New product design · HealthTap, 2026

Non-visit encounter note

  • Shipped
  • 1-month design, 2-month engineering (05.2026 – 08.2026)
  • Lead product designer
  • 1 PM, 3 front-end engineers, 1 back-end engineer
  • Web and iOS
Non-visit encounter note on desktop and mobile
Background
HealthTap provides online primary care through video visits. Between visits, doctors still deliver care — renewing prescriptions, reviewing labs, adjusting medications, and answering messages.
Problem
The product had no place to record this care, so doctors added it as an extra note under an old visit. The update got buried: any doctor opening the chart, even the one who wrote the original note, could miss what happened later, and there was no clear record of who did what and when.
Approach
A separate note was designed for care between visits, so each update has its own record. Prescription renewal, the most common case, was designed to help doctors complete the note quickly.
Outcome
Non-visit care no longer gets buried in old visit notes, so doctors can follow what happened between visits, and there is a clear record of who did what and when. Prescription renewal takes 90% less time.
50%Share of encounters that are non-visit
90%Less time to renew a prescription

Problem

No record for care between visits

Between video visits, doctors were still making clinical decisions. But the only note format was designed for video visits, so there was no clear way to record that care.

Care history was hard to follow

It was difficult to see what happened before, during, and after a visit.

Different types of care looked the same

Non-visit work was mixed with visit documentation.

The audit trail was incomplete

There was no dedicated record of who did what and when.

The visit note with an Add addendum note dialog open, asking for a reason and free-text note — the only way to record care delivered after a visit

Research

Four main uses for the MVP

With Clinical Operations, the types of non-visit care were mapped and ranked by frequency. Based on this, the MVP covered four uses: prescription renewal, message follow-up, lab and medical equipment orders, and clinical updates.

A spreadsheet of non-visit encounter use cases with workflow, billability, frequency and product priority columns, sorted into V1 and V2 scope

Design exploration

Faster exploration with AI

AI (Figma Make) produced first concepts quickly. Clinicians verified them before any design decision.

Figma Make generating the first-pass non-visit encounter note: patient chart sidebar beside a full note form
The refined non-visit encounter note: problem list beside patient and doctor details, clinical notes, and an assessment and plan section for diagnosis codes, prescriptions, lab tests and supplies

Design system

One chart structure for two platforms

The patient chart had to show a lot of information and work on desktop and mobile. One information architecture and a reusable list component let the chart and the non-visit note share the same structure.

One information structure

One hierarchy was defined for patient chart details on web and iOS.

Web information architecture: the patient chart component broken into menu items, section and sub-section title bars and sub-section details, mapped beside the non-visit note component
iOS information architecture: the same structure across three screens, with the patient chart component on the left and note details on the right under Chart and Note tabs

Different views for different contexts

List and card layouts were tested for dense information. Lists were used in the patient chart, and cards in the patient-facing summary.

The Assessment and plan section shown as a flat list of prescription, lab and supply orders beside a card view that expands one order into labelled detail fields
The list view applied across four iOS screens — problem list, encounters, prescriptions and health files — each row carrying an icon, title, diagnosis code and timestamp

One reusable list component

The component was specified across line counts and variants, then used throughout the chart.

The list component specification: five text-line counts down the rows against status, CTA and arrow variants across the columns, each combination annotated

Interaction design

A faster way to renew prescriptions

Prescription renewal was the most frequent non-visit encounter. The old flow made doctors re-enter 11 fields from the previous prescription. The new flow fills in the previous prescription automatically, so doctors change only what is different.

Usability testing

Testing: what worked and what changed

Five HealthTap doctors tested discoverability, workflow, ease of use, and the assumptions behind the design. The core flow worked well, and the test showed what needed to change.

Five recorded HealthTap doctor feedback sessions with written summaries, behind a live remote session walking a doctor through the non-visit encounter note

What worked well

Doctors could follow the care history

Non-visit entries were easier to distinguish and follow in the chart.

The entry point was easy to find

Doctors found how to create a non-visit note without help.

Renewal was faster

Doctors said prescription renewal saved them a lot of time.

Separate views for visit and non-visit records

Doctors needed to filter the encounters list, so non-visit entries would not make the list harder to read.

The Encounters list with an open filter menu offering All notes, My notes, Other doctors’ notes, Visit notes and Non-visit notes

Two small problems fixed

  • The 100-character minimum slowed doctors down. The note now accepts as little as one character.
  • ICD-10 codes are pre-populated, so doctors adjust them in a few clicks.
The note with a free-text clinical notes field accepting a short entry and pre-populated ICD-10 diagnosis codes listed under Assessment and plan

Impact

Non-visit care became part of the record

The product officially launched in August 2026. Non-visit notes now account for 50% of documented encounters, and prescription renewal takes 90% less time.

50%Share of encounters that are non-visit
90%Less time to renew a prescription

“A dedicated non-visit note is much better than adding addenda. Updates stop getting lost in old follow-up notes, and the next provider can actually follow the patient’s history.”

Dr. Neth, HealthTap

More projects