Common Challenges

Vaccine scheduling systems frequently encounter many of the same issues. Look below for information about what these issues are

Challenge	Explanation
System outages / Scalability	See our section on outages and downtime for more information
User Interface issues	We have seen a number of trends in user interface design of these systems. More on this in our section on common user interface issues
Translations or accessibility issues	These should be a high priority given the audiences these tools need to be able to work with. They are also easier to fix, if they are prioritized. But keep in mind: Google Translate is often not an acceptable translation mechanism - when translating short words and phrases, Google lacks the context to differentiate between such words as "back" as in "a person's back", and "back" as in "previous page". Prefer human-created translations to ensure preservation of context Evaluate both the original text and translated text with an eye toward readability/literacy level. Many text editors have functionality built in to assess this.
Overbooking/double booking	This is likely related to one of the following, which can be harder to fix: 1. The lack of an appointment hold mechanism - certain systems have this, others do not. Adding this to a system that does not have it can be difficult. 2. Fallout from the system being down or being under heavy traffic
Local Differences	EHR and IIS systems present a challenge on the ground and differ widely between jurisdictions. Just because a system is easy to implement in one place does not make it easy to implement in another.
User lockout / account issues	These can be caused by: The way login is implemented in a particular system Where possible, and see our user interface guidelines for more information, a system should avoid asking for too much information up front - balance freeing a user from having to enter new information with the need to fill out a long list of questions. Fallout from the system being down or being under heavy traffic Ensure that the system under investigation fails gracefully when there is downtime or diminished capacity.
Unauthorized Access	There are ways to make links single-use, which certain services have implemented, but many have not. This is a medium-difficulty ask, though depends on the system. The benefits of this are significant, in that they save people time when they would otherwise show up for an appointment they are not eligible for.