User interface or UX/UI for medical devices is in some ways similar to other types of digital design but if you run a medical device company you realize quickly how this type of design is also an entirely different universe.
Keys of UI/UX
Design Success for
Medical Devices
There are few areas that all medical device interfaces produced by any design agency should be judged by. These are its usability, functionality, and how it complies with current medical regulations. Focusing on these areas paves the way to creating the most user-friendly, efficient, and compliant products possibly, which we all hope ultimately provide a new tool that has the capacity to improve patient care and public health as a whole.
Human-Centered Design
This common technique prioritizes the needs, preferences, and limitations of healthcare professionals, patients, and caregivers, and relies heavily on strategic and regular testing throughout the design process.
Intuitive Interface Design
Making use of familiar design patterns, clear navigation, and concise labeling to communicate what is possible ensures ease of use, especially in high-stress medical environments where users might be under pressure.
Compliance
This can be a tough one because it’s an area that is constantly evolving, but adherence to standards and guidelines from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other regulatory agencies is crucial to maintaining safety and legality.
Consistency
Akin to human centered design, maintaining consistency in design elements, such as colors, typography, icons, and layout helps users quickly learn and navigate the system.
Usability Testing
The ongoing process of usability testing can quickly uncover usability issues, allowing for regular iterations on the initial design concepts proposed, and in the end, invariably, a better product is produced.
Accessibility
Accessibility isn’t just about compliance, it’s about creating a design and functional capacity to make your application easily usable by everyone of every level of ability or lack of ability.
Medical Device User
Interface Design
Standards Compliance
Although it adds some level of difficulty to every interface project, medical device common interface standards often raise the quality of our work – like it or not!
Usability and compliance are meant to go hand-in-hand. Whether it’s FDA guidelines or conformité européenne (CE) marking requirements for European markets, design for this specialty needs to be constantly viewed through the multiple lenses of medical device regulation (MDR) usability requirements and common human factors standards.
Vasolabs
Dashboard
Medical dashboard design tests agencies like Fuselab to constantly evolve our thinking on what is possible and how to employ breakthroughs like AI into our design thinking and produce something the medical provider community will love using – or in the case of Vasolabs, ultrasound technicians.
Scan Data
It was our challenge to take data from the scans within the Vasolabs system and help both patients and care providers get what they need to make decisions and understand the results. We helped Vasolabs come up with a “risk status” graphic that easily shows what is considered healthy and what data is showing signs of a potential health issue.
Artery Blockage
3-D artery illustrations were developed by Fuselab illustrators to provide the most intuitive and informative graphics possible. Areas of concern are immediately obvious, and with further investigations, patients and technicians can see exact amounts of blockage and/or plaque buildup without having any medical or technical training.
DigestScan
Dashboard
Healthcare data dashboard design and medical device interface design for laboratory environments pose a unique challenge of UX/UI designers. First, and foremost the screen size is always a challenge, and second is the ability to provide a medical device experience with all the data required and without overcrowding the display while also not creating annoying repetitive navigational steps.
Data Visualization
We know that data viz is one of the most popular graphic design trends in decades, and for good reason. Our data visualization for this lab tool allows us to display an enormous amount of information inside an extremely compact environment. Color coding and intuitive graphics provide technicians with an easy-to-use tool that reduces analysis time and lets them be more productive.
Touchscreen
The design of touchscreen navigation and informative animated overlays guide the technician through each workflow, visually highlighting critical data areas or procedure steps that have completed and those that have yet to begin. The combination of interactive navigation, visual hierarchy of content, and visual alerts make this dashboard design a juggernaut of information and power in the lab tech environment.
BrainMed+
Dashboard
We realize that mapping brainwaves may sound super simple, just kidding, this is no task for the weary. We took this on to test our team and our ability to think and design in ways we have yet to achieve, while at the same time, who wouldn’t be inspired by designing something involving the human brain!
Real-time Data
Some medical platforms are focused on medical records and patient information that was gathered in the past. BrainMed+ can create records while also offering medical providers the ability to monitor brain activity in real time. Because the system logs the brain activity, the provider can toggle back and forth in time to analyze the different types of information provided.
Productivity
Within the BrainMed+ platform the different types of brainwaves, such as Gamma, Beta, Alpha, and Delta are the central types of data collected. These datapoints are also broken down by time and amount or length of the brain’s productivity. All live graphics have been designed to be distinguishable by a 3-D drop-shadow visual effect to immediately set it apart from other data.
Medical Device User
Experience Design
Medical device UX design centers around user-centered design (UCD), or what many people refer to as human centered design. Both approaches prioritizes the needs, abilities, and preferences of users throughout the design process. We all know that those involved in providing medical care have very little spare time to learn new technologies, which essentially means that every design we propose, above all, need to extremely intuitive and require almost no training.
Usability Testing for
Medical Devices
Medical device usability testing, if done well, reduces the need for training users, or at least the need for lengthy training sessions. Usability testing is particularly important if the product is going to be submitted for approval by the FDA. Healthcare digital products, such as electronic healthcare records systems (EHRs) need to include formative and summative usability testing results as part of their application for federal approval.
Medical Device GUI Design
The goals of almost all medical device graphic user interface design, or GUI, is to create something that is ultimately meant to improve patient outcomes while also adding a valuable asset to the medical providers suite of tools to use throughout their daily workflow. GUI designers for healthcare have an immense burden of adhering to FDA patient safety protocols and standards, while also somehow creating something enjoyable and easy for providers to use.
User Interface
Specification for Medical Devices
User interface specifications for medical devices need to be much more detailed than practically any other type of device interface. In other words, no one is going to die or sue your company for designing and developing a new video game or business management application, but when your goal is to serve patients in the healthcare environment there is an altogether different set of rules you must follow.
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User interface design for the medical community is unlike, and possibly one of the most difficult challenges for any UX/UI team to take on.
