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Philips · 2020

Designing for life-critical decisions under pressure

Hospital dashboards built under COVID-19 pressure and used in dimly lit rooms. Dark mode wasn’t aesthetic. It was clinical.

10

brazilian hospitals in research & co-design

iF

Design Award 2021 international recognition

<10s

time to reach a clinical decision per widget

24h

clinical settings dark mode for continuous use

Results & Business Impact

The platform reached hospitals at the peak of the crisis.

The Patient Flow Capacity Suite was deployed across Brazilian hospitals during one of the most critical moments in the country’s healthcare history. By increasing operational visibility, it helped clinical teams reduce bed turnaround time and manage patient flow across COVID wards.

The tool also earned a high contrast Dark Mode that reduced eye strain during long shifts, a direct response to field research and a feature that later influenced the broader Tasy design system.

iF Design Award 2021

International recognition in the Healthcare category, one of the most respected honours in the global design industry.

10+ hospitals deployed

Research conducted across 10 Brazilian hospital sites. The platform was adopted and used in production during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Reactive → proactive operations

Forecasting screens enabled teams to anticipate peak admission demand and plan discharges, reducing operational friction when it mattered most.

10+ hospitals deployed

Research conducted across 10 Brazilian hospital sites. The platform was adopted and used in production during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Reactive → proactive operations

Forecasting screens enabled teams to anticipate peak admission demand and plan discharges, reducing operational friction when it mattered most.

Challenges

Decisions were being made in the dark.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Brazilian hospitals were managing bed allocation, ICU transfers, and discharge planning using fragmented and outdated information. Nurses and floor coordinators had no unified real time view of patient flow.

The biggest friction was not missing data, but the time required to understand it under pressure. When every second counts in an emergency ward, a dashboard that requires interpretation is a dashboard that fails.

To understand real needs, I conducted:

Embedded in the Philips team.
10 hospitals. One system.

My role

UX Lead embedded in the Philips design team. I owned the full process from hospital fieldwork through final development handoff, bridging clinical workflows and engineering.

Research & validation

Fieldwork with clinical specialists across 10 Brazilian hospitals. I observed rounds, handoffs, and critical moments to understand how data was actually consumed under pressure.

My role

UX Lead embedded in the Philips design team. I owned the full process from hospital fieldwork through final development handoff, bridging clinical workflows and engineering.

Research & validation

Fieldwork with clinical specialists across 10 Brazilian hospitals. I observed rounds, handoffs, and critical moments to understand how data was actually consumed under pressure.

Ideation & Design

Every widget had to earn its place on screen.

Dark mode as an accessibility decision, not aesthetics.

Clinical environments operate 24 hours a day, with monitors positioned in dimly lit rooms. Dark mode was not added as a feature, but designed from the ground up as the primary interface, with contrast ratios validated for extended use during night shifts and prolonged exposure.

Charts as decision triggers.

Every widget was designed around a specific clinical action. “How many beds are available?” led to one number and one visual signal. “Who is ready for discharge?” became one prioritised list. If it did not support a decision, it did not belong on screen.

Forecasting admission rates.

Beyond real time visibility, I designed screens that allowed hospitals to model bed availability and anticipate peak demand, helping clinical teams move from reactive to proactive management before a crisis occurred.

Dark mode as an accessibility decision, not aesthetics.

Clinical environments operate 24 hours a day, with monitors positioned in dimly lit rooms. Dark mode was not added as a feature, but designed from the ground up as the primary interface, with contrast ratios validated for extended use during night shifts and prolonged exposure.

Charts as decision triggers.

Every widget was designed around a specific clinical action. “How many beds are available?” led to one number and one visual signal. “Who is ready for discharge?” became one prioritised list. If it did not support a decision, it did not belong on screen.

Forecasting admission rates.

Beyond real time visibility, I designed screens that allowed hospitals to model bed availability and anticipate peak demand, helping clinical teams move from reactive to proactive management before a crisis occurred.

What I Learned

The best design decision was removing a feature.

Working with clinical specialists taught me that in high-stakes environments, information density is the enemy. The best design decision I made wasn’t adding a feature — it was removing one. Every element that remained on screen had to earn its place by reducing the time between “I need to know something” and “I know it.”

Designing for 24-hour environments also changed how I think about accessibility. Dark mode stopped being a visual preference and became a clinical requirement — that shift in framing changed every decision that followed.

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