Healthcare · Interface Design

Radiology Console

Redesigning a fragmented radiology workflow to reduce cognitive load, streamline safety checks, and give radiologists confidence in high-stakes clinical decisions.

My RoleSolo Product Designer

TypeHealthcare Interface · Concept

DomainClinical Radiology · DICOM Workflows

YearPersonal Project

ToolsFigma · FigJam · Notion

Radiology Console — Modality Worklist on desktop and laptop

Overview

The ProblemFragmented radiology workflows increase cognitive load, making it harder to manage safety checks, detect anomalies early, and act with confidence.

My RoleSolo designer — research, problem framing, systems mapping, interaction design, and concept prototype.

MethodsDomain research, Clinical workflow mapping, Progressive disclosure design, Accessibility audit

ImpactImproved workflow efficiency, reduced cognitive load, and increased confidence in high-stakes radiology decision-making.

Context

The Weight of Clinical Decisions

Radiologists operate in one of the highest-stakes environments in healthcare. Every scan they read can directly influence a patient's diagnosis, treatment path, and outcome. Yet the software tools they use daily are often built around legacy architectures — dense, fragmented, and optimised for data storage rather than clinical decision-making.

This project was born from a deep interest in how design thinking can be applied to life-critical domains. I spent four weeks studying radiology workflows, reading clinical literature, and speaking to two radiologist consultants to understand the real friction points in their daily practice.

"I'm switching between 5 different windows just to complete a single safety checklist. By the time I'm done, I've lost the scan context."

The cost of fragmentation here isn't just efficiency — it's patient safety. Cognitive overload in clinical settings directly correlates with missed findings and diagnostic errors.

Challenges

Designing for Life-Critical Clarity

Cognitive Overload

Radiologists were managing scan viewing, safety checklists, annotation tools, and reporting — all in separate disconnected windows, requiring constant context switching throughout each case.

Anomaly Visibility

Early anomaly signals were buried in dense data tables with no visual prioritisation. Critical findings competed equally with routine observations, making triage judgment harder.

Safety Check Compliance

Mandatory safety checklists were separate from the scan viewer, causing radiologists to mentally toggle between the visual scan and the checklist — increasing error risk under time pressure.

Step 01 Domain Immersion Read clinical literature on radiologist error patterns, studied DICOM standards, and conducted 2 in-depth interviews with practicing radiologists to map their real-world workflows end to end.

Step 02 Systems Architecture Mapped the full case lifecycle — intake, scan loading, annotation, checklist, reporting — and identified 9 context switches that could be collapsed into a unified workspace model.

Step 03 Interface Design Designed a unified console with an inline safety-check panel, contextual anomaly alerts, and a persistent case timeline. Conducted accessibility audit for contrast and focus states.

Solution

A Unified Clinical Console

The redesigned Radiology Console places the scan viewer at the centre, with contextual panels that dock and collapse based on the current task. The safety checklist lives directly alongside the scan — not in a separate application — so radiologists can complete each safety check while maintaining visual context on the scan.

Anomaly detection signals are surfaced as inline highlights on the scan with colour-coded severity levels. Critical findings float to the top of a persistent sidebar that updates in real time as the radiologist moves through slices.

A case timeline at the bottom tracks progress through each required step, making the radiologist's position in the workflow always visible — reducing the anxiety of "did I miss something?"