Digital technologies are revolutionising the healthcare industry with more and more new products and services improving self-care, monitoring, diagnostics, consultations. The coronavirus pandemic has added additional challenges to the health care systems worldwide and created an urgent demand for digital developments.
What are UX and UI, and why is it important?
UX is a commonly used abbreviation for User Experience, but what does it mean in practice? User experience designers take care of customers' overall interaction with a product or brand as a whole, making it engaging, efficient, and intuitive.
When designing for digital health important role plays User Interface design (UI). UI designers focus on guiding the interaction between the users and the products. For example, by designing attractive app dashboards or intuitive buttons in wearables.
Good UX and UI are crucial for digital health apps success and customer satisfaction - it not only allows to attract users with great first impression but also builds a connection and trust.
Here's a selection of UX/UI considerations for Digital Health innovators creating apps:
Patient-Centred Design
Designers and developers need a thorough understanding of the audience. For example, Digital Health apps users may face different conditions, chronic diseases, or disabilities. Therefore, it is essential to account for their specific needs, preferences, or frustrations. Moreover, concerns, motivations, and even patients' beliefs‚ all the feelings are critical to consider when designing a holistic experience.
Our digital health accelerator, SimDH, can help you better utilise patient-centred design by providing consultancy, pilot and user testing, and supporting or leading special interest groups and research for the development of your application.
Accessibility
Accessibility guidelines bring significant constraints to every digital product, yet many are often neglected. Nearly 20% of the population worldwide lives with a disability that influences their digital experience, with seniors accounting for half of those (Disability Statistics Annual Study 2016). These numbers highlight the importance of accessible design. Some of the fundamental practices are using sufficient colour contrast ratio, creating a consistent visual style and hierarchy of content.
Our researchers will help you gain best practice knowledge for development of apps that suit the accessibility needs of your target audience.
Inclusivity
The inclusive design aims for products and services to be embracing every user. It requires an optimal strategy that encompasses the diversity of ways people interact with it. For example, the big challenge in digital health is communicating with patients through inclusive language, friendly to people who are not health-literate and avoiding medical jargon.
If you already have a prototype or MVP, our SimDH team can work with you to make your product more inclusive - widening your target market and appealing to modern corporate responsibility expectations.
User Testing
User Testing allows target customers to evaluate your product against their user needs, both before and after its launch. It assesses the design's usability and provides insight into how users will interact with the app in a real-life setting, allowing for necessary improvements before reaching the wider audience.
SimDH Support
Do you have a health and wellbeing-related idea, prototype, or product that you could benefit from:
- Product/Service Evaluation
- Prototype/New feature Development
- User Testing
Find out how SimDH can support you at here.
