Tom Fishburne on the State of User Experience Design
Tom Fishburne on Apple
Anyone that follows my blog knows that I’m a fan of Tom Fishburne’s cartoons. Well, he has done it again with his April 1st cartoon poking fun at how the Apple product line has ballooned since the passing of Steve Jobs.
Over the years I’ve become more of a user of Apple products. It started with an iPad, followed by an iPhone, and now I write this on a Mac. For the most part, I like their products. But, I haven’t fully consumed the Kool-Aid. I have no problem being frustrated – and making it known – when their product designs go off the rails. And, in my opinion, removing all ports besides Thunderbolt (USB-C) on the Mac is a perfect example.
I still want a “normal” USB port – or two! And it drives me nuts that they’ve removed the HDMI port. I’ll take a thicker Mac that includes those ports. Now I realize all this can be solved by purchasing expensive dongles, but it shouldn’t be necessary. Plus, I REALLY don’t want to pack them around the country when I work.
What’s interesting is they used to be a company focused on the customer experience. Now they’re transitioning their focus to identifying opportunities – numerous at times – for selling expensive accessories to maintain compatibility with other devices. What a pain! Hopefully this will change, but it’s not looking promising.
FDA Guidance Document on Medical Device Interoperability
On September 6th, the FDA issued the guidance document Design Considerations and Pre-market Submission Recommendations for Interoperable Medical Devices.
According to the document:
“This guidance is intended to highlight the following items that medical device manufacturers should consider to provide a reasonable assurance of safety and effectiveness of their interoperable medical devices: 1) designing systems with interoperability as an objective; 2) conducting appropriate verification, validation and risk management activities; and 3) specifying the relevant functional, performance, and interface characteristics in a user-available manner such as labeling.” (p. 3)
For those new to the topic, they define interoperability “…as the ability of two or more products, technologies or systems to exchange information and to use the information that has been exchanged.” (p. 2)
With respect to human factors, it highlights a couple areas of importance for our discipline, including:
- “Validate the user(s) interface. Determine that the user(s) are capable of correctly using the interface(s)” (p. 11)
- “Validation of labeling regarding the use of the electronic interface should consider human factors as appropriate.” (p. 17)
It’s good to see that the FDA understands the challenges associated with interoperability and that human factors is an important part of designing, developing, and deploying interoperable technology that allows users to safely and effectively perform their duties.
AAMI Warnings and Safety Information in Device Labeling Webinar
On November 3rd and 10th, I’ll be presenting a two-part webinar on Warnings and Safety Information in Device Labeling for the AAMI University Distance Learning program.
Part I will introduce attendees to the science of warnings and safety information. Part II will focus on highlighting the best practices of designing and presenting warnings and safety information in device labeling. Each session will last 90 minutes and start at 11:00 am EST.
To learn more about the webinar, including how to register, visit the following link.
Human Factors as a Source of Innovation
In their book, Creative Confidence, Tom and David Kelley discuss the importance of balancing three factors (technical factors, business factors, and human factors), often referred to as the IDEO Three Lens of Human-Center Design, when undertaking innovation initiatives. While they go into detail about all three, for myself, their commentary about the third element – human factors – is most interesting. They state:
The third element involves people, and is sometimes referred to as human factors. It’s about deeply understanding human needs. Beyond just observing behaviors, this third aspect of successful innovation programs is about getting at people’s motivations and core beliefs. Human factors aren’t necessarily more important than the other two. But technical factors are well taught in science and engineering programs around the world, and companies everywhere focus energy on the business factors. So we believe that human factors may offer some of the best opportunities for innovation, which is why we always start there. (pp. 20-21)
I completely agree that deeply understanding human factors is vital for successful innovation. It’s great to see respected professionals in the design community write about the importance of this topic.
References
Kelley, T. and Kelley, D. (2013). Creative confidence: Unleashing the creative potential within us all. Crown Business: New York, NY.
Do Standard User-Centered Design Methods Work in Health Care?
Next week the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) will hold the 2015 International Symposium on Human Factors and Ergonomics in Health Care: Improving the Outcomes (#HFESHealth2015) in Baltimore, Maryland.
The event, which is hosted by the John Hopkins Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality, will be held April 26th – 29th at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront Hotel. More than 450 attendees will have the opportunity to attend 77 oral presentations, 9 discussion panels, and 117 posters (see full program here) in four tracks:
- Clinical and Consumer Health-Care IT Track
- Clinical Care Settings Track
- Medical and Drug-Delivery Devices Track
- Patient and Health-Care Provider Safety Track
One of the discussion panels is titled Do Standard UCD Methods Work in Health Care? and will take place on Tuesday the 28th between 3:30 and 4:30 pm. The panel is chaired by Ross Teague, PhD, and will include Rollin J. (Terry) Fairbanks, MD, MS, Christina C. Mendat, PhD, and Eric F. Shaver, PhD as panelists (see bios below for additional details).
This interactive panel will address the question Do Standard User-Centered Design Methods Work in Health Care? from the perspectives of a health care software vendor, consultant, clinician/researcher, and medical device vendor. An additional bonus is that each of the panelists have extensive experience applying UCD methods in and outside of the health care domain.
We’re planning to include input from attendees in the form of Twitter questions and comments posed prior to and during the session using the #UCD4HC hashtag, along with questions from audience members. Also, it’s our hope that the discussion will continue in the networking session that will follow our panel.
It should be a great panel (and audience) discussion! We hope you’ll be able to join us. But, if not, please tweet your questions and thoughts using the #UCD4HC hashtag – or post a comment – and we’ll attempt to answer them during the session.
Panelists
Ross Teague, PhD
Dr. Teague is the manager of the User Experience organization at Allscripts where he leads a team of researchers and designers in the creation of products and services that improve patient and provider lives. He’s led the effort within Allscripts to create a User-Centered Design process that teams throughout the organization can follow to receive value whether they have expertise in UCD methods or not. Ross has been leading research and design efforts for medical devices and healthcare software for more than a decade. He’s also worked as a product design strategy consultant in the areas of consumer, industrial and commercial products.
Rollin J. (Terry) Fairbanks, MD, MS (@TerryFairbanks)
Dr. Fairbanks is the director of the National Center for Human Factors in Healthcare and of MedStar Health’s Simulation Training & Education Lab (SiTEL), Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at Georgetown University, attending emergency physician at the MedStar Washington Hospital Center in Washington, DC, and Adjunct Associate Professor of Industrial Systems Engineering at the University at Buffalo. He is a human factors/safety engineer, board certified emergency physician, former private pilot, and former paramedic and EMS Medical Director. His work focuses on applying the science of safety to medical systems, based within MedStar Health, a 10-hospital $4.7B non-profit healthcare system in the Baltimore and Washington DC region.
Christina C. Mendat, PhD (@christinamendat)
Dr. Mendat is the Director of Human Factors at Human Factors MD. Her work is focused on leading clients successfully through the human factors regulatory process. Christina’s passion is helping clients who are new to human factors or have had unsuccessful human factors programs or submissions. She takes great pride in leveraging the science of human factors with a practical application. This year she is serving as co-chair of the Medical Device Track.
Eric F. Shaver, PhD (@ericshaver)
Dr. Shaver is a Human Factors Lead with FUJIFILM SonoSite. His work has emphasized achieving an optimal fit between people, technology, and work systems to facilitate their safety, performance, and satisfaction. His professional interests include health care innovation, leadership development, team performance, and applied decision making. He blogs at ericshaver.com and actively engages with others on Twitter @ericshaver.