Communication Design Quarterly Nov 2013 Open Access

Icon design to improve communication of health information to older adults

Ljilja Kascak ; Claudia B. Rebola ; Richard Braunstein Georgia Institute of Technology ; Jon A. Sanford

Abstract

This paper describes the studies undertaken in order to improve and simplify communication of health information for a Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) devices, specifically the BL Healthcare Access Tablet, to older adults. Current icon and information design of the RPM devices are not well designed to reflect the needs, experiences and limitations of the older adults. In addition to this, compliance with self-management schedules is often poor due to complex and unclear instructions and information design. The issue of compliance, with the need for effective communication between chronic disease patients and healthcare professionals emphasize the need for the appropriate information design and communication technology. Communication of health information was improved from the perspective of the user experience (UX) design and information design. For the purpose of addressing the UX redesign, usability studies were conducted, followed by the information redesign and icons design. Although medical peripherals, such as an electronic thermometer, are required to measure the patient information, a mobile or tablet application can easily be used to record, send and view this data. A concept for the RPM mobile application is developed, that could be used on existing tablets and smartphones, thus eliminating the need for the current costly hardware.

Journal
Communication Design Quarterly
Published
2013-11-01
DOI
10.1145/2559866.2559867
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Open Access
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Topics
technical communication
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (2)

  1. Hunter (2024)
    Toward TPC-UX: UX Topics in TPC Journals 2013–2022
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  2. Angeli et al. (2017)
    Responding to public health crises: bridging collective mindfulness and user ex…
    Communication Design Quarterly

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