Merry Health: when fixing the UI wasn’t enough
When fixing the UI wasn’t enough.
The evidence
- critical and major workflow failures across six phases
- 15
- entries of the same case, on average
- 2–3×
- mismatch between final entries of one case
- 40%
- lost to manual driver coordination per dispatch, in 67% of emergencies
- 5–8min
When the system becomes the emergency.
Ritu is a hospital admin. Every ambulance request, every dispatch decision and every update flows through her, in moments where seconds matter.
A request didn’t enter a structured system. It began as a phone call, moved to WhatsApp as drivers replied, and only partly reached the dashboard. Whatever was missing had to be remembered.
So her job wasn’t just coordination. It was reconstruction: piecing one emergency back together from four places, under pressure.
- Phone callDetails spoken, often rushed or incomplete.
- WhatsAppDrivers, locations and clarifications.
- DashboardSome of it, some of the time.
- MemoryEverything that never got written down.
Six phases, mapped end to end.
It started as a usability audit of Add Ride, Ride Details, Dashboard and Reports. The screens had real problems, but they didn’t explain what was happening. So the audit widened to the whole operation, mapped against high-pressure cases, simultaneous requests and incomplete data.
- Intake
- Assignment
- Confirmation
- En route
- Handover
- Closure
Users weren’t avoiding the system because of poor UI alone. They were working outside it entirely.
The product expected structured, linear input. Real emergencies are fast, interrupted and incomplete. Screen fixes alone would have left that mismatch in place.
What was actually broken
Together, they made a system users couldn’t rely on.
From fixing interfaces to fixing how it works.
One source of truth
The dashboard became the authoritative record that drives operations, not a form filled in later.
One continuous flow
Intake, assignment, tracking, handover and closure, redesigned together for partial data and interruptions.
Data captured once
Designed for integrity from the moment information enters, so reporting and decisions can rely on it.
What I learned
UI issues are often symptoms.
Confusing forms and missing information were real, but fixing them alone would have been wasted effort.
Design for real pressure.
People in emergencies improvise and prioritise speed. Systems that resist that get abandoned.
Data flow is interaction design.
If information can’t move reliably between people, no amount of polish fixes the experience.
When users are forced to step outside the system to get things done, the system has already failed.