Maria Moyles
© Maria Moyles

Improving

Vaccination Rates

Health New Zealand

— PROJECT NAME

Aotearoa Immunisation Record (AIR)


— ROLE

Senior UX designer – screen design

Research – Usability Testing, Problem Definition


— DATE

2023 / 2024

Context

Health New Zealand had a goal of improving the immunisation rates of the population set by the Government. In order to achieve this and know if they were making improvements, they would need to create a platform where vaccinations could be recorded. This work had started 2 years prior to my coming onto the project, with the National Immunisation Register (NIR) and, when COVID 19 hit, the Covid Immunisation Register (CIR). The separate Covid platform had been set up because of the fast moving nature of the infection and the time it would take to incorporate the vaccination types into the NIR.


The Ask

Health NZ wanted to move away from the CIR and the NIR to amalgamate the recording of all vaccinations for kiwis in the one place. This new platform was called the Aotearoa Immunisation Register (AIR) and involved two entry points, one for admin workers (needing to run reports etc) and one for the immunisation staff (needing a focus on patient information in face to face appointments), such as nurses. This new platform would be in Salesforce.

My Focus

1. Turning constraints into creative leverage

When I joined the project, design had taken a back seat to launching the AIR platform. To improve the user experience within Salesforce, I collaborated with Health NZ designers to build platform understanding and share constraints early. This alignment reduced design–development friction and helped the team design more effectively within technical boundaries.


2. Strategic design to resolve UX debt at scale

As Health NZ’s first Salesforce-delivered project, the AIR platform lacked design standards, resulting in inconsistent and unintuitive experiences. I worked with the UI designer to establish a reusable, Salesforce-aligned design system – enabling consistency, reducing rework, and laying a foundation for future projects. For the Experience Cloud portal, I led the creation of a web-like visual language, balancing platform limitations with user and stakeholder needs.


3. Driving feature strategy through user insight and impact

Across the AIR platform, I designed a range of features by first uncovering the real user and stakeholder needs behind each request. Every feature went through a full design process to ensure it was both usable and feasible within Salesforce. Prioritisation was impact-driven, focused on improving workflows, reducing errors, and delivering measurable value.

Manage Access Feature

Making things more intuitive, creating design patterns

The Outcome

The AIR platform launched in December 2023 and, within its first year, scaled to nearly 9,500 users who collectively recorded over 1.3 million vaccinations. Throughout 2024, we delivered several key feature enhancements to support more comprehensive and flexible immunisation tracking, including:


  • - Support for recording overseas vaccinations
  • - Streamlined addition of new vaccine types as they became available
  • - Expanded vaccination status options (e.g., "not given" with recorded reasons)
  • - Ability to record historical vaccinations
  • - Integration with private patient management systems in general practice, enabling a unified immunisation record regardless of where a patient received care

These enhancements were driven by user and clinical needs, and designed to support real-world complexity while maintaining alignment with platform constraints and national health priorities.


A Consumer Record Page

For Vaccinators – before and after

A Vaccination Record Page

The Admin View vs The Vaccinator View

The Challenges

The project presented a range of challenges that strengthened both my design leadership and adaptability:


  • - Mentoring a junior design team: I supported the Health NZ design team – many of whom were early in their careers and unfamiliar with Salesforce—by guiding them on design patterns, best practices, and platform constraints. This reinforced my confidence in applying a structured design process while coaching others through it.

  • - Designing within platform limits: While some user needs pointed toward more bespoke UI solutions, we often had to work within Salesforce’s component limitations. I collaborated closely with developers to find the best possible solutions within these constraints, balancing feasibility with user experience.

  • - Adapting to shifting priorities: Following a change in government, the health sector experienced funding reductions and team restructuring. This introduced delays and uncertainty, requiring flexibility in planning, clearer prioritisation, and stronger communication to maintain momentum.


These challenges ultimately underscored the importance of strategic design thinking, stakeholder alignment, and cross-functional collaboration in complex, evolving environments.