UX Design, which is related to but not the same as UI design, is shifting from “afterthought” to “necessity” for many healthcare providers in post-COVID times.
But what exactly is UX design? How does it differ from UI design, and what do both UI and UX design in healthcare look like?
Perhaps more importantly, why should you care?
These are some of the very questions we aim to answer for you! Let’s get started.
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What is UX Design?
UX design stands for “user experience design,” or the process of designing user interactions with products or services that are intuitive, efficient, and relevant.
UI design, or “user interface design,” meanwhile, centers around designing a seamless user interface.
Usability, a related concept, “is a quality attribute of the UI”.
Semantics aside, UX design is probably the most common, and broadest term that essentially relates to how easy it is for an end user to interact with your products or services.
What is Healthcare UX Design?
Healthcare UX design relates to “the design of the user experience of any healthcare product or service, such as electronic health records, disease management apps or doctor appointment scheduling apps.”
Have you ever experienced a healthcare app or site that was slow to load, clunky to navigate, or difficult to find information on? Then you’ve experienced a healthcare solution with bad UX!
Why Are Healthcare UI & UX Design Important?
The above example perfectly displays how inconvenient and frustrating poor healthcare UX design can be from the perspective of the end user.
But as the Interaction Design Foundation notes, the consequences of healthcare UX design that’s not well-researched, planned, and implemented can go far beyond the inconvenient.
Take for instance, diabetes monitors with too-small decimal points that visually impaired users read incorrectly, leading to insulin overdoses and diabetic coma or severe hypoglycemia.
Or, the inability of an end user to schedule a necessary medical appointment.
On the flipside, good UX design in healthcare often results in:
- Increased Patient Satisfaction and Trust: Think about it. If you don’t trust the look and feel of a healthcare website, you likely won’t want to provide key personal or medical information to that site, let alone trust the people running the business behind it to take care of you.
- Enhanced Efficiency for Healthcare Professionals: Well-designed healthcare applications can streamline workflows for doctors, nurses, and other staff, making things like electronic health records, appointment management tools, and more, easier and more efficient to use. This also often leads to better quality care.
- Improved Patient Engagement and Outcomes: When designed thoughtfully and carefully based on UX research, user-testing, and other UX paradigms, healthcare sites and apps can see improved patient engagement and by extension, improved patient outcomes.
Addressing Challenges in Healthcare UX Design
Thoughtful and effective UX design takes time, research, intentionality, empathy, and a wide variety of other attributes. Often, when a site or app and its user experience are executed well, it’s not something end users even think of.
Unfortunately, optimizing the user experience of a website or app is easier said than done, especially in an industry as complex as healthcare. Common issues and challenges faced in healthcare UX design include:
- Complex user needs
- Regulatory constraints
- The integration of new technologies
Create a Better Experience for Your End Users By Design
UX and UI design are typically not things that most companies can do successfully in-house. If you’re looking to create a better experience by design for your end users and reap the benefits of doing so, we invite you to explore Digital Scientists’ UI & UX design services.
Our team of seasoned UX designers can help you launch new products or revamp your current product with modern design concepts, industry-leading digital standards, and user needs validation for an optimized user experience that also benefits your business.
Enhance Your UX Research Process in Healthcare
Want to uncover patient and provider needs more effectively? The Healthcare UX Research Interviewing Toolkit is designed to help product teams and healthcare innovators conduct more impactful, structured user interviews.
Optimize your product design with real user perspectives.
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