Design with Care for September, 2024

Resources for UX designers working in healthcare published the first Tuesday of each month.

What’s Happening in Healthcare UX

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.”