Legacy Desktop Application moving to Cloud-based Platform
CLIENT
Nierman Practice Management – company providing education for sleep dentists and developing software for easy managing sleep dental practices in the US. 2500+ users by 2025. https://niermanpm.com/
problem
Existing Dental Writer desktop application for 37 years has been doing a good job for the current clients but didn’t attract new. Most serious competitors already had web-based versions taking a significant part of the EHR (Electronic Health Records) market.
My Role
Research, moqups, usability tests, html/css, vector graphics, project management.
As the project’s lead UX designer, I was charged with transforming a legacy feature-heavy desktop application into a streamlined, modern experience. Decades of ad-hoc enhancements had produced a dense interface with little information architecture, yet the software remained mission-critical for dental-sleep physicians.
My objective was to introduce contemporary UX standards – clarity, responsiveness, and intuitive navigation – without disrupting the clinical workflows practitioners had relied on for years.
01. Understanding
The project began with the analysis of the legacy system to identify major usability issues, inconsistencies, and outdated patterns. I took this step before talking to stakeholders to have unbiased approach while interacting with the application.
Interviews with CEO, CTO, billing coordinators, customer success managers revealed critical pain points in the existing system — such as inefficiencies in claim processing, difficulty training new staff, and lack of flexibility in treatment documentation. I also learned which workflows were considered non-negotiable and which features could be reimagined during redesign.
For better understanding I had to go through industry specific articles to get familiar with clinical workflows, regulatory environment and insurance/billing processes. Also made a competitive analysis with several most popular dental management softwares in US: PLanet DDS, OpenDental, CurveDental.
02. Exploring
Based on previous research I have defined 4 main groups of users that are interacting with our dental software:
- solo dentists running their practice independentely;
- owners of multi-location practices;
- specialists working with dentists: surgeons, technicians, hygienists;
- administrative staff, representatives of front-desk office.
These groups required different levels of feature-availability and access with role-based dashboards, permissions, and modular features.
I have developed a user flowchart based on 4 steps that are the core of the physician workflow: patient questionnaire, examination, SOAP report generating, insurance claim submission. Unlike it was implemented in desktop app at web version it was decided to refuse from grid with all visits (with next filtering by patient) and to use ‘patient-primary’ approach (visits are a separate tab inside patient profile).
I have developed a design system that contained customized Bootstrap material elements, customized Kendo UI widgets and internal UI style guide.
After that I have developed an interactive prototype in Adobe XD, updated logo and created vector elements (Adobe Illustrator) for different branding cases.
03. Implementation
UX outcomes and key metrics observed after launching cloud-based Dental Writer Plus:
- 32 new subscribers on the first day of launch on AADSM Conference in New Orlean;
- 25% of legacy desktop users transfered to a new cloud-based platform during the first 3 months;
- 2500 active existing users from 2020 to 2024;
- reduced time on tasks completion due to automatic data pull-up algorythm from previous steps;
- significantly reduced time for new users onboarding due to clear UI and intuitive navigation + onboarding tours, tooltips, new features guides;
Azizova Tamara 