Icon design to improve communication of health information to older adults

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 c o m m u n i c a t i o n technology. Communication o f h e a l t h i n f o r m a t i o n w a s improved from the perspective of the user experience (UX) design and information design. For the purpose of Communication Design Quarterly 2.1 November 2013 7addressing 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.

Toward TPC-UX: UX Topics in TPC Journals 2013–2022

“…The weak correlation and high frequency of articles within this category suggest that multimodality is a topical stratum within the corpus. Broadly, the articles within this category demonstrate a repeated concern with conveyance—e.g., information visualization (Meng, 2019; Passera & Haapio, 2013; Qian et al, 2014), the function of icons and other UI components (Gallagher & Holmes, 2019; Kascak et al, 2013), and interactive technologies (Tham, 2018; Valino Koh et al, 2013)—within varying contexts marked by complexity—e.g., e-health and telemedicine (Campbell, 2022; Lazard & Mackert, 2015), risk communication technologies (Richards, 2018), and cross-cultural communications (Li et al, 2021).…”

“…Similarly, the theoretically rich treatment of multimodality in TPC-UX, wherein there are explicit ties to rhetorical theory, allows for nuanced examination of complex conveyance, like sea rise visualizations (Richards, 2015(Richards, , 2018, UI templates (Gallagher & Holmes, 2019), and UI icons (Kascak et al, 2013). Multimodality is a topical stratum within TPC-UX scholarship that reveals its proximity to rhetoric and composition (see Sullivan & Porter, 1993) and allows it to grapple with nondiscursive yet rhetorical aspects of a technology.…”

Climate and Vine – Representation and communication of spatio-temporal relationships in the web application AustrianVineyards.com

“…The latter can commonly be achieved using certain visual principles. These include balance, contrast, and appropriate line management (Kimball 2013;Kascak et al 2013). A common distinction can be made between symbolic and iconic icons.…”

Universal Design (UD) Guidelines for Interactive Mobile Voting Interfaces for Older Adults

“…However, current mobile technologies do not meet the needs, experiences, and limitations of older adults, and have many usability problems [16,17]. A number of web design guidelines [18][19][20][21], design principles [22,23], heuristics [23], and mobile and touch screen design guidelines and recommendations [12,24] were developed to address the usability problems with interfaces for general population.…”