Skip to content
  • Services
    Our Approach
    Personalized, in-depth technical guidance on a global scale that helps organizations achieve their digital transformation goals.
    Learn more
    • Our Approach
    • Development
    • Design
    • Digital Experience Platform
    • Data & Analytics
    • Cloud & DevOps
    • Support
  • Work
    Our Work
    Through our expertise in strategy, design, and engineering, we help clients deliver digital transformation at scale.
    Learn more
    • Our Work
    • Healthcare
    • Finance
    • Manufacturing
    • Agriculture
    • Education
  • About
    About us
    For over 20 years, we’ve partnered with companies of all sizes and industries to solve their most complex business problems.
    Learn more
    • About us
    • Leadership
    • Locations
    • Events
    • News
  • Careers
    Join our Team
    Take your career to the next level. We offer exciting opportunities across every stage of the software development life cycle.
    Learn more
    • Join our Team
    • Open Positions
    • Application Process
    • Benefits
    • Learning & Development
  • Insights
    Our Insights
    Read our latest blogs, watch our recent videos, and browse our library of e-books — all full of insights from our experts.
    Learn more
    • Our Insights
    • Blog
    • Videos
    • Downloads
  • Contact
Menu

Does Digital Healthcare Have a Future Without UX Designers?

Are devices and software the silver bullet for fractured patient experiences? Not without help from UX designers, who favor usability for all stakeholders.

Stanislas Walden

MentorMate Alumni

A trusting doctor-patient relationship is the foundation of a better way of living.

When done right, technology can enhance this relationship — until it disrupts it. Digital health without great UX is like a staircase with uneven steps. Disconcerting and unintuitive, it leaves end users unhappy.

UX and Digital Health Collide at MentorMate Office

Earlier this week, MentorMate opened its doors to the Twin Cities UX Meetup, a quarterly gathering for local professionals working in user experience, design, and content creation. Attendees discussed what’s at stake when building better experiences in web- and mobile-based healthcare services.

Keynote speaker Riley Gerszewski, User Experience Designer at PointClickCare, led the conversation, speaking of his own personal and professional experiences at the intersection of healthcare and digital innovation.

“An appointment should no longer be the only contact between a patient and clinician during the recovery process. A well designed app using the Apple CareKit framework will help create additional touch-points between the patient and clinician. If a clinician is able to see a patient’s activity drop-off between appointments a simple check-in may be all it takes to re-engage that patient resulting in a better outcome. A text message, or even an emoji, could be the difference between a successful outcome and ongoing health issue.”
Riley Gerszewski

 

Don’t Squander Digital Health’s Potential with Poor UX

While technology has the possibility to make fractured patient care experience more complete, it is by no means the silver bullet for care delivery.

At its most innocuous, poor implementation of digital health amounts to a laptop inserted between the doctor and her patient.

At its worst, dictation software (intended to diminish manual data-entry and secure data) embarrasses patients and compromises their privacy when their personal information is repeated out loud in busy care settings.

Are the Latest Health Care Prototypes Helping Everyone?

While an app might help users track eating habits, for example, is that collected data made accessible to healthcare professionals? Do doctors actually want that information?

Too often, digital health solutions are helpful to either just the patient or the doctor, but not both. This explains why care experiences continue to be fractured, even with the implementation of the latest tools.

How Gamification is Catching on in Digital Health

Now, users who finish a workout can get your very own fireworks show on their watches. Talk about incentive.

Wellness regimes can’t always be interesting. But digital health products can play an important role in making otherwise mundane routines exciting and rewarding as they encourage healthier habits.

Games and personalized feedback help Colgate to engage users and improve oral health through its Colgate Connect solution.

Similarly, the Kinsa Smart Thermometer provides actionable information in a way that thermometers of the past could not. Offering both treatment suggestions and guidance for when to consult a doctor, these tools show the potential of digital tools to integrate with users typical health management patterns.

Other successful integrations of digital solutions in healthcare extend to diabetes care, medication tracking, HIPAA compliant data messaging, and beyond.

UX of Digital Health Will Only See More Hurdles

As complexities surrounding HIPAA compliance, PHI security, and data ownership continue to grow, so do the challenges faced by UX designers working in healthcare.

For example, what is the threshold of patient engagement in her digital-supported health regime, and what is the appropriate junction for intervention form a care professional?

The rapidly expanding market of digital care solutions may only serve to increase this grey area until regulation catches up with the technology. Wherever that fine line is, designers will need to provide communication channels that respect the privacy of the patient, but also the doctor’s bandwidth.

Accessible UX Can Only Go So Far

Participants also raised questions concerning the ethics of Apple’s dominance in terms of the hardware and software it provides to the growing digital health industry.

What does it mean when these innovative yet expensive products exclude entire swaths of the population with their price tags?

Are You Speaking Your Designers’ Language? 55 Terms to Know

Review these UX terms, speak the same language as your design team, and build software that your users actually want to use.

Join the Conversation

As new challenges in technology, UX, and healthcare are encountered with every new day, more questions are sure to arise. By opening up the conversation up to as many people as possible, our solutions can incorporate features that accommodate the diverse and complex people who can benefit from the convergence of the three realms.

The Twin Cities UX Meetup meets quarterly in locations around the Twin Cities. Check out their page to find information on past and future events.

Tags
  • Product Design
  • Events
  • Design Strategy
  • Design
Share
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share on Twitter

Fulfilling Users’ Needs

Adopt a design thinking mindset and ship digital products that win.
Download
Share
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share on Twitter
Sign up for our monthly newsletter.
Sign up for our monthly newsletter.

Read what's next.

Blog

Do You Speak Fluent UI/UX?

Blog

Communication Strategies to Align On Large Design Projects

  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram
  • Facebook
United States
MentorMate1350 Lagoon Ave, Suite 800
Minneapolis
, MN 55408

+1 612 823 4000
Bulgaria
67 Prof. Tsvetan Lazarov Blvd.
Sofia 1592, Bulgaria,
+359 2 862 2632
Sweden
Drottninggatan 29
411 14 Göteborg

+46 3 199 0180
Paraguay
Carlos M. Gimenez 4855
Asunción, Paraguay

+595 21 327 9463

Copyright © 2023 MentorMate, Inc.

  • Cookies
  • Privacy
  • Terms
  • Continuity Policy
This site is registered on wpml.org as a development site.