Uncovering systemic gaps across a regulated, dual surface healthcare platform
A strategic UX audit of an Australian NDIS and HCP care platform integrated with Salesforce based internal tooling.
Karista connects NDIS and HCP-funded participants with care providers across Australia. The platform serves a regulated environment where clarity, accessibility, and compliance are non-negotiable. Users include elderly participants, people with disabilities, parents managing care for children, and support coordinators handling multiple clients simultaneously.
As UX Researcher, I audited the full end-to-end experience across two product platforms: the customer-facing website and the internal Karista AI staff portal (built on Salesforce) to identify what was breaking down, why, and what needed to change.
Key Outcome
- ~4 hrs/week saved per CS rep through Salesforce portal improvements
- A/B tested mockups validated and signed off for future implementation
- Prioritised roadmap giving the org a clear, cross-surface view of what to fix and why
Client
Karista – NDIS & HCP care platform, Australia
My Role
UX Research & Strategy (Contract)
Platform
Web · Mobile · Internal Staff Portal
Methods
Usability Testing · Shadowing · Stakeholder Interviews · IA Audit · Heuristic Evaluation
The Problem
Karista was investing heavily in paid acquisition to connect NDIS and HCP-funded participants with care providers across Australia. Traffic was coming in but users were not completing the journey. With two separate surfaces serving two very different audiences, the product team knew something was breaking down; they just did not know where, why, or who was most affected.
Despite strong inbound traffic from Google ad campaigns, the platform was experiencing:
- Drop-offs before enquiry completion
- Incomplete form submissions leading to poor provider matching
- Users abandoning the digital journey and calling instead
- Internal staff navigating between disconnected portal modules during live calls
My Role:
Led the initiative as the sole UX researcher, owning end-to-end research from scoping to delivery. Defined the research strategy and scoped the audit across both the customer website and internal Salesforce portal. This revealed a systemic disconnect between the two surfaces that had not been visible before. Conducted pragmatic research including remote testing, behavioural shadowing, and targeted heuristic evaluation to generate actionable insights quickly.
Synthesised findings into clear themes and prioritised recommendations aligned to user and business impact. Worked with the CEO, product, and engineering to translate insights into immediate action, delivering a roadmap the team began executing within the same week.
Audit Scope
Platform 1 – Karista.com.au
The customer facing platform spanning NDIS and HCP funding journeys, provider search, and service enquiry flows. Used by participants, family caregivers, and support coordinators.
Platform 2 – Karista AI Internal Portal
The internal team-facing tool used by the care team during participant calls, covering call planning, service matching, availability checking, and NDIS plan uploads. Built on Salesforce, this surface introduced real platform constraints that shaped the scope of recommendations. Rather than proposing full rebuilds, recommendations were scoped within existing platform limitations.
Research Methods
01 · Usability Testing
Moderated usability testing using 7 real-world participant scenarios, each recorded via Loom. Scenarios were built around realistic user types to reflect the actual diversity of Karista’s user base, not hypothetical edge cases.
Scenarios & findings:
Jessica — Mother · NDIS Task: Find behaviour support for a child under 7
Carlos — 65+ · HCP-funded Task: Find a support worker
Anna — 24 · Autism · NDIS Task: Find services available for someone with autism
Jenny — NDIS Task: Find a local dietitian who accepts NDIS
Andrew — Son of NDIS participant Task: Compare occupational therapy providers
Aayushi — Mother of 2 NDIS children Task: Manage services for two children in one journey
Emma — Mother · Autism · NDIS Task: Explore services for a daughter with autism
What the testing revealed?
Every participant hit a wall. Not from lack of effort, but from a platform that didn’t meet them where they were. Users with specific needs had no clear entry point. The journey consistently collapsed into a generic form before users had enough context to feel confident proceeding.
Task Completion rate
29%
2 of 7 partial only
Avg. satisfaction
2.1/5
SUS-style rating
Avg. time on task
~9 min
Expected ≤ 3 min
02 · Shadowing (Behavioural Observation)
Observed real user interactions in multiple rounds of shadowing to capture behaviour patterns that moderated testing alone couldn’t surface.
Behavioural Insights:
- The majority of users are mothers or family members completing enquiries on behalf of someone else, not the participant themselves. The platform was designed for the participant as the primary user.
- Most users do not have their NDIS plan documents readily available when they begin the process. The form required it upfront.
- The internal care team deliberately provides only 2–3 provider options per enquiry to avoid overwhelming users, but the platform was designed to show a long unfiltered list.
- If a user is not captured within the first few moments of submitting a request, they do not return.
UX Takeaways:
- The enquiry form is a critical conversion point, not just data collection. Incomplete forms mean poor provider matching downstream.
- Proxy users (parents, partners, adult children) are the primary journey, not an edge case.
- Provider results need to be curated and concise. The platform architecture was working against the team’s own best practice.
03 · Customer Success Interviews
Structured interviews with the customer success team to capture the gap between what users experienced on the platform and what the team was solving for manually on every call.
Key Quotes
“Unable to upload their NDIS plan with ease — cannot upload multiple screenshots at once.”
“If we don’t capture them in the first few moments of putting a request in, they do not have time to accept it at a later date.”
“When support coordinators are putting in numerous client referrals, the journey is not smooth.”
Recurring pain points:
- NDIS plan upload friction
- No multi-participant support
- Poor experience for support coordinators
- Missing provider-side tools
04 · Heuristic Evaluation
Evaluated the platform against established UX heuristics across desktop (MacBook Pro / Chrome) and mobile (iPhone 13 / Chrome).
Critical issues by heuristic:
- Visibility of system status
Users had no indication of where they were in the journey or how many steps remained. No progress indicators on forms.- Match between system and real world
HCP funding language was inconsistent with how users naturally referred to their care type. Elderly users and their families did not recognise the terminology used.- User control and freedom
No easy way to go back, edit, or restart without losing all progress. Users who made a wrong selection had no recovery path.- Recognition over recall
Provider cards required users to read long identical descriptions to differentiate options. No scannable summary, rating, or key attribute visible at a glance.- Accessibility
Mobile experience had significant touch target and readability issues, identifying 6 critical WCAG 2.1 AA violations critical for an elderly user demographic accessing the platform on phones.
What the Research Revealed ?
Customer-Facing Platform
- HCP invisible on homepage – elderly users and their families had no clear entry point
- No condition-based navigation – users with specific diagnoses (autism, aged care needs) could not search by need
- No provider comparison – every path collapsed to a form before users had sufficient information
- Duplicate form fields – name and service type asked multiple times across screens
- No multi-participant support – caregivers managing multiple family members had to restart the entire journey
- Mobile not optimised – for the elderly demographic who needed it most
Internal Karista AI Portal
The portal was built on Salesforce, which introduced significant platform constraints on what could be restructured or redesigned. Recommendations were scoped within what was technically feasible, prioritising flow consolidation and navigation improvements over full UI redesign.
- Call Planner, Services, Availability, and NDIS Plan Upload existed as separate, disconnected modules
- CS team had to navigate across modules during live participant calls, increasing both handle time and error risk
- No streamlined path for support coordinators managing referrals for multiple participants simultaneously
- Gaps between what CS team needed during calls and what the portal actually surfaced at each step
Recommendations Delivered
Each recommendation links to specific research from usability tests, shadowing, customer support interviews, and heuristic evaluations.
A prioritised roadmap was delivered to guide immediate action and longer-term improvements, focusing on impact and effort:
- High impact · Low effort – Act immediately
- High impact · Medium effort – Plan and prioritise next
- High value · High effort – Scope and schedule strategically
This method helped capture quick wins early and aligned the team on complex, high-value opportunities.
Homepage & Navigation
Restructure to give equal visibility to NDIS and HCP funding from the first screen. Add condition and need-based entry points: “I have autism” and “I need aged care support” alongside service category search.
Provider Discovery
Introduce a comparison view before form submission. Surface telehealth vs in-person availability as a visible filter upfront. Default results to 3–5 curated matches, aligned with how the team already operates manually.
Form Experience
Redesign the enquiry form with progress indicators, inline guidance for NDIS plan uploads, and multi-participant support. Remove duplicate fields across screens.
Mobile Experience
Identified critical accessibility gaps for the elderly and proxy user demographic, including touch target sizing, navigation complexity, CTA clarity, and typography. Findings surfaced 6 critical WCAG 2.1 AA violations affecting elderly and disability cohorts, delivered as a prioritised remediation checklist.
Internal Karista AI Portal
Within Salesforce constraints, proposed a unified call flow connecting participant details, service matching, and availability into a single uninterrupted view. Reduced the need to switch between modules during live calls.
Enquiry Form Redesign
Simplified form with progress indicator, reduced fields, and multi-user support for NDIS plan uploads
Key Outcome
Stakeholder Feedback
“What sets Mayuri apart is her ability to quickly assess a business’s current state and deliver comprehensive analysis that cuts straight to what’s working and what isn’t — no fluff, just actionable insights. Her user stories and testing scenarios are particularly strong — she has a gift for pinpointing exactly where gaps exist and translating those findings into concrete next steps that stakeholders can actually act on. Beyond her research chops, Mayuri is also a talented designer. She creates compelling mockups that show teams what’s possible, helping bridge the gap between current reality and future potential.”
Ngaio Parker Customer Success, Strategy, Operations; Product Management, Karista