The user
Clinicians, mid-consult
They needed to photograph a rash or wound and get it onto the record fast — hands busy, patient waiting, no time to hunt through menus.
Case study Cinapsis · Photo Consult
From a chore to two taps.
Clinicians needed to photograph a patient, attach consent, and file it to the record — but the existing route buried that in too many steps. I designed a dedicated app that made it near-instant, and grew a whole feature straight from one user's question.
The whole point — fewer steps to a filed photo
Before
9
steps & screens
After
2
taps to capture
Sign in, tap, shoot — the patient is already recognised. No searching, no re-keying.
01 Context
A quick task made slow.
Cinapsis connects clinicians for advice and referrals. A common need — snap a clinical photo, capture consent, and attach it to the right patient — was possible in the existing product, but it took too many steps to reach the moment that mattered. So we built a dedicated app just for it.
The friction
Too many steps
The old route made you search for the patient, add details, then capture — extra taps stacked in front of a task that should be immediate.
The brief
A purpose-built app
Rather than patch the flow, we built a brand-new app dedicated to taking, consenting and filing clinical photos and video.
Product The capture screen
Open the app, you're ready to shoot.
The home screen is the task. The patient is already recognised from sign-in, so there's nothing to search for — just take a photo or a video and it goes straight to the right record.
9:41
Welcome, Larry
Take a photo or video and upload it straight to the patient's files.
Take photo
Capture a still for the record
Take video
Record a short clip
Filed straight to Verdy Wardle's record
Home — capture, nothing else
01
The task is the screen
No dashboard, no menu — the two things a clinician came to do are the two things on screen.
02
Patient already known
Sign-in resolves the patient, so capture skips the search-and-add steps entirely.
03
Photo and video, equal
Both routes are one tap from home; the clinician picks the medium that fits the case.
Product Consent, in the flow
Consent that's clear, not a hurdle.
Before anything is stored, the patient's details and a plain-language consent statement appear together — so the clinician confirms the right person and the right permission in one calm step, without leaving the capture flow.
9:41
Patient consent×
Verdy Wardle
03 Sep 2017
965 712 5626
Sleaford Road, Lincoln LN4
The patient or their guardian consents to an image or video being taken, stored in their medical record, and shared for the purpose of their care.
They also consent for the image to be used for the purposes of teaching.
Cancel
Confirm
Consent — right patient, right permission
01
Identity up top
Name, DOB, contact and address sit first, so the clinician verifies the patient before consenting.
02
Plain language
The consent statement is written to be read and understood in the moment, not skimmed past.
03
Optional, separated
Teaching consent is a distinct opt-in checkbox — never bundled into the core permission.
02 The moment
A whole feature, from one user's question.
In testing, a clinician asked: "could I tag my photos?" I validated it with more users, found a real need, and shipped tagging — so photos could be organised as clinicians work through dozens of them.
Heard
One question in a session
Mid-test, a user wondered aloud if they could label a photo. Easy to nod and move on — instead I treated it as a signal worth chasing.
Caught the insight instead of the compliment
Validated
Checked it was real
I put the idea to more clinicians. The pattern held: they sift through many images and needed a way to organise them — tagging earned its place.
Validated before building
Shipped
Designed it to fit
An opt-in toggle in settings; once on, a tap adds a tag that travels with the photo when it's filed or emailed. Small surface, real payoff.
Went into development, released
Product Tagging
Label it once, find it later.
Turn tagging on in settings, and after a photo is taken the clinician can add a tag — "Rash", "Wound", a body site — that stays attached to the image through filing and email. A tiny interaction that tames a big pile of photos.
9:41
Settings
Enable photo tagging
Name, phone, email›
Password & security›
Settings — opt in to tagging
9:41
Capture — tag travels with the photo
01
Off by default
Tagging is opt-in, so clinicians who don't need it never see extra UI in their way.
02
Tags travel
A tag is bound to the photo, so it's still there when the image is filed or emailed on.
03
Built to organise
The point was findability — labelling images so a clinician can sort a big batch at a glance.
03 Trade-offs
Two calls that kept it simple.
Consent: gate or step?
Consent could interrupt hard, or fade into the background. In a clinical setting it has to be deliberate — but not punishing.
Frictionless⇄Accountable
Decision
One clear confirm step with identity in view — deliberate, but a single tap once verified.
Tagging: on or off by default?
Tagging helps the clinicians who sift many photos, but adds a step for those who don't.
Powerful⇄Unobtrusive
Decision
Opt-in via settings, so it's there for the people who need it and invisible for those who don't.
New app, or patch the flow?
We could have shortened the existing route, or committed to a purpose-built tool.
Cheaper⇄Right
Decision
A dedicated app — because "photograph a patient" deserved to be a first-class task, not a detour.
04 Outcome
Shipped, and shaped by its users.
A chore became instant
Capture-to-filed dropped from a multi-step search to sign in, tap, shoot
A feature born in testing
Tagging went from one user's offhand question to a validated, shipped capability
Consent kept clean
Permission stayed deliberate and legible without slowing the clinician down
Rahman Malik — Product designer
Cinapsis · Photo Consult, NHS