IHIS Contract Maintenance Redesign

American Specialty Health

Redesigning a legacy contract management system to streamline internal workflows with how teams actually input contracts.

My Role

UX/Product Design

Timeline

~3 months

Team

PO, engineers, internal stakeholders

Focus

Workflow redesign, interaction design, UI design, prototyping

Overview

ASH (American Specialty Health) relied on a legacy VB6 system to maintain provider contracts within IHIS (Integrated Health Internal System), resulting in fragmented workflows, high cognitive load, and operational risk due to the lack of a reliable backup system.

I redesigned the contract maintenance experience from IHIS Legacy to IHIS 2.0 to align with how contract teams actually work, reducing manual effort, improving clarity, and creating a scalable foundation for future internal tools.

The Problem

The legacy system created friction across the entire contract creation process:

  • Misaligned workflows. Users to spend unnecessary time jumping between sections.

  • High cognitive load. Dense, rule-heavy forms required constant context tracking.

  • Unclear system states. No distinction between view and edit led to confusion and errors.

  • Low discoverability. Hidden actions required memorization rather than intuition.

  • Operational risk. No reliable backup system for critical contract data.

Result: Slower workflows, increased errors, and limited scalability

Key Insights

The core issue was not just UI complexity. It was a mismatch between how contracts are structured in CRFs and how IHIS Legacy required users to input them.

What should be a simple transfer became constant translation.

Transforming the Workflow

To address this, I redesigned the core workflow to match how users naturally process contract information.

Before

  • Fragmented navigation

  • Constant jumping between sections

  • Heavy reliance on memory

After

  • Single, scrollable workflow aligned to CRF order

  • Clear, linear progression from start to finish

  • Reduced need for mental translation and context switching

Impact: Faster, more intuitive contract creation for both new and experienced users

Key Design Decisions

1. Introduced a Clear Entry Point

  • Dedicated page for contract creation and search

  • Adds a step, but clarifies where to begin

Previously, users would hesitate on where to start. The redesigned entry page makes actions explicit and immediately accessible.

2. Improved System Feedback and Clarity

  • Clear differentiation between view and edit states

  • Persistent contract ID visibility

  • Required field indicators

  • Validation and confirmation feedback

This increases confidence and reduces errors

System States Clarity

Maintain Contract Context and Form Clarity

Provide Immediate Feedback for User Actions

3. Simplified Complex Rule Configuration

  • Centralized rule configuration with inputs surfaced at the top and outputs structured below

  • Integrated related inputs, such as CPT codes, directly into the workflow

  • Designed clear, scannable layouts for managing dense, rule-based data

Turned a confusing, mixed interface into a clear, structured system that is easier to understand and manage

4. Standardized Contract Workflows Across Sections

  • Standardized layouts across contract sections (fees, states, interest) to reduce variability

  • Established consistent input patterns and data structures across workflows

  • Improved hierarchy to make dense contract data easier to scan and compare

This creates a predictable system that scales across contract workflows and reduces the need for relearning

Same structure applied across all contract maintenance sections.

Final Solution

A CRF-aligned, end-to-end contract maintenance workflow supported by:

  • A single, continuous contract creation flow

  • Clear system states and feedback

  • Structured and intuitive data entry

  • Consistent interaction patterns across all contract components

By aligning the system with how users interpret contract information, the redesign eliminates the need to translate between formats and makes it easier to move from human-readable contracts to structured system data.

Step 1: Create or Search for Contracts

Contract Entry Page

New Contract: Takes user directly into contract workflow

Search: Expands inline to show matching contracts

Introduced a clear entry point with distinct paths for creation and search
Users no longer had to guess where to begin. The redesigned entry page makes primary actions immediately visible and easy to choose between.

Step 2: Main Contract Creation Flow

A single scrollable workflow aligned to the CRF
Instead of jumping across tabs and sections, users could move through contract creation in one continuous flow that matched how they received information on the CRF.

Step 3: Supporting Contract Configurations

Treatment Rules

State Rules

Fee Schedules

Interest Rules

Supporting screens made easier to understand and manage
Secondary workflows were redesigned for better discoverability, clearer system states, and more confident task completion.

Impact

This solution was not yet implemented due to development timelines. However, the redesign directly addresses key inefficiencies in the legacy system and is expected to improve both speed and accuracy of contract creation.

Expected Outcomes

  • Faster contract creation by eliminating workflow fragmentation

  • Reduced input errors through clearer system states and validation

  • Lower cognitive load by aligning with CRF structure

  • Faster onboarding for new users due to more intuitive workflows

Why this is credible

Each outcome is directly tied to a specific design decision:

  • The single, scrollable workflow removes the need to jump between sections

  • Clear system states and validation reduce ambiguity and prevent errors

  • CRF alignment eliminates the need for mental translation

  • Consistent patterns improve learnability across the system

How I would validate

  • Measure time to complete a contract compared to the legacy system

  • Track error rates and rework during task-based testing

  • Evaluate learnability with first-time users

  • Observe behavioral friction such as hesitation or backtracking

Reflection

This project reinforced for me how impactful internal tools can be. Improving them directly improves the day-to-day experience of the people who rely on them.

One challenge was working within existing constraints. The initial ask was to iterate on prior solutions, but deeper research revealed those workflows did not improve efficiency. I advocated for starting from scratch to align the system with real user workflows.

This experience strengthened my approach to grounding design decisions in user behavior and advocating for the users even when it means pushing back.