PRODUCT DESIGN AND AI

Designing the brain

of the simulation center

How I turned a passive system of record into an active system of orchestration for clinical simulation centers — from discovery to handoff — using AI agents embedded in the design process to accelerate MVP deployment without sacrificing research rigor or systems thinking.

A benefit card can be a barrier during the day, simply by not having the flexibility of balances and transferring money from one account to another. Niky came precisely to solve this problem.

Scope of Work

User Interface
User Experience
AI Oriented
Dashboard

Duration

7 Months

Team

Felipe Hoffmann
Daniel Simoes
Yumi Jeon
Brent Palmer

a person wearing a baseball cap
a person wearing a baseball cap

THE CHALLENGE

THE CHALLENGE

The project kicked off in February with a fixed deadline: launch the MVP in August for the first partner U.S. universities.


Six months from a blank slate — discovery, product definition, design system, and handoff — to being live for the start of the academic term.

Context

Context

An industry still running on paper and Outlook
An industry still running on paper and Outlook

The market's legacy product was a "system of record": it documented what happened, but didn't help anyone run the day. Coordinating people, rooms, and simulation equipment still relied on spreadsheets, emails, and printed checklists — and any delay could collapse the entire day's schedule.

The market's legacy product was a "system of record": it documented what happened, but didn't help anyone run the day. Coordinating people, rooms, and simulation equipment still relied on spreadsheets, emails, and printed checklists — and any delay could collapse the entire day's schedule.

FRAGMENTATION
FRAGMENTATION
Tool chaos
Tool chaos

Outlook, Excel, and paper coexisting to schedule rooms, standardized patients, and equipment — with manual copy-pasting between them.

Outlook, Excel, and paper coexisting to schedule rooms, standardized patients, and equipment — with manual copy-pasting between them.

CASCADE EFFECT
CASCADE EFFECT
One delay derails the day
One delay derails the day

A session running over time or a double-booked room compromises the center's entire schedule, with no early warning.

A session running over time or a double-booked room compromises the center's entire schedule, with no early warning.

OVERLOAD
OVERLOAD
Burned-out faculty
Burned-out faculty

Faculty grading sessions manually late into the night, with no automation support — a burnout pattern that threatens the whole operation.

Faculty grading sessions manually late into the night, with no automation support — a burnout pattern that threatens the whole operation.

INVISIBLE DATA
INVISIBLE DATA
ROI is hard to prove
ROI is hard to prove

Without utilization visibility, leaders can't justify budget or capacity expansion to leadership.


Without utilization visibility, leaders can't justify budget or capacity expansion to leadership.


FRAGILE INFRA
FRAGILE INFRA
Idling students
Idling students

Equipment failures with no readiness visibility waste valuable clinical hours while staff scramble to improvise a fix.


Equipment failures with no readiness visibility waste valuable clinical hours while staff scramble to improvise a fix.


SCALE
SCALE
Capacity as the ceiling
Capacity as the ceiling

Operational capacity became the real limit on revenue and student throughput — not market demand.


Operational capacity became the real limit on revenue and student throughput — not market demand.


Discovery

Discovery

Understanding who actually feels the friction
Understanding who actually feels the friction

Discovery combined a competitive teardown, a heuristic audit of the legacy product, and Jobs-to-be-Done mapping by persona — from the Sim Tech prepping the room to the coordinator who has to justify budget.

Discovery combined a competitive teardown, a heuristic audit of the legacy product, and Jobs-to-be-Done mapping by persona — from the Sim Tech prepping the room to the coordinator who has to justify budget.

Legacy product audit
Legacy product audit

We applied Nielsen's 10 usability heuristics across the market leader's critical journeys — scheduling, inventory, live recording, video review, and curriculum design — to turn every weakness found into a design competitive advantage, not just a "visual refresh."


We applied Nielsen's 10 usability heuristics across the market leader's critical journeys — scheduling, inventory, live recording, video review, and curriculum design — to turn every weakness found into a design competitive advantage, not just a "visual refresh."


JTBD by operational persona
JTBD by operational persona

We mapped Jobs-to-be-Done for Sim Tech, Educator, Learner, Standardized Patient, and Program Director — from the physical setup of a high-fidelity room to preventive manikin maintenance — to make sure every screen decision solved a real job, not a random feature.

We mapped Jobs-to-be-Done for Sim Tech, Educator, Learner, Standardized Patient, and Program Director — from the physical setup of a high-fidelity room to preventive manikin maintenance — to make sure every screen decision solved a real job, not a random feature.

The insight that became a product bet
The insight that became a product bet

The problem wasn't a missing screen, it was a lack of anticipation. The system reacted after the problem happened; it needed to catch the conflict before it did.

The problem wasn't a missing screen, it was a lack of anticipation. The system reacted after the problem happened; it needed to catch the conflict before it did.

Design principles

Design principles

Four rules for turning complex simulation into something intuitive

Four rules for turning complex simulation into something intuitive

01
01
From passive to proactive
From passive to proactive

We don't wait for the user to make a mistake. Instead of just logging data, the system detects conflicts before they happen — visualizing an error before saving is infinitely cheaper than fixing it in real life.

We don't wait for the user to make a mistake. Instead of just logging data, the system detects conflicts before they happen — visualizing an error before saving is infinitely cheaper than fixing it in real life.

02
02
Guide, don't configure
Guide, don't configure

We avoid forms with blank fields and advanced settings. The interface leads with smart defaults; decisions are framed as choices, not as open-ended inputs.

We avoid forms with blank fields and advanced settings. The interface leads with smart defaults; decisions are framed as choices, not as open-ended inputs.

03
03
Clarity at a glance
Clarity at a glance

The most important thing on any screen is the current state — status, readiness, conflicts, and gaps come before any settings or future action.

The most important thing on any screen is the current state — status, readiness, conflicts, and gaps come before any settings or future action.

04
04
Radical friction reduction
Radical friction reduction

The most important thing on any screen is the current state — status, readiness, conflicts, and gaps come before any settings or future action.

The most important thing on any screen is the current state — status, readiness, conflicts, and gaps come before any settings or future action.

Mental model

Intent-based navigation: Now, Next, Later

Instead of deep menus organized by module, navigation was designed around the user's time focus. The system opens already anticipating each person's most urgent need, instead of waiting for them to go looking for it.

NOW - TODAY
Evaluation queue / Live Grid

For the educator, the AI-assisted evaluation queue appears first. For the Sim Tech, it's the live map showing equipment failures, like a manikin running low on battery.

NEXT - PREPARATION
Schedule and cheklists

What needs to be ready for the next session: rooms reserved, prep materials, and standardized patient confirmation status.

LATER - GROWTH
Analytics and planning

Capacity modeling, accreditation reports, and Institution 360 — data that supports budget decisions, not just day-to-day operations.

Preventing mistakes
Preventing mistakes

When the Sim Tech marks a simulator as "broken" on the Live Grid, the system automatically cross-checks it against the schedule — the educator gets the alert in "Now" and immediately sees a suggested alternative room. Coordination without a single phone call.

When the Sim Tech marks a simulator as "broken" on the Live Grid, the system automatically cross-checks it against the schedule — the educator gets the alert in "Now" and immediately sees a suggested alternative room. Coordination without a single phone call.

Key pattern

Turning conflict into a one-click decision

The most reused pattern in the system: whenever a risk condition is detected — a delay, a missing standardized patient, unavailable equipment — the interface replaces the generic alert with an "Adaptive Card" that already frames the decision.

Live Grid
Live Grid
SITUATION

Previous session ran 12 min over. The 15–30 min reset buffer between sessions has been consumed.

Previous session ran 12 min over. The 15–30 min reset buffer between sessions has been consumed.

STANDARDIZED PATIENT

Still unconfirmed for the 2 PM session. Magic link sent via SMS, awaiting response.

Still unconfirmed for the 2 PM session. Magic link sent via SMS, awaiting response.

AI-augmented process

A design flow built for an MVP measured in weeks, not quarters

To sustain MVP speed without losing consistency, the design process embedded two specialized AI agents — one for decision planning, another for design-system governance — directly into the code repository, shortening the distance between design intent and a working screen.

01 →→→
Context Contract

The planning agent structures the problem and domain semantics before any screen work begins.

02 →→→
Experience definition

UX-only definition — no API or schema jargon — keeping the focus on the interface decision.

03 →→→
Componenty Inventory

The design-system agent searches for reuse before allowing any new component.

04 →→→
Sandbox Build

Built directly in a real UI environment, iterating until the interface settles.

05 →→→
Context Contract

Spec freeze and internal design check before the technical handoff.

06 →→→
Handoff to dev

Reference branch with a specific commit — no redesign rework for the engineering team.

Non-negotiable principle of the flow
Non-negotiable principle of the flow

"Agents prepare the decision, the designer approves it." No automation publishes, merges, or closes a handoff without explicit human review — AI accelerates exploration and governance, it doesn't replace design judgment.

"Agents prepare the decision, the designer approves it." No automation publishes, merges, or closes a handoff without explicit human review — AI accelerates exploration and governance, it doesn't replace design judgment.

From Cursor to Figma, and back

We tested a round-trip cycle between low-fidelity in Figma, working high-fidelity in Cursor, and editable structure back in Figma via MCP — cutting down the rework of manually redrawing a screen that already existed in code, keeping the implementation as the source of truth.

From usage signal to design decision

Usability testing was cross-referenced with real behavioral data to turn hypotheses into decisions — redesigning based on friction patterns observed in real use, not opinion.


Design system & operations

Consistency as a prerequisite for speed
REUSE FIRST
Search before you create

Every new component requires justifying why an existing one won't do — with Storybook required before it enters the shared system.

CONSISTENCY MAPS
Audited patterns

CRUD screens and event surfaces were mapped side by side to eliminate silent variations of the same pattern across different parts of the product.

DOCUMENTED RULES
Decisions became rulings

Recurring questions — modal vs. side panel, empty states, focus, permissions — became written decisions, avoiding reopening the same debate on every ticket.

Outcome

What this way of working unlocked

A system of record repositioned as an active orchestration system — a category shift, not a version upgrade.

Product pillars designed under a single intent-based navigation model
Now / Next / Later

Handoff to engineering with a screen contract and versioned branch — less interpretation rework between design and dev.

Scheduling a simulation event used to take three separate tools and a lot of back-and-forth. Now it's a few clicks, and the system tells us if something's about to go wrong before it does.
Scheduling a simulation event used to take three separate tools and a lot of back-and-forth. Now it's a few clicks, and the system tells us if something's about to go wrong before it does.

Early adopter feedback — paraphrased from post-launch interviews, Fall term

Early adopter feedback — paraphrased from post-launch interviews, Fall term

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