technician.

  3. Nurse — Accept or deny custody

    The nurse's Tasks screen with one item, a custody request for the Elisa 600 needing her answer.
    A custody request waits in Tasks for the nurse's answer.
    The custody request screen explaining that accepting makes the nurse responsible for the Elisa 600.
    The request spells out what accepting actually means before she can act on it.
    An accept sheet where the nurse has typed ACCEPT to confirm taking custody.
    Accepting makes the nurse responsible for the device, so it takes typing ACCEPT.
    The Elisa 600 asset screen showing Leslie Alexander as the current custodian.
    Once accepted, the nurse is the recorded custodian.
    A deny sheet with four reasons for declining custody, one selected.
    Denying needs a reason.
    The nurse's Tasks screen showing an empty state, "Great! No open tasks."
    After denying, the task clears from her list.

  4. The Elisa 300 asset screen showing a Caution status, maintenance due soon, and calibration done.
    Condition, maintenance and calibration are shown together on every asset.
  5. A red scan result reading "Asset not found" with contact details for the biomedical manager.
    An unrecognised code still gives the nurse someone to contact.

  6. Technician — Work a breakdown order

    Tasks list with an Elisa 300 breakdown marked High priority.
    The technician's day starts as a queue, split into In progress and To do.
    Elisa 300 order screen, status Open, bar showing "Waiting to start" with a Start button.
    The task status bar sits at the bottom of every order with one primary action.
    Breakdown type sheet listing five causes, from Electronic malfunction to Other.
    Before starting work, the technician records what kind of fault it is.
    Order screen with the bar now reading In progress, Internal intervention, with a live timer.
    Starting the task begins a timer that runs until it's closed or paused.
    Add cost sheet for a secondary pump, 348 dollars, paid by Internal.
    Parts and costs are logged against the order as work happens.
    Order screen showing the logged cost and an attached invoice PDF.
    Costs and documents live on the order.
    Expanded status bar showing total time split across Open, In progress and Paused, with Closed selected and "Successfully completed" checked.
    Closing a task means picking how it ended, not just marking it done.
    Order screen showing status Awaiting approval and a note that Leslie Alexander needs to confirm the fix.
    Closing hands the decision back to the nurse who reported it.

  7. Technician — Close maintenance in bulk

    Heinen Löwenstein 2020 maintenance plan, 0 of 12 assets done, with a live list of covered assets.
    A maintenance plan bundles many devices under one contract and due date.
    Selection mode with 12 of 12 assets selected.
    The technician can act on many subtasks at once instead of one by one.
    Bulk actions sheet: Change status, Upload document, Set maintenance expiry date, Edit assignment.
    The same four actions apply whether one subtask is selected or all twelve.
    Close 12 subtasks sheet asking whether the technician has the documents yet.
    Closing asks whether the documents are in hand.
    Upload sheet offering one document for all 12 subtasks, split into maintenance and non-maintenance documents.
    One uploaded file can cover every device in the batch.
    Maintenance expiry date sheet with "In 6 months" suggested and selected.
    The next expiry date is set as the work closes.
    Plan screen showing Completed, 12 of 12, with every asset listed under Completed with its new expiry date.
    A finished plan shows exactly when each device is due again.

  8. Technician — Receive a transfer

    Incoming transfer screen for an Infusomat Space, sender marked Sent, receiver Not received yet.
    A transfer between branches shows both sides' status until it's confirmed.
    Scanner with a green frame reading "Code matches", asking if this is the asset received.
    Receiving a transfer starts with confirming the device by its code.
    Confirm sheet with the serial number typed in and "Matches the asset record" shown.
    A typed serial number is the second check before the transfer completes.
    Infusomat Space asset screen now located at ICU 2B.
    Once confirmed, the record shows where the device is now.

  9. Status bar reading Paused, Waiting for service, with a Resume button.
    Pausing asks why, so a stalled task still shows what it's waiting on.
  10. Expanded status bar showing total time and a breakdown across Open, In progress and Paused.
    Pulled up, the bar becomes a time log for the task.
  11. Tasks screen with an empty state reading "No tasks match these filters" and a Clear filters button.
    An empty result after filtering still tells the technician how to get back to a full list.

  12. Manager — Confirm and assign a request

    The manager's Tasks screen on the To confirm segment, showing one Macbook Pro 13 inch breakdown reported by Darrell Steward.
    New breakdown requests wait in their own segment until the manager assigns them.
    The Macbook Pro 13 inch request showing the problem, priority and an Assign technician button.
    The manager sees what the reporter entered.
    An assign sheet listing four technicians, with Greg Simmons picked.
    Assigning names one technician and previews what will happen next.
    The To confirm segment now empty, reading "Nothing to confirm."
    Once assigned, a request clears from the manager's queue immediately.
    The Team segment listing five open tasks, each with its assigned technician.
    Team shows the manager the whole group's workload at a glance.
    A reassign sheet for the Macbook Pro 13 inch, moving it from Greg Simmons to Jane Cooper.
    Reassigning starts from the same task.

  13. Manager — Review a retirement request

    The manager's Mine segment with a maintenance plan, a contract renewal and an IntelliVue MX450 retirement marked To review.
    A manager's list mixes plans, contracts and requests that all need a decision.
    The IntelliVue MX450 retirement request showing the reason from Jane Cooper and Reject or Approve buttons.
    A retirement request carries the technician's reasoning before the manager acts on it.
    A confirmation alert asking "Retire IntelliVue MX450?" with Cancel and Retire asset.
    Retiring a device is a deliberate second step, not a single tap.
    The Done segment showing IntelliVue MX450 marked Approved.
    A decided request moves to Done so the active lists stay current.
    The IntelliVue MX450 asset screen showing condition Retired and Report breakdown disabled.
    Once retired, the asset record itself reflects that it's out of service.
    A reject sheet with three reasons, "Needed until a replacement arrives" selected.
    Rejecting a retirement still records why the device stays in service.

  14. The Assets list for Northgate Hospital, each row showing a condition dot and maintenance and calibration icons.
    The asset list surfaces condition and upkeep status without opening each device.
  15. An alert reading "Let's get to the desktop version," explaining that contract renewals happen in Lighthouse on desktop, with Not now and Email link.
    Renewals are one task the phone deliberately hands off to desktop.
  16. The Requests home screen in dark mode, with the same banner and active list as the light version.
    The Requests home in dark mode.
  17. The Elisa 300 asset screen in dark mode, condition and maintenance rows still legible.
    The asset screen in dark mode.
  18. The in-progress Elisa 300 order in dark mode, the task bar and its live timer at the foot.
    The task bar in dark mode.
  19. The IntelliVue MX450 retirement request in dark mode, with Reject and Approve at the foot.
    A retirement request in dark mode.

More case studies

See all 27