Reader’s note: scholarly research summaries may be written with the assistance of AI.

Articles

HEART in Healthcare: Adapting UX Metrics for Medical Interfaces
Interesting approach of looking at each principle in the HEART framework to see if it can or should be applied differently in healthcare. For example, in healthcare apps, the focus shifts from maximizing user engagement to promoting meaningful interactions that drive better health outcomes. Instead of keeping users glued to the app, the goal is to encourage actions that positively impact their well-being, ensuring that every interaction serves a purpose in improving health rather than wasting time.

Balancing High-Tech and High-Touch in Healthcare UX
This reminds me of the principle "Automate Routine Tasks - Automate routine tasks to focus on meaningful interactions, improving efficiency and reducing costs." Or as another designer put it, "Automate the mundane so people can focus on the humane."

Design for Doctors: Legal and Usability Issues in Medical Software
Barbara Bocheńczak emphasizes the importance of addressing both legal compliance and user experience in healthcare software development. The article outlines key legal considerations, such as adhering to country-specific regulations, ensuring data security, and maintaining patient confidentiality.

How I Transformed a Healthcare SaaS Product: A UX Journey
Gregory Cullen reflects on his experience revamping the user experience of a healthcare SaaS product. He emphasizes the importance of understanding user pain points, conducting extensive user research, and collaborating closely with stakeholders and cross-functional teams. The overhaul led to improved product adoption, increased user satisfaction, and streamlined workflows. Gregory also highlights the challenges of balancing business goals with user needs and navigating complex regulatory requirements in the healthcare sector.

From Entrepreneurship to Healthcare UX: Lessons Learned Along the Way
Aman Jha shares his personal experience shifting from running a startup to designing for a healthcare company. Interesting perspective, although I think there’s another perspective when designing for a healthcare startup (sounds like he shifted to a mature company).

Bridging the Digital-Physical Divide in Medical Device Development
Notes from a panel at MD&M on bridging the gap between digital and physical design in medical devices. It’s such a crucial part of healthcare UX—making sure the software and hardware work together seamlessly. Special attention is paid to early collaboration and testing in real-world conditions.

News and Press Releases

PharmaHF
“Welcome to Pharma Human Factors, where a group of dedicated human factors experts explore the intersection of design, usability, and safety within the pharmaceutical industry. Our blog is a collective effort by professionals passionate about improving how people interact with pharmaceutical products, medical devices, and combination products.”

6 ways Johnson & Johnson is using AI to help advance healthcare
“Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing healthcare—from improving surgical training and procedures to equipping healthcare providers with insights and personalizing care for patients around the world. See how the company is harnessing its extraordinary power.”

Fujitsu and Teikyo University begin joint research on UX platform for promotion of lifestyle improvement using XR, spatial computing, and generative AI
"Fujitsu and the Okinaga Research Institute at Teikyo University announced that, as of today, they will begin a full-scale joint research project for the development of a user experience (UX) platform. This platform will help to improve health consciousness and healthcare literacy by increasing patients’ understanding of their internal condition through the use of digital technology, such as extended reality (XR) and spatial computing (1)."

Health icons
“Big update to Healthicons.org! We now support smaller icons on a 24px grid that more closely match Material icons and other popular open source icons like Feather and Remix. We need more volunteers to create most/all icons in smaller sizes if you want to help!”

Inside the Audio Lab: How Apple developed the world’s first end‑to‑end hearing health experience
“Apple’s state-of-the-art Audio Lab in Cupertino, California, supports the innovative work of its acoustic engineers. They use the lab to conduct user studies in various listening rooms and test new features in its anechoic chambers, which completely absorb reflective sounds and isolate external noise.”

Samsung’s New Health Software Development Kit Suite Powers Advancements in Healthcare Innovation
“Upgrades provide tailored support based on the priorities of healthcare industry partners, offering greater flexibility to pioneer innovative solutions”

Samsung Health App Update Makes Accessing Health Records, Managing Medications and Food Tracking Easier
“Samsung is committed to empowering users’ health routines with a seamlessly connected ecosystem of personalized wellness experiences. Samsung Health makes this possible by bringing together fragmented health data into a consolidated platform, enabling users to easily monitor their wellbeing.”

Audio and Video

Breaking into healthcare industry
Designer Mary Borysova hosts an event for “doctors, designers, and researchers interested in healthtech” featuring designers currently working in the field.

Designing for the humans in healthcare with Liz Spangenberg Ph.D
“Join Liz Spangenberg, Ph. D., as she explores the profound impact of human-centred design in healthcare. Learn how prioritising the human element revolutionises solutions with a real-world example showcasing effectiveness. Explore a groundbreaking study in a South African public hospital that reveals how empathetic understanding can transform a radiology environment.“

Anxiety RX (Emotional Design in Healthcare)
Deepshika Sakthivel from UX India 2024.

Scholarly Research

Influence of believed AI involvement on the perception of digital medical advice
Generative AI in medicine offers diagnostic and efficiency benefits but raises concerns about accuracy, equity, and ethics. Collaboration among clinicians, developers, and policymakers is crucial for its responsible integration into healthcare.

Usability Assessment of OpenEMR: Enhancing Healthcare Interactions
This study explores the usability challenges of OpenEMR, a widely-used open-source electronic medical record system, focusing on its interaction design and workflow efficiency. Researchers identified critical usability issues, emphasizing the need for user-centered design to enhance healthcare interactions and improve adoption by clinicians.

Evaluating Privacy Measures in Healthcare Apps Predominantly Used by Older Adults
A privacy risk assessment of 28 healthcare apps designed for older adults revealed significant gaps in compliance with privacy standards, with only 25% mentioning HIPAA and 18% mentioning GDPR, raising concerns about privacy protections and data breaches.

User Experience (UX) Design in Medical Products: Theoretical Foundations and Development Best Practices
This paper emphasizes the critical role of UX design in developing intuitive medical products that improve usability, safety, and patient outcomes while meeting regulatory requirements. A key takeaway: iterative usability testing is vital to identify and address user pain points, ensuring both compliance and a seamless user experience.

Education

Design Control for Medical Devices at UC San Diego
“Developing a new medical device for commercialization is a complex process. The FDA has guidelines that provide a framework for designing and manufacturing medical devices.”

Upcoming Events

Medical Devices & Patient Preference Information
Wednesday, November 20
“Join Orthogonal and the FDA for a discussion on patient preference information for your medical devices.”

In case you missed it

A case study on the design of Tebra's EHR from Jay Trainer.

Reader’s note: scholarly research summaries may be written with the assistance of AI.

Articles

Soumya (Shomo) Mitra on Healthcare UX
Soumya (Shomo) Mitra from Eli Lilly and Company has published a series of articles on Medium on the theme of healthcare UX touching on numerous aspects such as AI, design strategies, color, the impact of data viz, speculative design, legal issues, gathering feedback, and more. Plenty to explore!

EHR Usability: Falling Behind in a Tech-Driven World
Ryan Sullivan highlights the growing gap between the technological advancements in healthcare and the usability of Electronic Health Records (EHR) systems. Despite advances in AI and tech-driven solutions, EHRs continue to struggle with usability issues, leading to frustration among healthcare providers. Sullivan stresses the need for improved user-centered design and better collaboration between tech developers and clinicians to enhance EHR functionality and usability.

From Bedside to Product Development: My Journey as a Nurse Innovator
In an article for The Nursing Beat, a nurse innovator shares her journey from working at the bedside to developing healthcare products. She reflects on how her experience in patient care provided unique insights into product development and highlights the value of collaboration between clinicians and designers. Her story underscores the importance of healthcare professionals as innovators, bridging the gap between practical, on-the-ground experience and the development of impactful healthcare solutions.

AI Is Already Reshaping Healthcare
From IDEO, how AI is reshaping the healthcare industry by enhancing diagnostics, patient care, and overall efficiency. The article emphasizes how AI-driven tools, like predictive algorithms and virtual assistants, are streamlining processes and improving outcomes for both patients and providers. It also highlights the importance of maintaining a human-centered design approach in AI applications to ensure trust, transparency, and effectiveness in healthcare.

2024 guide to personalization in healthcare apps
Ewelina Lech highlights the growing importance of personalization in healthcare apps. She discusses how tailored experiences—whether through data-driven insights, user preferences, or patient-specific care plans—can lead to better engagement, improved health outcomes, and more efficient care. Personalization, Lech argues, is essential for building trust and fostering long-term user loyalty in the healthcare sector.

The role of UX in AI-driven healthcare
Roxanne Leitão offers an insightful comparison of AI and radiologists in diagnosing lung cancer, underlining the role of eXplainable AI (XAI) in decision-making. One notable example highlights how radiologists felt more comfortable disagreeing with AI when their decision wasn’t recorded. It wraps up with eight principles for AI in healthcare, offering practical examples. Definitely worth a read for anyone interested in the intersection of AI and healthcare design.

How to Make a Nutrition App With No Mistakes [2024 Overview]
Evgeniy Altynpara and Yelizaveta Ropalo explain the key steps and considerations for developing a successful diet and nutrition app. They break down essential features such as meal planning, calorie tracking, and user customization, emphasizing the importance of user engagement and intuitive design. They also discusses how integrating AI can enhance the user experience through personalized meal recommendations and progress tracking, making apps more effective and engaging.

Multimodal AI in Modern Healthcare
Liliya Kostetska discusses how multimodal AI is revolutionizing healthcare by combining data from sources like medical images and clinical notes to offer more accurate diagnostics and treatment plans. It showcases use cases in radiology, pathology, and patient monitoring, emphasizing how this approach improves patient outcomes.

Elevating Healthcare Design at One Medical: Reflections on the Past Seven Years
Preethi Raju reflects on seven years of healthcare design at One Medical. She highlights key lessons, such as the importance of empathy, understanding patient needs, and designing for both clinicians and patients. Raju emphasizes that successful healthcare design must balance efficiency, personalization, and trust to create solutions that truly improve the patient experience. This piece offers insights into how designers can make a meaningful impact in healthcare through thoughtful, user-centered design approaches.

Healthcare Product Metrics Benchmark Report 2024
Curious about how healthcare products stack up? This Healthcare Product Metrics Benchmark Report by Userpilot explores key metrics like retention rates, NPS, and user engagement specific to healthcare products. It highlights the unique challenges healthcare SaaS products face, including strict regulations and complex integrations, and offers valuable insights on how to benchmark performance against others in the industry.

Shaping the Future of Oncology Solutions through Experience Design: A Journey of Empathy and Care
How can experience design shape oncology solutions? In this article, Kishore Kankipati explores how empathy and user-centered design are transforming oncology care. Through a journey of understanding patient needs, clinicians’ workflows, and leveraging technology, the article highlights the role of UX in creating more compassionate and effective oncology solutions that address both emotional and practical aspects of care.

News and Press Releases

Apple introduces groundbreaking health features to support conditions impacting billions of people
“Apple Watch delivers new sleep apnea notifications, and AirPods Pro 2 provide the world’s first all-in-one hearing health experience including a clinical-grade, over-the-counter Hearing Aid feature”

Judy Faulkner's succession plan at Epic
Judy Faulkner, the 81-year-old founder and CEO of Epic, has no plans to retire but has arranged for Epic to remain private and employee-owned after her passing. Since starting Epic in the late 1970s, Faulkner has led it to become a major player in hospital EHRs without external funding or acquisitions. Her trust will ensure the company stays private, with governance passed to family members and senior managers. Employees will continue to gain ownership as nonvoting shares are sold back, ensuring Epic’s future remains in the hands of its people. Interestingly, she has stated that the next CEO must be a software developer.

Stress-testing biomedical vision models with RadEdit: A synthetic data approach for robust model deployment
Microsoft’s research team introduces RadEdit, a synthetic data approach aimed at stress-testing biomedical vision models to ensure their robustness for real-world deployment. By generating synthetic medical images with realistic alterations, RadEdit helps identify potential weaknesses in AI models, improving their performance and reliability in clinical settings. This method is crucial for deploying more resilient AI tools in healthcare environments.

Samsung’s New Health Software Development Kit Suite Powers Advancements in Healthcare Innovation
“Upgrades provide tailored support based on the priorities of healthcare industry partners, offering greater flexibility to pioneer innovative solutions”

Audio and Video

Interactive FigJam 101 Challenge: Design for Healthcare
In this interactive FigJam challenge led by UX designer Samaya from Ideate Labs, participants focus on healthcare design by scoping problems and applying inclusive design strategies. The session emphasizes involving diverse communities in the design process and iterating continuously to address specific healthcare challenges. Key insight: co-creating with affected communities is vital for building truly inclusive healthcare solutions.

Unveiling Struggles of Fibroids & Endometriosis w/ UX Research
Want to empower women, especially those in underserved communities, with actionable healthcare insights through technology? In this talk, Michelle Ng (Founder & Designer, Neuemoon Health) explores a case study on healthcare UX, focusing on the challenges within the patient journey and provider dynamics. She delves into how UX research can enhance patient outcomes, particularly in women’s reproductive health issues like uterine fibroids and endometriosis. Watch the video for real-world strategies to improve healthcare design through user-centered research.

Interview with Dr Gyles Morrison: UX Healthcare and whats in store
In this interview, Dr. Gyles Morrison, a clinical UX designer, shares his transition from medicine to UX and discusses the challenges of integrating UX in healthcare, particularly with emerging technologies like AI. He emphasizes the importance of human-centered design in addressing health inequalities and improving patient experiences.

Crafting Digital Brands in Healthcare with Mike Cuesta and Juan Molina, Atomic Health
In this episode, Adam Turinas speaks with Mike Cuesta and Juan Molina from Atomic Health, an experience design agency focused on healthtech, digital health, and life sciences. With over 15 years of expertise, Mike and Juan delve into the challenges of healthcare UX design, balancing data-driven decision-making with creative insight, and strategies for creating effective digital experiences. They cover key topics like progressive disclosure in website design, building scalable brand identities, and adapting B2B marketing strategies for healthcare. This conversation provides actionable insights on creating digital experiences that resonate with diverse healthcare personas.

Saving Lives with UX Design! Dr Gyles Morrison
Dr. Gyles Morrison shares his path in clinical UX, emphasizing the importance of blending medical expertise with UX skills. He highlights the need for formal education, mentorship, and collaboration between UX professionals and clinicians to enhance patient care. Dr. Morrison also warns against over-relying on AI, advocating for human-centered design to ensure safety and innovation in healthcare. The Clinical UX Association (CUXA) supports professionals with training and community building.

Scholarly Research

Design and Psychometric Evaluation of Nurses’ Mobile Health Device Acceptance Scale (NMHDA-Scale): Application of the Expectation-Confirmation Theory
This study focuses on developing and validating the Nurses’ Mobile Health Device Acceptance Scale (NMHDA-Scale) using the Expectation-Confirmation Theory. It highlights the increasing role of mobile health tools in nursing and aims to assess nurses’ acceptance of these tools. The scale, consisting of 33 items across five key factors—application and performance, social impact, perceived ease of use, effectiveness, and new technology anxiety—demonstrated strong validity and reliability, making it a valuable tool for understanding and improving mobile health tool adoption in nursing care.

Understanding older adults’ motivations to use digital health portals
This study explores how older adults perceive and utilize digital health portals (DHPs), with a focus on identifying motivational factors behind their adoption and use. The study integrates Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) to assess intrinsic and extrinsic motivators, such as social influence, ease of use, and perceived usefulness.

Usability, Ergonomics, and Educational Value of a Novel Telestration Tool for Surgical Coaching: Usability Study
This study focuses on assessing the usability and educational value of a first-generation wireless handheld telestration device designed for surgical coaching. The device allows for real-time interaction with live video streams, enabling surgeons to annotate, navigate, and manipulate video feeds during surgical procedures.

Upcoming Events

The Healthcare Design Conference + Expo 2024
October 5-8 • Indiana Convention Center, Indianapolis
“The Healthcare Design Conference + Expo is the ultimate networking, education, and product-sourcing event. Join us for expert insights on the latest trends, best practices, and leading-edge approaches in the planning, design, construction, and ongoing operation of healthcare spaces. Leave with new connections, new ideas for current and future projects, and earn AIA, IDCEC, EDAC, and nursing LUs to meet your continuing education goals.”

UX for Life Sciences Conference 2024 from Pistoia Alliance
October 7-8 • Novartis Campus, Basel, Switzerland
“The User Experience for Life Science conference held this year in-person at Novartis Campus in Basel (CH) will provide insights from UX leaders and practitioners within the User Experience for Life Science Community. Learn about the latest advances in UX within the R&D life sciences and healthcare communities.”

HLTH 2024
October 20-23 • Las Vegas
“The growth in consumer technology is propelled by the shifting landscape in consumers prioritizing their physical and mental health, fitness, sleep, nutrition, and a focus on mindfulness. Employers, pharmaceutical companies, payers, and retail pharmacies have all recognized an opportunity to employ more sophisticated digital tools and services to reimagine and revolutionize healthcare.”

Co-designing personas for digital health
October 24 • London Institute for Healthcare Engineering
“In this workshop, we will explore two approaches to persona creation. First, you will be guided through the ‘traditional’ approach, where personas are created by designers and researchers following earlier work to understand end-users and their experiences (for example via interviews, focus groups, and observations). Here, you will have the chance to practice creating personas based on anonymised data from a prior digital health project. In the second part of the workshop, we will introduce you to another way of creating personas, this time co-designing them with end users.”

Virtual Reality and Healthcare Demo Tour
October 30 • Austin, Texas
“Immerse yourself in the world of virtual reality and witness firsthand how this cutting-edge technology is revolutionizing the healthcare industry. From surgical simulations to mental health therapies, virtual reality is transforming the way we approach healthcare.”

Reader’s note: scholarly research summaries may be written with the assistance of AI.

Articles

Leveraging the Psychology of Color in UX Design for Health and Wellness Apps
The colors used in health apps can significantly influence users’ emotions and behaviors, so it’s crucial to choose hues that align with the app’s goals, while also being culturally sensitive and accessible. For example, calming blues may be ideal for meditation apps, whereas energizing reds could be better suited for workout apps. It’s also important to consider cultural meanings and ensure that color schemes are tested and adjusted for the target audience’s background. Additionally, designing for color accessibility helps make the app inclusive for all users.

As the rush toward AI in healthcare continues, explainability is crucial
When incorporating AI into healthcare, "explainability" in our designs is critical. It's not enough to have AI making smart decisions—people need to understand how it’s doing that, especially in healthcare where trust is everything. If users (whether they’re doctors or patients) don’t feel confident in the AI, it won’t get used. So, as we bring AI into health tech, let’s make sure it’s not just smart, but also transparent and trustworthy.

The UX Paradox in Medical Technology: Bridging Innovation and Usability
Med-tech UX is an even more specialized part of healthcare UX with its own challenges. The author highlights the gap between advanced medical tools and poor user experiences that can impact patient care. The piece also talks about the need for design systems that balance standardization with the flexibility needed for specialized fields, despite regulatory and organizational challenges. It’s a call for cross-functional collaboration to make healthcare tech safer and more efficient. Having worked in this space a lot of this resonates with me.

The Inclusive UX Research Playbook from CVS Health® Inclusive Design
CVS Health has developed an Inclusive UX Research Playbook to ensure their designs are accessible and effective for diverse populations. One interesting takeaway is their emphasis on creating accessible research environments. This includes everything from ensuring physical spaces are welcoming and usable for people with disabilities to offering flexible virtual research options that accommodate various needs. By making research itself accessible, they gather more accurate insights from a wider range of participants, resulting in more inclusive and user-centered design outcomes. Have you ever focused on the usability of your space?

A Brief Guide to AMA Inclusive Language Guidelines
“Language is powerful and can be used to illuminate, explain, heal, hurt, include, or exclude. The English language is evolving constantly, and medical communicators need to stay abreast of best practices. Inclusive language is one way that medical communicators can avoid bias and create a respectful climate for all people.”

Diet and Nutrition Apps Statistics 2024 By Tracking, Health and Wellness
“This introduction delves into the compelling statistics surrounding Diet and nutrition apps, offering insights into their usage, impact on user behavior, market trends, and the evolving landscape of digital health and wellness.”

The Role of Design in US Health Systems
“This report details how 27 health systems have hired, structured, tasked, and measured their designers. It defines 9 diverse contributions of designers and presents impact stories that illustrate the value of a design approach to common healthcare delivery challenges. This report also presents a conceptual model for how designers are already linking those contribution areas to create organizational transformation.”

News and Press Releases

Loss of Pulse Detection: A first-of-its-kind feature on Pixel Watch 3
Behind the scenes article from Google on the design and development of the Loss of Pulse Detection feature on Pixel Watch 3. Testing and validation sound interesting: "Finally, to validate that our technology could function in real-life emergency situations, we partnered with stunt actors to simulate real-world circumstances of loss of pulse. The actors wore tourniquets to artificially induce pulselessness, and then simulated the types of falls that would mimic a person suddenly losing their pulse."

Huey: Healthcare’s first and most advanced AI engine for healthcare experiences
“Meet Huey, healthcare’s first AI engine built for Human Understanding®. Huey is your healthcare experience management companion. It’s embedded in a whole new suite of advanced solutions from NRC Health on healthcare’s most integrated experience platform. At every turn Huey is there to make healthcare a more intentional and human experience for you, your team, and your patients.”

DocPanel UI/UX Design Case Study
“DocPanel, the world’s largest radiology marketplace connecting imaging providers and patients to a network of over 700 US-based academic and subspecialty radiologists who provide final reads, protocol optimization support, and more.”

Audio and Video

Health AI UX: Why Design Matters
Exploring how AI is transforming healthcare design. Key takeaways include the importance of designing intuitive AI chatbots that understand user context, leveraging AI to automate repetitive tasks and free up creative energy, and the critical need for transparency in AI-powered health tools to build user trust. They also discussed how AI can personalize experiences, like fitness apps that adapt in real-time to user data. These insights highlight AI’s growing role in shaping the future of healthcare UX.

Communication and Healthcare Experiences with Jessica Mudry
“Dr. Jessica Mudry is focused on these questions through the work she does at Toronto Metropolitan University. There she is a Professor and Chair of the School of Professional Communication. She also is the Director of the Creative School’s Healthcare User Experience Lab. Here she uses her background in science and communication to generate ideas and create content to improve healthcare outcomes and improve health equity.“

Healthcare Rap: Want to Engage Health Consumers? Get UX Right!
“Ryan Kilgallon, Director of Digital at Overit, shares how putting CX first means putting UX first. There’s still a lot of work that goes into making a website the core of consumer experiences, so Ryan goes back to the basics as he walks us through how his team prioritized engagement and what we can all learn from that process.”

Scholarly Research

The impact of trust, comfortability, usability and technophobia factors on acceptance of health information technology
Thinking about the privacy and security of your product? This study reveals that trust is directly correlated with user comfort and willingness to adopt healthcare technology. For instance, users who trust the system to protect their privacy and securely manage data are significantly more likely to use Personal Health Records (PHRs). The research also highlights that fear of technology can be mitigated by building trust through transparent design and clear communication about security features.

Electronic Health Record Usability, Satisfaction, and Burnout for Family Physicians
“In this survey study of physician EHR usability and satisfaction, approximately one-fourth of family physicians reported being very satisfied with their EHR, while another one-fourth reported being somewhat or very dissatisfied, a concerning finding amplified by the inverse association between EHR satisfaction and burnout. Electronic health record–based alerts had the lowest reported usability, suggesting EHR vendors should focus their efforts on improving alerts. Electronic health record efficiency strategies were broadly adopted, but only physicians with highly usable EHRs realized gains in EHR satisfaction from using these strategies, suggesting that EHR burden-reduction interventions are likely to have heterogenous associations across physicians with different EHRs.”

Designing the Continuous Glucose Monitor Experience: An App Design Process Overview
The study provides an in-depth look at how Dexcom’s design team approached creating the user experience for their new G7 Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) app. They used the Double Diamond design process to gather extensive user feedback, focusing on making the app intuitive, inclusive, and integrated into daily life. A key takeaway is their emphasis on creating a “one app” solution that consolidates multiple functionalities to simplify diabetes management.

Upcoming Events

Lunch & Learn: User Research for Healthtech
Tuesday, September 10, Remote
In this Lunch and Learn session, Martijn van der Heijden, UX consultancy lead, will share: How insightful research in healthcare looks not just at biology and physical processes, but also at psychological factors and effects, and how those two play out in a social context; How to employ different user research methods in the product lifecycle; Case studies from recent research projects, and learnings for your own research. We will end with enough time for Q&A and discussion about your research experiences.

From Theory to Practice: Getting the Most out of Healthcare UX
Tuesday, September 17, Berlin, Germany
“Sign Up for a compelling 2-hour event featuring a keynote by Dr. Gyles Morrison, a London-based clinical UX Strategist. He is available to help clients work on digital therapeutics and health tech projects and will give a talk on how to build products and services that improve health outcomes and contribute to a healthier future for all.”

SDD Berlin x UX Healthcare Conference
Wednesday, September 18, Berlin, Germany
”​Join us for an exciting pre-conference event hosted in collaboration with the Berlin UX Healthcare Conference on September 19, 2024! This free event will feature expert talks and a hands-on workshop focused on re-designing the healthcare experience. You'll have the opportunity to learn from leading voices in healthcare, user experience, design, and technology while engaging in meaningful discussions about the future of healthcare services."

Interactive Figma 101 Challenge: Design for Healthcare
Thursday, September 19, Remote
Solve UX problems for the healthcare industry and build your UX portfolio specializing in UX for healthcare.

Design Fictions for Healthcare Futures
Wednesday, October 9, Remote
“Let's dive into creating imaginative scenarios and prototypes to shape the future of healthcare with Sean Park.”

Virtual Reality and Healthcare Demo Tour
Wednesday, October 30, Austin, Texas
“Experience the future of healthcare with immersive virtual reality demos at the Austin Demo Tour”

In Case You Missed It

The Design & Health Academy
“The International Academy for Design and Health is a leading global interdisciplinary knowledge community dedicated to the stimulation and application of research concerning the interaction between design, health, science and culture.”

Reader’s note: scholarly research summaries were written with the assistance of AI.

Articles

10 Healthcare UX Writing Best Practices
Andrew Kucheriavy shares his 10 gold rules for UX healthcare writing. For example, write with sensitivity to the patient's situation, using neutral or positive wording depending on where they are in their healthcare journey.

Beyond the Blues: Vibrant Colors Shaping Healthcare Apps
I’ve said before that purple is the new blue in healthcare, and it’s the first color discussed on this list.

Human Factors Testing Is the Key to Approval & Profitability in the Medical Device Industry
“The client had about two million of these devices sitting in a warehouse, presumably unusable. Later, after purported repairs were made, the client requested a new round of testing. The success rate improved, but some devices did fail. In the end, the client spent about $500,000 on human factors testing performed too late in the process. The product never made it into the market.”

4 ways to rebrand AI in healthcare
Here are four ways to give AI a fresh look in healthcare: think of AI as a tool that boosts human abilities, make sure its decisions are clear and understandable, ensure it's fair and unbiased, and showcase how it can make patient care better and healthcare operations smoother. These strategies are all about building trust and getting people to embrace AI in the medical field.

What we should learn from top healthcare apps about signup and onboarding
Exploring how the most popular mental health apps approach signup and onboarding. Simplicity and clarity in the signup and onboarding process for apps. Leading apps focus on minimizing friction, guiding users step-by-step, and making the experience intuitive to quickly engage new users and encourage them to continue using the app.

Lessons on design for high engagement from top nutrition app Zoe
Reviewing Zoe Health, a top app in personalized nutrition. Zoe really nails high engagement by making the experience feel personal and science-backed. They use personalized data and educational content to keep users interested and motivated. It's all about making users feel like the app truly understands and supports their unique health journey.

Leveraging Generative AI For Breakthroughs In Medical Device Design
How AI is changing the game in medical device design by speeding up the process and allowing for super personalized devices that fit individual patients perfectly. This means better treatments and faster innovation. It also points out the need for teamwork between tech experts, doctors, and policymakers to make sure AI is used effectively and responsibly in healthcare.

AI Meets Analog: Harmonizing Mock-ups With Generative AI
Combining traditional mock-ups with generative AI in healthcare design can create a more balanced and efficient approach. This blend allows designers to experiment with innovative ideas quickly while still relying on the tactile and intuitive feedback that physical mock-ups provide, leading to better overall design outcomes.

News and Press Releases

watchOS 11 brings powerful health and fitness insights, and even more personalization and connectivity
“Introducing the Vitals app, training load, new ways to tailor Activity rings, intelligent customization of the Smart Stack and Photos face, and the Translate app on Apple Watch.”

5 ways Amazon is using AI to help transform health care
“Discover how Amazon is investing in AI to improve the health care industry for patients and providers.”

4 principles to guide AI in supporting mental health
“There are exciting opportunities for AI to help support people’s mental health, but responsible development is key.”

Samsung’s Expanded Wearables Portfolio Unlocks Intelligent Health Experiences for All
“Samsung Galaxy Ring, Galaxy Watch7 and Galaxy Watch Ultra enable new, intelligent health experiences across the portfolio, making everyday wellness more meaningful.”

Video

Importance of Caring and Community. Journey into healthcare!
Alejandra Villacis Miranda interviews Thomas Wilson. This is the first instalment in a list of interviews for UX Healthcare.

UX Healthcare Design London 2024
A full playlist of sessions recorded at UX Healthcare Design conference in London.

Scholarly Research

Expert gaze as a usability indicator of medical AI decision support systems: a preliminary study
The article investigates using expert gaze behavior to evaluate the usability of AI decision support systems in dental radiography. It finds that while AI increases task time, it minimally affects experts' visual inspection patterns, although more attention is given to AI-related interface elements. This suggests that AI influences user interaction, which could impact the efficiency of medical diagnostics.

Heuristics used for evaluating the usability of mobile health applications: A systematic literature review
The article systematically reviews and identifies 20 key heuristics for evaluating the usability of mobile health applications. These heuristics are categorized into 10 established and 10 new ones, tailored to improve usability and enhance patient safety in mHealth applications. The study emphasizes the need for domain-specific heuristics and robust validation to ensure effective usability evaluations in healthcare.

Upcoming

Advancing AR/VR in Medicine
August 15, 2024
“Join this exciting event, where we invite innovators, clinicians, researchers, and entrepreneurs to showcase the almost infinite possibilities in which these technologies drive innovation and improve healthcare outcomes. You are not going to get this content elsewhere.”

Reader’s note: scholarly research summaries were written with the assistance of AI.

Articles

What are the Most Recognizable Logos in the Healthcare Industry?
“As part of one of their most recent studies, Tebra surveyed 1,005 adults about their ability to recall, identify, and draw healthcare brands. In doing so, they also asked a subgroup of 111 respondents to draw six healthcare logos from memory.”

Leveraging Generative AI For Breakthroughs In Medical Device Design
Generative AI is shaking up medical device design by speeding up the creation of customized, patient-specific devices, making treatments more effective and recovery times shorter, thanks to advanced algorithms that quickly develop and refine new prototypes.

Digital Experience Scale for Patients (DES/P)
“My team and I have spent the last 25+ years leading UX solutions for global brands, and our most impactful work yet is a framework created for and with patients. It’s called the Digital Experience Scale for Patients (DES/P).”

Mobbin Healthcare App Flows
If you're a Mobbin user, they've recently added Whoop, Headspace, and Flo to their library. Looks like Whoop and Headspace are open to free account levels, Flo requires a pro account for the full screen set.

Healthcare UX Best Practices
Mary Borysova has been sharing healthcare UX best practices in a series of posts on LinkedIn

Silicon Valley Awards Best Health User Experience Award
Apply to the Silicon Valley Awards Best Health User Experience Award. I'm not familiar with this award, but seems legit. Deadline is June 10th.

Tackling Healthcare’s Silent Hazard: Reducing Patient Falls with UX Design
“Patient falls in hospitals are a silent yet significant hazard. They can be traumatic for patients and are among the most common incidents reported in hospital settings. As a UX Specialist, I was intrigued by the challenge of reducing the number of patient falls and improving medical staff response.”

Five Healthcare Spaces that Reimagine Patient-Centered Design
For something a little different, here are some creative physical healthcare spaces. Be sure to click through to the projects for photos.

JD Power Healthcare Digital Experience Study
"Healthcare Should Look to Other Industries to Drive Digital Transformation, J.D. Power Says". The full report is for-pay, but you can read a summary for free.

Why your health app should not be “designed by doctors”
Should doctors design apps? Perhaps not, unless they're also trained in design. I'm not sure "Designed by doctors" is a tag line I've actually seen very often, maybe "Designed with doctors" is better? Or "Clinically informed design"?

Can AI Tools be Integrated into Science Communication?
Interesting article demonstrating how AI can assist artists in medical illustration. Starting with a concept and prompt given to Midjourney, illustrators consider the color palette, style, and composition and use that as inspiration to create something new by hand.

News and Press Releases

Apple Vision Pro unlocks new opportunities for health app developers
"Breakthrough health and wellness apps are designed to take advantage of the infinite canvas in visionOS, unveiling spatial experiences that benefit users in clinical settings and at home”. I can't help but notice that Epic simply couldn't resist slapping a garish logo on their UI.

Video

Awkward Silences #147 - UX Research in Healthcare with Nadyne Richmond
“Erin and Carol explore the complexities of healthcare research with Nadyne Richmond, a healthcare design advisor with a background in big tech who pivoted to healthcare research a decade ago to tackle the pressing issues she saw in the system.”

Using UX to make appointments simpler for doctors / Building in Public Ep 7
Another insightful video from Robert Floyd as he designs and builds the patient appointment feature for Alloy Health.

Audio

Hiring Conversational Designers w/ Aaron Cooper, Banner Health’s Sr. Dir. of Digital Experience
As conversational AI continues to change the nature of UX, we’re excited to bring you a practical (and thorough) conversation about hiring design talent with Aaron Cooper, Senior Director of Digital Experience at Banner Health.

Scholarly Research

Nurse-centered co-design of an electronic health record nursing summary
This paper describes how involving nurses in the co-design process of electronic health record (EHR) nursing summaries can improve their usability and relevance, highlighting the importance of displaying vital signs prominently and reducing irrelevant data for better patient care.

Want to help?

If you’d like to help support the Design with Care community, drop me a line at alex@designwith.care or send me a message in Discord.

Thank you!

Reader’s note: scholarly research summaries were written with the assistance of AI.

Articles

5 Design Principles for eHealth
Good principles from Brett Warren. The first one really resonates with me. "Assume people won’t receive training". At one of my past roles, I worked on a very complex business intelligence application for health systems. Users were expected to receive training in order to be able to use it, but of course that didn't always happen. The principle doesn't solve the problem of making the software more intuitive, but at least it sets the right expectation.

Digital Health Collaborative
“The Digital Health Collaborative is a group of leading healthcare and consumer organizations that share a commitment to “raising the bar” for evidence and value in digital health technology.”

Sanofi Health Rebrand
Sanofi wins “Distinction” in the 2024 Rebrand awards. See their “before” and “after” identities across digital, print, signage, and more.

2024 Healthcare UX Design Award Winners
Some really interesting winners in the Health category at the Spring 2024 UX Design Awards. Many are still concepts, but interesting nonetheless.

Mind Over Matter: The Placebo Effect in Artificial Intelligence and User Experience
Interesting take on ethically managing patient expectations around AI and digital tools. Aiming to describe genuine benefits rather than inflated perceptions will foster trust with the user.

V3+ Framework for Sensor Based Digital Health Tech
Verification and Validation is pretty standard for Software as a Medical Device. What's interesting is that they've added Usability Validation as a fourth (equal) component. This lends more credibility to the importance of usability for anyone using this framework or one similar.

From thinking to knowing: user research in healthcare
I like this from their "Lessons Learned" during the "Develop" phase of their process: "Consider ways to speak to people who might not come forward to take part in online testing. Can you run workshops with community groups, or find ways to work with people with accessibility needs?"

Video

Strategy of Healthcare UX - Commercialization of Healthcare panel
“Our panel of medical, health, and UX experts will discuss healthcare commercialization. Panelists: Amy Oughton, Christopher Bredie, and Dr. Gyles Morrison”

Why nurses should help design new healthcare technology
“Connie White Delaney, dean and professor at the University of Minnesota School of Nursing, discusses the pivotal role technology and informatics play in nursing, as well as the need to involve nurses in the design and testing of new digital tools.”

Audio

Rolake’s Story: Medicine + Design = &Matter
“My sister, Kima Cooper, joins me for a heartfelt conversation where we explore my transition from being a doctor to becoming a healthcare graphic designer and creating &MATTER.”

Scholarly Research

Application of a user experience design approach for an EHR-based clinical decision support system
“The article presents a study applying a user experience (UX) design approach to the development of a clinical decision support (CDS) system for pediatric asthma, aiming to enhance usability and physician engagement by understanding their workflows, decision-making processes, and needs through mixed-methods research involving interviews and surveys.”

Usability of Health Care Price Transparency Data in the United States: Mixed Methods Study
“The research paper examines the usability of health care price transparency (PT) data in the U.S., finding that the current PT information's poor usability and inconsistent formats do not meet the requirements for being consumer-friendly or machine-readable as mandated by legislation​​.”

Physicians’ and Patients’ Expectations From Digital Agents for Consultations: Interview Study Among Physicians and Patients
“The study explored whether digital agents like ChatGPT could improve medical consultations, treatment adherence, and health literacy. Interviews with patients and physicians helped shape three digital agent concepts—a silent expert, a communicative expert, and a digital companion—to support the healthcare journey. Despite openness to digital aid, there were reservations, leading to nine design requirements for such agents to enhance consultations and health literacy effectively.”

Upcoming Events

April 11 - 12, 2024
Healthcare UX London Conference 2024
“This conference will bring together designers, practitioners, clinicians, technologists and thought leaders linked by a common belief and a shared obsession: We can alter and improve our health care experience. From the food we eat to the tools we use and the hospitals and hospices we reside in, we can make a difference. We are looking to partner with speakers and sponsors that want to make a difference in Healthcare UX. A better healthcare experience is waiting on us.”

Thursday, April 18
Shaping HealthTech Futures with User Centered Design
“This engaging webinar will feature a panel of seasoned experts who will explore the potential to revolutionize the standard of care, minimize risk, and improve patient outcomes. Take advantage of this opportunity to gain valuable insights from our expert panelists and understand the future of healthcare technology.”

In Case You Missed It

Trafik Design Assets
Trafik are sharing some free beautiful animated healthcare icons as well as static icons and a presentation template. Very nicely designed.

Want to help?

If you’d like to help support the Design with Care community, drop me a line at alex@designwith.care or send me a message in Discord.

Thank you!

Reader’s note: scholarly research summaries were written with the assistance of AI.

Articles

Patients Value Convenience When Filling Prescriptions, But It’s Up to Providers to Optimize Experiences
Research from 2022 and 2024 finds that 96% of adults continue to rely on pharmacy apps, but finds that perceived usability is declining. One theory is that younger generations of higher expectations around usability than older generations.

9 Digital Healthcare UX Trends 2024
Most “trend” articles are so vague as to not be helpful, but this one provides some specific examples and explores some areas that are typically ignored.

Navigating Well-being: UX Insights from an MHealth App for Healthcare Providers
“The project aims to prioritize mental well-being among healthcare professionals through an intuitive MHealth app. Our mission is to provide a supportive platform tailored to their needs, fostering resilience and promoting holistic wellness in their demanding roles.”

Intelly App Design & UX: Navigating Healthcare Solutions
“In today's digital age, the intersection of technology and healthcare has never been more critical. A standout example of this synergy is the Intelly healthcare app, masterfully designed by Sigma Software. This project showcases an exemplary approach to app design and user experience (UX), tailored for the telemedicine and remote medical care industry, which has seen significant growth due to a rising demand for accessible virtual healthcare solutions.”

Bedroom blunders: The hidden usability issues of hospital-at-home devices
A review of the list of the top ten health technology hazards for 2024 from ECRI.

Virgin Pulse and HealthComp rebrand as Personify Health
“The industry’s first personalized health platform company combines health, wellbeing, and navigation solutions to deliver powerful outcomes to businesses and their people.”

Video

Deep Dive conversation with Philips Sounds designers
“Philips Sounds improves both the customer/patient experience and employee/caregiver situation in hospitals. The project demonstrates an excellent end-to-end experience design to co-create and redesign one of the iconic healthcare sounds for creative purposes."

How UX can help doctors find anything in their EHR
“Building In Public is a raw, in-depth look at current work on healthcareOS. In this week's episode of building in public, I'm showing you how I'm using UX to help doctor's find anything they need.” Robert Floyd is Building in Public his startup, Alloy Health. In this latest video, he shares his modular approach to displaying information.

Dr. Craig Joseph Introduces Designing for Health
“There are many books about design, but a recent book by Craig Joseph, MD and Jerome Pagani, Designing for Health: The Human-Centered Approach, applies design principles to EHRs and to IT systems in general. In this video, Dr. Joseph, chief medical officer at Nordic, explains some of the experiences and achievements that lay behind the book.”

Healthcare UX—Design that Saves Lives
“In this episode we will talk about Websites UX in HealthCare—Design that Saves Lives. UX design has the potential to improve people’s everyday lives. The stakes are even higher if you work as a UX designer in the healthcare industry. The health-tech sector is among the fastest-growing in the world, with expected revenue of USD 1,305.1 billion in 2030, according to Grand View Research. As a UX designer, you have the opportunity to help define the future of healthcare.”

How to create a great digital user experience in healthcare with Chris Baldock
“The best digital user experiences are simple and easy to use - intuitive. Achieving this takes a lot of hard work and expertise to engineer. This is especially the case in healthcare, where digital products need to work effectively at launch and cannot simply be optimised post launch, as often occurs in other industries. As a result, a lot of work must go into ‘getting it right’ during the development stages.”

Usability Testing: Why Can’t We Get It Right?
“This on-demand webinar, hosted by Greenlight Guru, delves into the complexities and challenges of usability testing in the medical device industry. It critically examines current practices and explores how usability testing can be improved while meeting regulatory requirements.”

Education

MS in Health Communication, Visual & Digital Health Communication Concentration
Boston University Metropolitan College
“The Master of Science in Health Communication concentration in Visual & Digital Health Communication examines the impact of the communication technology revolution on the field of health marketing and communication.”

Inclusive Digital Design in Health: Interfaces and Intersectionality
Loughborough University
“A new Vice-Chancellor’s Cluster of PhD Studentships is being established at Loughborough University on ‘Digital Communities and Inclusion’ starting in October 2024. Six projects will examine timely and important issues on how ‘the digital’ is being used to create new communities, encourage more inclusive community engagement, or where digital exclusion is impacting lived experiences.”

Scholarly Research

Improving quality of care for patients receiving care through telehealth in the time of COVID-19 global pandemic and beyond: HCI-based leading indicators for virtual visits
The paper discusses the development of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)-based leading indicators to improve the quality of telehealth services, leveraging Nielsen’s usability heuristics and mapping them to quality of care aspects for better user interface evaluation in virtual visits during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic​​.

Nurse-centered co-design of an electronic health record nursing summary
The study explores the co-design of an electronic health record (EHR) nursing summary with clinical nurses to better align the layout and vital sign visualizations with nurses' needs and workflows, highlighting the importance of involving end-users in the design process to enhance utility and user satisfaction​​.

Evaluating Users’ Experiences of a Child Multimodal Wearable Device: Mixed Methods Approach
The study assesses parents' and children's experiences with a child-specific multimodal wearable device, utilizing mixed methods to explore usability, privacy, and the impact of its use in home settings, aiming to improve child development research through enhanced user experience​​.

Usability and Evaluation of a Health Information System in the Emergency Department: Mixed Methods Study
The study evaluates the usability and impact of a health information system in an emergency department, demonstrating its high usability and positive effect on patient and family member experience by providing necessary information, thereby enhancing control and understanding of the care process​​.

Upcoming Events

Clinical UX Association Launch Event
Thursday, March 21st
“During this event, discover the future of CUX, learn from industry leaders, and become part of this growing community. Get insights on current challenges, opportunities, and how CUXA will elevate your professional practice. Membership to the CUXA will also go live during the launch event.”

SXSW Interactive Health and MedTech Track
March 8th - 12th
“Addressing how technological and social changes are impacting one of the world’s largest industries, the Health & MedTech content will cover everything from patient-centric care and gene editing to health equity and 3D-printed human organs.”

Healthcare UX Jobs

Senior UX Designer at CVS Health (Chicago, USA)

UX/UI Designer at ClosedLoop (Austin, Tx, USA)

UX/UI Designer at Sworkit Health (remote, USA)

UI/UX designer at Mochi Health (San Francisco, USA)

Senior UX Designer-Patient Monitoring at Philips (Cambridge, MA, USA)

Senior UX Designer – Health & Wellness at Walmart (Bellevue, Washington, USA)

In Case You Missed It

The Human Side of Healthcare Tech: A UX Researcher’s Take
Advancing drug discovery. Helping treatments reach patients faster. Diversifying clinical trials. Using tech to make the world healthier can feel incredibly rewarding. But working as a product researcher in healthcare comes with a unique set of challenges (and hilarious moments!). As I reflect on my experiences in digital health, I believe these insights can help set expectations for your next role too.

Want to help?

If you’d like to help Design with Care grow and support the greater healthcare UX community, drop me a line at alex@designwith.care or send me a message in Discord.

Thank you!

Reader’s note: scholarly research summaries were written with the assistance of AI.

Articles

UX Writing for a Medical Platform: Writing for Patients
Founding designer Sehyun Jeon’s tips on writing for patients. Use straightforward language, provide extra details, and use images to support text.

Design with Dignity: Human-Centered Healthcare Design
While UX designers are typically focused on digital experiences, we need to think outside of that space and understand the entire patient journey including architectural spaces.

Fostering well-being in healthcare through experience design
Michael Siepmann emphasizes the importance of looking beyond usability and user experience and inquiring about the impact on users’ emotional and behavioral well-being.

Optimizing Medical Device Design: A Comprehensive Guide to User-Centered Engineering
Part 2 of a 7-part series on user-centered engineering for medical device design, specifically how to incorporate human factors engineering into a solution that meets FDA and IEC regulations.

Home Medical Device Usability Tops ECRI Hazard List
“Usability challenges with medical devices in the home tops the 2024 list of health technology hazards in a report from ECRI, a nonprofit patient safety organization. The Top 10 list also includes concerns related to artificial intelligence and data security.”

United Healthcare: When UX Missteps Meet Healthcare's Hidden Hurdles
Product teardown from Kristen Berman. “When it comes to UX, the devil is in the details. This is especially true in healthcare, as I was reminded recently when my dad transitioned from Aetna to United Healthcare. So today we’re putting healthcare UX on the examination table (spoiler: the patient is in critical condition).”

Is Apple’s new Vision Pro a health care machine? Sharp Healthcare thinks so
“San Diego hospital system is exploring the use of the technology at its new Spatial Computing Center of Excellence program.”

Video

UX in Healthcare | Varuna Iyer | Head of Digital Design and UX | Dr. Reddy's Laboratories | D Talks
“Varuna is a seasoned cross-functional designer and respected design educator, currently holding the role of Head of Digital Design and UX at Studio 5B-DRL. Holding nearly 12 years of multifaceted experience within the "Idea to Market" product domain, she is renowned for her unwavering dedication to customer satisfaction, commitment to quality, and sharp business focus. Her problem-solving expertise spans across four diverse geographic regions, showcasing her adaptability and global perspective.”

Nate Bauer: UX, Agile, and Healthcare Innovation Projects
“In this episode of "Behind the Build," Nate Bauer takes center stage to explore the dynamic fusion of UX, Agile methodologies, and Healthcare Innovation Projects. As the host of this podcast, Nate shares his unique perspective on these crucial intersections.”

How Creativity and AI Will Save Healthcare - med+Design Podcast
“Join us for an exploration of creativity, AI, and design thinking in healthcare. This episode features an in-depth discussion around the developed 'MIDST' framework (Momentum, Insight, Daydream, Shift, and Try) and its application in stimulating and cultivating creativity. We also delve into the implications and applications of AI, particularly in enhancing ideation and solution generation with an 'empathy first' approach.”

Scholarly Research

Applying User-Centered Design Methods to Improve The Experience of the NHS APP
The paper examines the application of user-centered design methods to enhance the NHS app experience, focusing on identifying user pain points, improving usability, and incorporating user feedback for a more intuitive and satisfying user interface.

Nurse-centered co-design of an electronic health record nursing summary
The paper presents a study on the co-design of electronic health record (EHR) nursing summaries with clinical nurses, highlighting the importance of nurse involvement in design processes to create summaries that better meet their needs and support nursing workflow.

Factors affecting engagement with a patient portal in a tertiary children's hospital: A qualitative study
The paper explores barriers to caregiver engagement with a patient portal in a children's hospital, finding factors such as technical difficulties, design issues, and the need for better integration into caregivers' lives, all analyzed through the Technology Acceptance Model.

Effectiveness and User Perception of an In-Vehicle Voice Warning for Hypoglycemia: Development and Feasibility Trial
The paper discusses the development and feasibility of an in-vehicle voice warning system for hypoglycemia in drivers with type 1 diabetes, focusing on its effectiveness and user perceptions to enhance driving safety.

Trust in and Acceptance of Artificial Intelligence Applications in Medicine: Mixed Methods Study
The paper explores factors influencing trust and acceptance of AI applications in medicine, identifying key aspects like human, technology-related, ethical, legal, and environmental considerations through a mixed-methods study involving literature review and stakeholder surveys.

Acceptability of a Text Message‐Based Mobile Health Intervention to Promote Physical Activity in Cardiac Rehabilitation Enrollees: A Qualitative Substudy of Participant Perspectives
The paper investigates the acceptability of a text message-based mobile health intervention aimed at promoting physical activity among cardiac rehabilitation enrollees, emphasizing the need for increased customization to individual health goals and the inclusion of clinical and social support to enhance effectiveness.

The Goldilocks Dilemma on Balancing User Response and Reflection in mHealth Interventions: Observational Study
The study investigates the impact of varying levels of reflection and response burdens in text message-based mHealth interventions on user engagement, revealing that higher reflection demands decrease engagement, with insights into optimizing engagement for behavior change.

Upcoming Events

Wednesday and Thursday, February 7th and 8th
US Annual Medical Device Human Factors and Usability Engineering Conference
“US Annual Medical Device Human Factors and Usability Engineering Conference is designed to bring together luminaries, professionals, and researchers from various disciplines to explore the critical role of human factors and usability engineering in ensuring medical devices’ safety, effectiveness, and user satisfaction.”

Friday and Saturday, February 23rd and 24th
Texas Healthcare Challenge Hackathon
“The Texas Healthcare Challenge (TXHCC) is a two-day hackathon fostering innovative solutions to healthcare problems. Participants pitch problems, form teams, and use design thinking to create products, business models, and go-to-market strategies. The event includes keynote talks, hacking, mentorship, presentations, judging, and prizes. An opportunity that fosters innovative thinking and solutions.”

March 8th - 12th
SXSW Interactive Health & MedTech Track
This is a specialized track within the SXSW Interactive Conference.

Tuesday, March 19th
Master of Arts in Design focused on Health Info Session
“Learn more about the Master of Arts in Design focused on Health at The University of Texas at Austin.”

Thursday, March 21st
Power of AI in Healthcare - Human Factors and Safety
“Understand the current landscape of AI and its benefits in healthcare, Gain insights into human factors in AI Integration, Identify best practices and encourage further research.”

March 24th - 27th
International Symposium on Human Factors and Ergonomics in Health Care
“This educational event is your opportunity to learn insights on the latest science and best practices, understand innovations in the safety of healthcare providers and patients, sharpen the focus of HF/E initiatives, and improve your regulatory approaches.”

Remote Healthcare UX Jobs

Director of Product Design / User Experience (m/f/x) at Ada
“As part of our rapid growth, we are looking for a Director of User Experience to drive and oversee Ada’s product design and user research strategy across the company and provide sound strategic guidance, vision and direction to our user experience team within the organization.”

Senior Product Designer: Growth at Found
“Found is an evidence-based weight care platform that combines the best of modern medicine with lasting behavior change, access to personalized coaching, and a supportive community. Centered around clinical excellence, Found provides its members with a doctor-designed, comprehensive, and personalized weight loss program that delivers long-term, sustainable results.”

Lead Product Designer at Sesame
“Sesame is the home for Americans who have been priced out of the traditional healthcare system. Whether they are uninsured or burdened by high-deductible insurance, the Sesame marketplace brings millions of Americans access to the healthcare they need at a fraction of the typical price.”

In Case You Missed It

Designing Digital Experiences for Participants in a National Health Research Program
A case study of The All of Us Research Program from GoInvo.

Want to help?

If you’d like to help Design with Care grow and support the greater healthcare UX community, drop me a line at alex@designwith.care or send me a message in Discord.

Thank you!

Since I launched Design with Care this past summer, a number of people have reached out and offered to help in some way. I’ve never been great about asking for or accepting help, so I put it on the back burner. For 2024 I’d like to change that, and I’ve begun shaping up some initiatives and, well, I’d love some help moving them forward.

To give you some idea of what I’m looking for, opportunities include content creation, community research, event curation, healthcare product design curation, community engagement, social media promotion, etc. I’ve created a volunteer group in the Discord for further conversation. And of course I’d love to hear about your special powers and how we might collaborate.

If you’d like to help out in some way, drop me a line at alex@designwith.care or send me a message in the Discord and I’ll add you to the volunteer group.

Thank you!

What’s New in Healthcare UX

Articles

Case Study: OptimallyMe – Health Tech Platform
Spaceberry Studio designed a health tech platform, OptimallyMe, which integrates blood and DNA test results with smart devices for a comprehensive health overview. The project involved redefining the user experience with features like DNA tests, diet plans, and health tracking, emphasizing intuitive design and technical precision.

Embracing the Invisible: Enhancing User Experience Through ‘No Interface’ Design
Jessica Dorazio explores 'No Interface' design, a concept promoting natural interaction with technology without noticeable interfaces. Highlighted by Golden Krishna's book, it emphasizes simplicity and efficiency in UX design, advocating for value delivery through existing user environments. The approach is exemplified in a case study on digital patient education for chronic kidney disease, utilizing SMS and email for seamless, personalized content delivery without traditional apps or platforms.

News and Press Releases

Lifelong Health by Design from IDEO
Founded by former IDEO members, Omada Health has evolved from a research project into a leading healthcare provider combating chronic diseases. Utilizing digital tools, behavior change methods, and health coaching, Omada offers personalized care plans for managing conditions like diabetes and hypertension. With nearly 2,000 employers as partners and over a million users, Omada demonstrates the effectiveness of design thinking in healthcare, focusing on user needs and evidence-based solutions for chronic disease management.

ePub book: Designing for Wellness: UX Strategies for the Healthcare Industry
“Dive into the dynamic intersection of design and healthcare with this insightful guide, a must-read for professionals looking to excel in the burgeoning field of healthcare UX. This book is an essential resource that opens the door to a world where user experience meets patient care, offering a deep dive into the principles, challenges, and innovations shaping this vital industry.“

Generative AI meets design to envision universal healthcare
Map Project Office and Modem Works introduce the Smart Aid Kit, using generative AI to make healthcare globally accessible. This kit includes AI-enhanced medical tools like a stethoscope and skin analyzer, designed for underserved areas, offering diagnostics and medical advice.

Usability Re-Imagined: Zyter|TruCare Unveils Intuitive Design in 10.2 Release
Zyter|TruCare's latest update focuses on intuitive design and user-centric features, drawing from extensive customer feedback. The 10.2 release introduces the new 'Centrifuge' design system, offering streamlined navigation, web and mobile synchronization, consistent aesthetics, adaptive design, and revamped login interfaces, enhancing usability in digital health technology.

Video

Usability for Medical Devices with Michael Engler
“The Medical Device field is so big that we have a specialist for each type of area. This is like a Surgeon who is a specialist in the heart, the orthopedic… Here we have with us a specialist for Usability, and this is really a big field that you need to understand. IEC 62366 is a standard that is important to know as all devices that have a user interface should show they can be safe, and that the user understands it. So, don’t miss this episode.”

Human Factors, AI & Safety
“AI is expected to revolutionize healthcare and new applications are continually appearing. This presentation will examine some of the current and future challenges and opportunities for AI in healthcare, taking a human factors and safety science perspective. Human factors considerations have included issues around and how to best integrate AI into clinical workflow and support human decision making. Methods for analyzing AI-human interaction will be discussed, ranging from laboratory-based studies to new types of evaluations involving simulations and naturalistic testing. The presentation will discuss how such approaches need to be applied to ensure both the usability and safety of AI applications in healthcare.”

Apps for Healthcare: Design and Development Insights from Olof Söderbaum, VP of Product at Kry
“Our discussion centers around app healthcare development, particularly in the medical app domain, with insights from Olof's experience at Kry. He has spent over 4 years at Kry, Europe's leading digital healthcare platform. With @krysverige users can video chat with healthcare professionals like doctors, nurses, and psychologists in just minutes. So far, they've facilitated over 8 million online consultations. They've recently expanded their services to include Sweden, Norway, the UK, and France. In their 8-year history, they've attracted an impressive $730 million in investment, and they're still growing. Olof serves as the Head of Product and Design at Kry, overseeing the teams responsible for building and creating Kry’s products and experiences.”

‘Unleashing the power of storytelling in healthcare design’ with Joanna Domagalska from Roche
“In this talk, we will dive into the world of storytelling. We will discover what opportunities do stories bring to the world of digital products, how are they constructed, and what building blocks we, as UX designers, already have at our disposal that can empower us to seamlessly integrate storytelling into our work.”

UI UX Pharmacist? How this Pharmacist Stepped Into the World of Design with Theary Chhim
“In today's episode, we are thrilled to introduce Theary Chhim, a professional whose career journey has taken a fascinating turn from the world of pharmacy to the realm of UX/UI design. Theary's transition reflects her adaptability and unwavering commitment to exploring new horizons within the healthcare and technology landscape.”

Scholarly Research

Digital Health Equity and Tailored Health Care Service for People With Disability: User-Centered Design and Usability Study
This study focuses on enhancing digital health equity for people with disabilities through a user-centered design platform integrating Internet of Things devices and patient-generated health data. Key findings include improved eHealth literacy and satisfaction among users, highlighting the importance of considering the specific needs of disabled individuals, caregivers, and healthcare professionals in digital health service design to promote inclusivity and equity.

Developing a virtual patient: design, usability, and learning effect in communication skills training
This study developed a virtual patient (VP) application to improve communication skills in medical students. It demonstrated significant improvements in students' communication abilities, with effective user interaction and increased usability, suggesting that VPs can be a valuable tool in medical training for enhancing essential skills like history taking and clinical reasoning.

Acceptability and usability of the Planning Advance Care Together (PACT) website for improving patients' engagement in advance care planning
The Planning Advance Care Together (PACT) website, aimed at involving patients with advanced cancer and their loved ones in advance care planning, was found to be usable and acceptable. Feedback from patients, caregivers, and experts suggests the need for improvements in navigation and content to better address the emotional aspects of care planning.

Co-design of Human-centered, Explainable AI for Clinical Decision Support
A comprehensive study on the development and redesign of a clinical decision support system (CDSS) that incorporates explainable artificial intelligence (XAI). This study is important for understanding how healthcare professionals interact with AI systems and the impact of explanations on their decision-making process.

Upcoming Events

Breaking into UX: Early Career Discussion
“Sara began her career at Google, where she started as a Hiring Rotation Associate (HR program for new grads) and transitioned to become the first UX Researcher at Google Health. While at Google Health, her work included improving the usability of cancer diagnostic software, internationalizing an AI-powered eye disease diagnostic tool, and improving the user experience of finding health information on Google Search.”

Designing for Digital Inclusion in Healthcare
“We believe digital is now a wider determinant of health. As well as shaping access to health and care services, digital impacts across all aspects of our lives, affecting our opportunities and shaping health inequalities. Digital technologies and online services can improve health and wellbeing – as long as people have the access, skills, confidence and support to benefit.”

Human-Centered: Health Design Student Symposium 2023
“Join us virtually on Wednesday, January 31, 2024 live from the Health Design Lab (or in-person via the link below) for the exciting culmination of the Phase 1 Scholarly Inquiry Design program. Our students in the Design Track at Sidney Kimmel Medical College (SKMC) will be presenting their health design projects!”

Healthcare UX Jobs

Senior UX Designer, McKesson (Remote)
“As a member of the CoverMyMeds UX Team, you will be tasked with understanding user behavior and their interaction with current and potential solutions to generate new insights to help evolve our product offerings.”

In case you missed it

Designing for usability in healthcare packaging
The article discusses the importance of user-centered design in healthcare packaging, emphasizing the need to accommodate the aging nurse population and reduce user errors through standards and innovations in packaging design. It highlights industry efforts to integrate human factors engineering, as encouraged by the FDA, to enhance patient safety and improve healthcare outcomes.

Articles

How to design better user experiences for physicians
The article discusses the role of UX design in enhancing the efficiency and experience of physicians in the US healthcare system, addressing challenges like paperwork, burnout, and system inefficiencies with innovative digital solutions.

Panel discussion: patient engagement and communication “It’s about designing for usability, and easy user experience”
This panel discussion featured healthcare professionals exploring digital patient engagement and communication strategies, focusing on using technology to improve patient experiences, accessibility, and empowerment, while addressing challenges in digital transformation within the healthcare system.

Illiterate-Accessible UX: Nivaara’s inclusive design for rural healthcare
This is a case study by Kumar Lakshya on designing Nivaara, an application aimed at providing illiterate or low-literate women in rural India with accessible healthcare information, emphasizing the use of intuitive interfaces, voice feedback, and visual aids to bridge literacy gaps and empower primary caregivers.

Top 5 UX Issues | State Health Exchanges
This article highlights the persistent user experience challenges in state health insurance marketplaces, emphasizing the need for streamlined navigation, clear plan pricing, technical stability, flexible application flow, and simplified income input to improve user engagement and reduce customer support costs.

Improving voice technology diversity in healthcare with inclusive interfaces and conversational AI
Wolters Kluwer discusses the importance of integrating diverse voices in healthcare voice user interfaces (VUIs) to enhance patient engagement and outcomes, particularly for the 42.2% non-white U.S. population often not represented in current VUIs. The article highlights efforts to introduce diverse voice options in VUIs and the use of conversational AI to address health disparities and improve the healthcare experience for people of color.

Designing Empathetic Healthcare User Interfaces: Enhancing Usability and Accessibility
UX Matters emphasizes the importance of empathy in UX design for healthcare, advocating for user interfaces that cater to diverse patient needs with clear, accessible features, and a focus on enhancing patient-provider relationships for better healthcare outcomes.

A Better Way to Develop A Medical Device with Digital and Physical Elements (Part 2 of 2)
Ken Soliva outlines a new design methodology for medical devices, focusing on integrating digital and physical aspects to enhance user experience. It details three key phases: Configuration Exploration, Interaction Development, and Aesthetic Refinement, emphasizing the importance of multidisciplinary collaboration for creating intuitive, harmonious medical devices.

How to Enable Patient-Centric Co-Design for Better Healthcare Solutions
Alira Health experts emphasize that patient involvement ensures solutions are effective and user-friendly. Misconceptions like high costs are addressed, advocating for direct patient input for better outcomes. The article suggests partnering with experts for successful implementation of this approach.

EHR usability, patient communications and billing outrank AI as top tech priorities at some medical groups
The MGMA Stat poll reveals that EHR usability (35%), patient communications and access (26%), and revenue cycle management/billing systems (21%) are higher priorities than AI (13%) for medical group leaders over the next 6-12 months. These priorities reflect a focus on improving operational efficiency, reducing clinician burnout, and enhancing patient experience.

What are the IRB review requirements for human factors/usability testing?
Human factors/usability testing for medical devices typically requires Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval, as it's considered a clinical investigation involving human subjects by the FDA. To ensure compliance and for the FDA to consider the data for marketing permits, IRB review is essential.

Service Design’s Superpowers for Implementing AI-Based Healthcare
Michael Buquet discusses service design's role in integrating AI into healthcare, focusing on patient-centric services, transparent systems, and challenging current healthcare norms to improve accessibility and efficiency. He emphasizes the importance of ethical, user-friendly AI solutions in revolutionizing healthcare delivery.

Elevating Healthcare Through Strategic UX Design
Dive into the latest EXD monthly newsletter to explore how strategic UX design is transforming healthcare experiences for patients, doctors, nurses, and EHR systems, leading to a new era of personalized, human-centered design in Healthcare and MedTech industries in 2024.

Video

FDA Virtual Public Workshop – Extended Reality in Orthopedic Surgical Devices: Insights into User Experience and Adverse Event Reporting for Patient Safety
The FDA hosted a virtual workshop to discuss extended reality technologies in orthopedic surgery and improve understanding of user experiences and device performance for patient safety.

Podcasts

PSQH: The Podcast Episode 92 – Ensuring Patient Safety During the Medical Device Research Process
On episode 92 of PSQH: The Podcast, Korey Johnson, managing partner at Bold Insight, talks about ensuring that medical device research is safe for patients.

Scholarly Research

User Experience of Older People While Using Digital Health Technologies: A Systematic Review
A systematic review of questionnaires used to assess the user experience (UX) of older individuals (aged ≥65) with digital health technologies, highlighting the System Usability Scale (SUS) as the most effective tool.

Digital Health Equity and Tailored Health Care Service for People With Disability: User-Centered Design and Usability Study
The need for patient-centered design strategies using patient-generated health data to improve digital health services and communication for people with disabilities and older adults, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Usability and Efficacy of Artificial Intelligence Chatbots (ChatGPT) for Health Sciences Students: Protocol for a Crossover Randomized Controlled Trial
The importance of integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into health sciences education, emphasizing its potential impact on scientific writing, critical thinking, and the need to understand AI's implications for responsible and effective use.

Developing a virtual patient: design, usability, and learning effect in communication skills training
The use of Virtual Patients (VPs) in health sciences for skills development, particularly in medical interviews, and focuses on research aimed at developing a VP to enhance communication skills training for medical students in Turkey.

Usability evaluation of emergency information systems in educational hospitals in Kerman, Iran
Smart and practical health information systems and applications with fewer errors are crucial for healthcare facilities. One method that ensures the proper design of health information systems (HIS) and applications is usability evaluation.

Haptic Nudging Using a Wearable Device to Promote Upper Limb Activity during Stroke Rehabilitation: Exploring Diurnal Variation, Repetition, and Duration of Effect
A study on optimizing haptic nudging via wearable devices for stroke rehabilitation, finding that nudges are more effective during active periods and lose significance quickly, with implications for designing more effective wearable therapeutic devices.

Upcoming Events

Lighting Within Imaging Departments : AIA Accredited Presentation
Wednesday, December 6th
A course focused on improving the hospital experience in imaging departments by applying design theory and quantitative research to enhance lighting and interactive technologies, with a specific focus on MRI lighting design to improve safety, image quality, and reduce electromagnetic interference.

Design Rounds
Thursday, December 7th
“The healthcare industry is hyper complex, and as more healthtech companies are cropping up, let's make sure we're designing for the best end user experience by mind melding. “

Unleashing the power of storytelling in healthcare design
Monday, December 18th
“Join us at Garaje Digital Health with the talk "Unleashing the power of storytelling in healthcare design" by Joanna Domagalska, Senior UX Designer

Designing for Digital Inclusion in Healthcare
Tuesday, January 23rd
“We believe digital is now a wider determinant of health. As well as shaping access to health and care services, digital impacts across all aspects of our lives, affecting our opportunities and shaping health inequalities. Digital technologies and online services can improve health and wellbeing – as long as people have the access, skills, confidence and support to benefit.”

Jobs

Apple
Product Designer - Health Special Projects

Verily
UX Designer, Participant Insights & Experiences

Samsung
Samsung 2024 Summer Intern, Digital Health Research

In Case You Missed It

The Ohio State University
Usability and User Experience in Health Care Certificate
This certificate provides a focused area of study for students who wish to design or implement electronic health records to enhance the user experience or usability, or participate in quality improvement initiatives to enhance patient safety. Case-based individual and team projects demonstrate mastery of methods in national standards and meeting the expectations of accrediting organizations.

Articles

User Experience Design In Healthcare Apps: A Medical Student’s Perspective
A student UX designer discusses the importance of user-centric design in healthcare apps, showcasing MyChart as a user-friendly example and emphasizing the value of real-time feedback and inclusivity, culminating in the idea of badges for user engagement.

Healthcare UX design
Explore healthcare UX design, its importance in creating user-centered healthcare experiences, the challenges faced by UX designers in healthcare, and upcoming trends in the field.

Making Healthcare User Experiences More Accessible to Increase Adoption
This article explores strategies for designing more accessible healthcare user experiences, emphasizing the importance of considering caregivers and healthcare professionals, adhering to accessibility standards like WCAG, maintaining open channels for user feedback, and adopting universal design principles to enhance adoption and user satisfaction.

Reflecting on my time at 3M M*Modal
This work delves into the UX research findings for HCC Collaborate, highlighting critical pain points and the subsequent redesign efforts aimed at improving efficiency in healthcare software.

Elements of home in hospitals: 3XN’s Stig Vesterager Gothelf on healthcare design
Explore the impact of design on healthcare experiences and the innovative approaches taken in healthcare projects, as discussed by Stig Vesterager Gothelf, senior partner at 3XN, a leading architectural firm with notable contributions to healthcare architecture.

From Friction to Flow: Improving Patient Forms with UX
Explore the journey of a UX designer, Heena Raj, as she tackles the challenges of improving patient forms in healthcare, focusing on creating a user-friendly, accessible, and stress-free form-filling experience for patients, with a strong emphasis on research, usability testing, and user-centered design principles.

Applying the Value Proposition Canvas in Healthcare Technology
Learn how the Value Proposition Canvas can enhance healthcare technology by focusing on patients' needs and improving their experiences in this insightful article.

UX Healthcare Design Playbook
A useful collection of healthcare UX resources from Vitaly Friedman.

A Verily roundtable: Innovating in healthcare with diversity by design
This article discusses the importance of approaching the entire medical process, from clinical trial design to AI-enabled product development, with a focus on equity, highlighting the significance of inclusivity and diversity in clinical trials and the role of patient-centered design in healthcare innovation.

WoW Woman in Health Tech I Elise Mortensen, Head of Growth at HTD Health
Elise Mortensen, Head of Growth at HTD Health, discusses her unique perspective in the digital health industry, emphasizing the importance of deep user research, empathy, and understanding the people who will use healthcare technology, and the need for increased representation of women and nonbinary individuals in the sector to address gender disparities in healthcare.

AI, Healthcare, and the Future of Design Education
A university professor, Kristi Bartlett, integrates artificial intelligence (AI) into cross-disciplinary coursework to bridge communication gaps between design and healthcare students, enabling creative ideation through generative AI but raising concerns about academic honesty and over-reliance.

Video

VR Haptic Gloves for Rehabilitation and Research
“Join us to explore how VR and haptic gloves can empower medical research and improve rehabilitation training.”

UX Berlin 2023 on Youtube
Recordings from talks at UX Healthcare Berlin 2023

Her Journey From Public Health to UX Designer
“The Growth Series showcases individuals who have risen from humble beginnings to achieve success through their dedication and hard work. It goes beyond just financial success, but also focuses on the profound sense of happiness, joy, and fulfillment that comes from pursuing one's true purpose and calling.”

Reimagining User Authentication for Digital Health Services: A User-Centered Approach
This video discusses how strict data privacy regulations like HIPAA can lead to user authentication challenges in healthcare settings, particularly in electronic patient portals, and explores the need for user-centered privacy solutions without compromising patient access to health information.

How technology is transforming health and healthcare with Angel Brown
This interview explores Angel's career journey, highlighting her transition from a programmer to a pioneering UX designer in healthcare and discusses the role of technology in improving the lives of the elderly, the evolution of user experience (UX) in the past decade, the integration of technology in home healthcare, challenges and opportunities in tech and healthcare, the future of brain-machine interfaces, and the impact of the metaverse on healthcare, education, and connectivity.

Tytocare’s AI-Powered Wheeze Detection Impresses with Thoughtful Design
Tytocare's FDA-approved AI solution seamlessly integrates into healthcare workflows, specifically for analyzing lung sounds through their home care device, as discussed in a recent interview with Eran Hertzmann, Tytocare's VP of Product.

Podcasts

Designer accountability
UX Podcast
“James Royal-Lawson and Per Axbom are joined by Kim Goodwin to talk about Kim’s reflections from her work in healthcare design and how more accountability would benefit the wider design industry.”

Healthcare + Systems + Risk + Design with Rob Lister
Design Thinking 101 Podcast
“Rob Lister is a designer in healthcare, creating meaningful experiences in many arenas, including medical device design, care delivery, service design, and population health strategy. His experience as a design leader at IDEO and AT&T, and his background as a mechanical engineer, inform a strategic and operationally focused approach to innovation in healthcare. We talk about service design in healthcare and using design thinking to innovate in the healthcare industry.”

Diverse Experiences in Health Tech Design: Insights from Chris French
Brand New Doctor
”Chris French is a master strategist and social entrepreneur with over a decade's experience in the health sector. In this episode of Brand New Dr., Chris offers a view into his dynamic career journey - from his impactful community projects and health regulation to his time serving the Metropolitan Police as a special constable.”

Designing for Trust: How to Create Trust in Health Tech
Health Invent
“In this episode of Invent: Health, we speak with Dan Lock from TTP and Jordan Abdi from Picnic Health, to unlock the principles of trust and find a paradigm for what this will look like in the future of healthcare.”

Scholarly Research

Post-implementation usability evaluation of a human factors-based clinical decision support for pulmonary embolism (PE) diagnosis (Dx): PE Dx Study Part 1
This paper discusses how human-centered design principles impact the usability of Clinical Decision Support (CDS) in healthcare, revealing the significance of these principles and suggesting areas for improvement in CDS design.

Assessment of healthcare application quality: Development of a standardized methods for healthcare professionals
“The advancement of the mobile app market is reshaping healthcare, emphasizing the imperative for quality and efficacy in health applications. This methodology has been devised to assess mobile health applications, aiming to assist healthcare professionals in selecting apps for e-healthcare consumers.”

Exploring experiences of pharmacists and pharmacy students using mHealth apps: A qualitative study of user experience
“Pharmacists can enhance mHealth delivery by promoting the awareness and use of health apps, while pharmacy students and early career pharmacists allow broader perspective for further development. This study aimed to explore the experiences and attitudes of pharmacy students and pharmacists, on the use, advantages and possible improvement of available mHealth platforms in Serbia.”

Exploring the revolution in healthcare systems through the applications of digital twin technology
This paper discusses the concept of Digital Twins in healthcare, which involves creating virtual replicas of patients or medical entities using IoT data and AI-powered models, enabling personalized treatment, surgical predictions, and chronic illness management.

Potential effectiveness and efficiency issues in usability evaluation within digital health: A systematic literature review
“Digital Health (DH) is widely considered essential for sustainable future healthcare systems. Software quality, particularly usability, is crucial for the success and adoption of most DH products. However, concerns about the effectiveness and efficiency of testing the usability of DH products have been raised.”

Triptychon: Usability evaluation and implementation of a web-based application for patients’ lab and vital parameters
“We evaluated the usability of our tool ‘Triptychon’ – a three-part visualisation dashboard of essential patients’ medical data provided by a direct overview of their hospitalisation information, laboratory, and vital parameters over time.”

News and Press Releases

Readout of White House Roundtable on Artificial Intelligence and Health
The White House convened a roundtable on the safe use of AI in healthcare, emphasizing AI's potential in clinical settings, drug development, and public health. The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to responsible AI development through initiatives like the AI Bill of Rights and industry partnerships. Cross-sector collaboration is essential for ensuring AI benefits in healthcare.

Designing for Health: The Human-Centered Approach
A new book by Craig Joseph, Jerome Pagani. “When it comes to the way healthcare works in the U. S., it’s easy to ask: Who designed such a load of junk? Well, no one. And that’s the problem. Craig Joseph, MD, and Jerome Pagani, Ph.D. lay out how to make healthcare work for humans. The upshot? The way out of the frustrating, expensive, and frequently ineffective morass of the U.S. healthcare system is to take a step back and bring intentional, human-centered design to an ecosystem that works for the people giving and receiving care.”

Upcoming

The UX Conference for Pharma, MedTech and Life Sciences
Wednesday, November 8th
“A select program and international experts guarantee a day full of insights, inspiration and new ideas - for yourself, your team, and your organization.”

Remote Jobs

Generative AI UX Designer at Lilly (remote possible)

Senior Digital Experience Designer at CVS

UX/UI Designer at Abbott Laboratories

In Case You Missed It

Healthcare Content Modeling 101
In collaboration with healthcare content specialists Conteir, Enonic presents a comprehensive guide to how your organization can structure and synergize healthcare data for web editors and content directors.

Designing healthcare solutions: How trying to get better made me sick
Explore the challenges of using data visualization for personal health in this informative UX design journey, as the author shares insights from their experience dealing with illness and emphasizing work-life balance.

Lessons learned designing UX/UI for healthcare brands
Learn how to design healthcare digital products that prioritize accessibility and user needs with insights from our experienced UX/UI strategists.

Innovation 2.0: Healthcare Insights for innovators, from the front lines of healthcare design
Unlock the secrets of successful healthcare innovation with practical insights from industry experts, offering valuable lessons for innovators across all sectors.

What's the Minimum Number of Users for a Usability Test?
When planning your usability testing for IEC 62366 compliance, the minimum number of users required typically ranges between five and fifteen, with some variability based on factors such as the nature of your software and available resources.

AI Adoption in U.S. Health Care Won’t Be Easy
Incorporating AI into U.S. healthcare presents immense potential but also significant challenges, requiring trust-building efforts among providers, patients, and the public to navigate the disruptive transition.

Hospitals Should Take A Page Out of Amazon’s Digital Engagement Playbook, Argues Providence Digital Chief
To thrive in the digital age, healthcare institutions must adopt a patient-centric approach, similar to the personalized experiences offered by consumer brands like Amazon and Netflix, emphasizing data collection and building stronger patient relationships.

Enhancing the patient journey: Top 10 best UX design principles for healthcare wearable apps
To create effective healthcare wearable apps, designers must adhere to ten key UX design principles that consider the unique characteristics of smartwatches and smart bands, from harnessing the power of paired phones to using simple and memorable gestures.

3 Key Principles Of Successful Wayfinding In Healthcare Facilities
Creating effective wayfinding in healthcare facilities demands early planning, reducing visual clutter, and recognizing that signage is just one element of a comprehensive wayfinding strategy, tailored to diverse user populations navigating complex spaces.

How 3 healthcare organizations are using generative AI
Generative AI is making strides in healthcare, benefiting organizations like Bayer Pharma, HCA Healthcare, and MEDITECH, by streamlining clinical trial processes, reducing administrative burdens for clinicians, and improving the accessibility of electronic health records.

Announcements

Introducing WHOOP Coach, Powered By OpenAI
WHOOP Coach introduces a cutting-edge AI-driven coaching experience that harnesses generative AI to provide highly individualized health, fitness, and wellness guidance based on users' unique biometric data and preferences, marking a significant leap forward in personalized coaching.

Scholarly Research

Inpatient EHR User Experience and Hospital EHR Safety Performance
This cross-sectional study found a positive association between frontline user–rated EHR usability and EHR safety performance. This finding suggests that improving EHR usability, which is a current well-known pain point for EHR users, could have direct benefits in terms of improved EHR safety.

Perspectives of Healthcare Providers to Inform the Design of an AI-Enhanced Social Robot in the Pediatric Emergency Department
This study investigates the potential of AI-enhanced social robots to alleviate pain and distress during medical procedures in pediatric emergency departments through a needs assessment of healthcare providers.

Design and Evaluation of an Intensive Care Unit Dashboard Built in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Semistructured Interview Study
This study explores the development and impact of an ICU dashboard designed to manage high patient volumes during critical situations, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, shedding light on its usability and potential benefits for clinicians.

A chatbot for hypertension self-management support: user-centered design, development, and usability testing
This research focuses on the development and usability evaluation of "Medicagent," a chatbot designed for hypertension self-management, demonstrating its effectiveness and usability among patients with hypertension.

Usability and feasibility of a tablet-based e-coach for older adults in rehabilitation units to improve nutrition and physical activity: a prospective pilot study
This pilot study assesses the usability and feasibility of an e-coach designed to support nutrition and mobility in older adults during and after rehabilitation, highlighting its potential to enhance the well-being of this demographic.

Remote Jobs

UX Writer/Editor (Scientific & Research) at Cedars-Sinai

Staff UX Content Designer at Lyra Health

Lead Usability Engineer at GE Healthcare

Audio and Video

From Pixels to Patients: Alex Bilstein's UX Journey in Healthcare hey - that’s me!

I’ve been sharing healthcare UX resources on LinkedIn for a few years, and now that I have more room to experiment, I’d really like to know what would be most interesting and helpful to this community. A few healthcare UX topics I’ve been thinking about:

• Resource roundups (like what I’ve done on LinkedIn)

• Product tear-downs

• Designer interviews

• Career advice

• Future of healthcare UX

• Patient experience stories

• Visual design trends

What would you like to see? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments, in the Discord, or you can email me directly.

While I think about that, here’s your healthcare UX roundup for September.

👉 Articles

What are the principles of Good Digital Healthcare Design by Dr Rafiq Elmansy

Bridging Worlds: The Serendipitous Synergy Between Occupational Therapy and UX Design by Stephanie S. Coles

There’s a disconnect between health tech and the people it’s supposed to help by Victoria Song

Overcoming Biases in Healthcare UX Design and Research by Nanci Gonzalez and Maribel Sierra

Keeping Pace With Technology In Healthcare Design by Debra Levin

A Series on Product Management — Part 1: Build minimally, not ideally

👉 Audio

Design and Complex Systems in Healthcare + Design and Management with Kipum Lee

👉 Scholarly Research

Usability evaluation of a community pharmacy health information exchange (HIE) interface prototype byKatelyn N Hettinger et al.

👉 Upcoming

Setting a new design standard for digital health with Theresa Neil

Digital Health in Canada: The Current State and a Look Ahead

👉 In case you missed it

The Check Up with Google Health 2023

👉 Video

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