Comments on: Explaining Healthcare IT application UI complexity

By: Sean

Sean — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 05:49:07 +0000

Hopefully IT in healthcare matures in the same way.
It will be good for better world

By: BOB HEALTH

BOB HEALTH — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 03:40:10 +0000

hi…. nice posting, keep writing thanks for sharing… thanks

By: Josh

Josh — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 09:38:09 +0000

Pretty Funny illustration,
I think part of this is most of these apps are mimicking paper forms.

By: Middle Blog

Middle Blog — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 18:00:23 +0000

nice… great info guys

By: Abayomi Olufemi

Abayomi Olufemi — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 14:52:09 +0000

the complexity of an interface usually prevents users from adopting ICT solutions. This is particularly evident in the developing countries where ICT is still in its infancy.

By: Joseph Kim, MD, MPH

Joseph Kim, MD, MPH — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 02:06:16 +0000

This is a great illustration!

By: Guest Article: What will make healthcare software usable? | The Healthcare IT Guy

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 11:19:54 +0000

[...] a previous post on this blog, three prototypes compared simple experiences using Apple and Google products with the complicated [...]

By: buy resveratrol

buy resveratrol — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 21:24:49 +0000

Very interesting post, i thought it was pretty funny yet extremely true.

By: Sandy Rosenbluth

Sandy Rosenbluth — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 13:35:23 +0000

Definitely lol, yet raises a tricky design point.

EMR use must be exceedingly efficient to properly support the fast-paced medical office. Less on the screen is good for training new or non-experienced users but extra clicks and screens usually slow clinical people down and may require greater practice for them to learn where all the functions are located.

More on the screen can greatly increase productivity for experienced users, though at the price of a typically steeper beginner learning curve.

Some may recall this same trade-off in word processors with the old WordPerfect 5.1 (bluescreen version) vs MS Office (windows version). WP 5.1 was tougher to learn with all its key-combinations, but was the clear choice of professionals due to the speed with which a trained user could create and edit documents.

New users (to word processing) found the windows graphics helpful for initial learning.

All good UI designers should be aware of the tradeoffs and attempt to balance these factors.

By: Kamal

Kamal — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 07:08:35 +0000

Shahid, thanks for bringing this very important point up. Most EHR and related systems have incredibly complex and “heavy” interfaces.
While designing TrialX, we spend a lot of time and effort to keep the interface simple and minimalistic .
One thing that has helped in this process is looking at our usage data (e.g., logfiles) to identify problems where users seem to face issues. Also we have implemented a widget (through get satisfaction.com) to allow users to send us quick feedbacks and tips. And we rapidly iterate based on feedback and continue to do so as there are still many avenues for improvement.