Revolutionising pharmacy software with customisable widget systems

Abstract

This thesis explores the concept of redesigning software for pharmacies, focusing on improving usability and workflow efficiency. Current software solutions present several challenges, including difficulty in daily use due to a complicated interface, limited multitasking capabilities, and a need for more user-friendly task management tools. Through interviews with pharmacy staff and an analysis of competing software, a widget system was conceptualised, iterated, and tested to address these issues.

This solution's primary target audience includes pharmacists, dispensers, provisors, rent-an-employee pharmacists, and other employees interacting with the software throughout their pharmacy workdays.

The research involved an in-depth study of pharmacy workflows in Finland and Germany to identify pain points, current trend analysis, and competitor software comparison. Additionally, secondary research explored potential areas for improvement outside the pharmaceutical field. Research methodologies include a series of interviews, service mapping, competitor analysis, and user tests. The research revealed many insights about pharmacy staff’s current workflows, such as the need for software that would influence employees’ efficiency, several unintegrated third-party programs, and the lack of notifications and system feedback in pharmacy software. Mastering software skills was also very complicated, and there was a lack of support for users and free training.

These insights influenced the design of a widget-based interface system that lets employees structure their workflows independently by configuring the workspace to suit their roles effectively. User testing of the prototype proved that widgets developed based on these insights positively influence the efficiency of user operations and work as intuitive tools with versatile applications for supporting everyday tasks.