Medical apps differ in their UX design from other software products. Developers must consider many important issues, from diagnosis to socioeconomic statuses of users. UX design directly affects the popularity of a software product. Let’s consider important issues that allow designers to create great apps.
Challenges for designers of medical apps
When a project team builds a software product, they must know its target audience and consider potential use cases. With this information in mind, they work on UX design.
Medical software is not easy to implement for several reasons. First, such programs are used by doctors, medical professionals, and patients of all ages. Designers need to research these groups, understand their needs, and implement simple and user-friendly UX. Secondly, new medical standards, methods of treatment, medicines, and innovative equipment are constantly appearing. Medical software programs must keep up with the technical progress and scale on demand.
UX design for healthcare software solutions: What you should pay attention to
To create a high-quality medical solution that will help patients monitor their health and allow doctors to communicate with users, you need to consider the following issues:
- Balance of user and clinical needs
When building an app, IT specialists must clearly understand the needs of users and healthcare professionals to create proper medical UX design. If they focus on patients without taking into consideration doctors, the functionality may not be effective enough.
Therefore, when creating an interface, UX designers should carry out surveys of both users and medical professionals and include both parties in their research focus groups. This approach will allow them to examine different points of view on UX, collect more accurate data, and detect problems with the app’s usability.
- Diagnosis
Users of medical apps may have different cognitive and physical capabilities. For example, patients with Alzheimer’s disease may miss medications and other necessary procedures. IT professionals should consider these features in UX design.
- Socioeconomic status
In countries with a developed health insurance system, the socioeconomic status of patients should be considered. Not all people have the same healthcare opportunities, not everyone is ready to pay for services. It is important to know if users have Medicare coverage, how their treatment will be funded, and whether patients have time to look after their health.
- Patient capabilities
The UX design of medical apps should help patients solve their health problems according to their capabilities. It is important to understand whether a person has a family that will help them monitor their health and visit the clinic. Another important factor is their location and the availability of healthcare facilities nearby.
- Medical software goals
Medical UX design varies depending on the purpose of an app. Among the most popular healthcare software solutions are electronic medical records, patient portals, telemedicine solutions, medical image analysis programs, remote monitoring solutions, hospital management software, and fitness trackers.
For example, a California clinic that specialises in telemedicine had problems with remote treatment of patients. Preliminary UX/UI audit improved the work of doctors (video calls, online scheduling, secure file access, online prescriptions), patient care (geolocation, appointment notifications), and administrative procedures (patient assessment system, 24/7 support, automatic invoice processing).
A contactless solution for heart rate monitoring, in turn, has other peculiarities. The UX design of such an app meets its goal. The program must remotely monitor a user’s heart rate both when they are asleep and awake. Doctors receive data from such an app and can regulate the physical activity of their patients.
- Accessibility
UX design companies that build medical software need to care more about accessibility. For example, older patients or people with poor eyesight may have difficulty using a software product if its colors do not contrast with the background and the font is difficult to read. Designers must follow the WCAG rules to develop healthcare software solutions. They may include tooltips and quick navigation so that any information is available in three clicks.
In medical apps such as hospital management systems, page loading speed is also important because users want to quickly get the necessary information about the treatment. Therefore, experienced UX/UI design companies try not to overload programs with pictures and animations.
Conclusion
Well-thought-out medical UX design improves app efficiency. Custom healthcare software development requires a preliminary UX/UI audit of the target audience. Based on its results, UX designers will offer the optimal software structure that will solve user problems and be in demand in the market.
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