Immertec

At the core of our platform was the Virtual Reality Viewer, immersing healthcare professionals as if they were in the operating room. These were not simulations. When users donned a VR headset, they'd view live medical procedures and engage with peers in real-time from across the world.

We conducted formal and informal research, observing real physicians during live procedures and collecting feedback after. For accessibility, we ran controlled in-person studies. Working with my colleague Dr. Shannon Bailey, we compiled 30 years of VR human factors research into a reusable design template before industry standards existed. This R&D meant the designers I later hired could follow a proven process from day one, even without prior VR experience.

I built designs in Sketch and previewed them using A-Frame, a JavaScript framework built on Three.js, to validate placement and comfort in the actual space. This template became the foundation for future design work, a repeatable system that enabled consistent VR experiences at scale. These improvements contributed to raising the platform's SUS score from 68 to 83.

One thing I pushed back on was showing a large list of active speakers in the VR environment. In an immersive space, sudden visual changes feel jarring. Instead, I advocated for highlighting speakers within the participant list, which rarely exceeded 10 people in most sessions.

Our primary users were physicians and surgeons in orthopedics, ENT, and other specialties, including those from Cleveland Clinic and Baylor. A smaller subset were sales managers and salespeople from medical device companies who scheduled events and managed invitations.

Logistics were tracked and managed event-by-event in a mobile app at first. The mobile app existed to maintain HIPAA compliance, verifying attendee identities since many of these were real surgeries and operations, not simulation labs. Without a unified view of who needed headsets and who confirmed they'd attend, customer success was buried in manual coordination.

Role-based permissions made sense because medical device sales reps managed events as admins, while physicians led or observed surgeries. One dashboard serving both groups eliminated the friction.

I noticed recurring issues while collaborating with customer success where users struggled to access events. Initially, it appeared to be an authentication user flow issue. I eventually discovered the core problem: joining events in a headset requires more steps than many of our users had the time to complete.

To make joining an event seamless, I pitched a web-based interface, allowing live event access on any device with a browser. It was a technical feat, as our engineering team managed to take live video initially meant for VR and display it perfectly on a 2D screen. This shift minimized the hassles of headset distribution and simplified event access while allowing for flexibility between VR and web-based experiences.

The web viewer required alignment across the team since the company's core vision was VR and 3D medical training. The results validated the decision: customer success tickets for missing headsets and registration issues nearly disappeared. It let us get more attendees into events in whatever format worked for them, which cut sales cycles by 50% for our medical device partners.

New event? Just send the user a link.

Designing in healthcare means navigating legal constraints that most industries don't face. Sometimes the ideal UX option simply isn't legally possible. You learn to find solutions within those boundaries rather than fight them.

The web viewer taught me that conviction matters, but so does how you build support. Today I'd pair that conviction with earlier prototypes and data to bring stakeholders along faster.