4 ms·
UX design, especially for medical software, is incredibly important and yet is rarely done by people who actually understand how to do it. I remember when my m
by coldcode 12y ago
UX design, especially for medical software, is incredibly important and yet is rarely done by people who actually understand how to do it.
I remember when my mom had radiation treatments for brain cancer, which were so awful they killed her quicker than the disease would have (by a few weeks). A few months later I read about how terrible the design for calibrating these machines was leading to a large number of mis-treatments, my sister and I wondered what dose she actually received.
During the Vietnam war pilots turned off all the alarms in some of their planes due to constant alarms that always happened during intense combat situations leading to an inability of focus on what mattered.
UX design is not easy but has to be treated as more important than just making it pretty. Understanding how real people use these things is incredibly important and not just a last minute bullet check.
- at-fates-hands 12y ago>>>UX design is not easy but has to be treated as more important than just making it pretty. Understanding how real people use these things is incredibly important and not just a last minute bullet check. Amen brother. The last four large scale business enterprise applications I've worked on, design was left to either the back-end developers, project managers or done by committee. The ones done by committee were absolutely brutal. Nothing rips your soul out quicker than trying to get 20 or more people to agree on something. I have no idea when or where design just got completely buried and left to people who clearly have no idea what they're doing, but in your case, it's incredibly troubling and scary.
- llamataboot 12y agoYes, my grandmother received approximately 100x the dose she was supposed to receive due to operator error which resulted in her intestines being fried and gave her digestive problems for the rest of her life. (Did kill the cancer though)
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- stonemetal 12y agoUnfortunately medical software is enterprise software, because Hospitals are large, risk adverse institutions with high price tags and purchasing is done by management not users. Like most enterprise class software UX is a complete after thought.
- HeyLaughingBoy 12y agoA redeeming factor, at least in software for Medical Devices, is that the FDA recognizes that Use Error is a "thing" and that manufacturers must be aware of ways that an operator may be confused and misuse the product and provide mitigations for them (RTFM is considered an absolute last resort). We're not allowed to just blame it on the luser and get away with it any more, and that's a Good Thing.
- Lawtonfogle 12y ago>UX design is not easy but has to be treated as more important than just making it pretty. Most programmers I meet don't even understand the importance of it looking nice. They think that the user should do their due diligence. :(
- sjg007 12y agoSorry to hear about your mom. Do you have any references for the calibration design article? Also do you know the linear accelerator that was used?
- coldcode 12y agoNo, it's been a few years.
- PhantomGremlin 12y ago> During the Vietnam war pilots turned off all the alarms in some of their planes There was Duke Cunningham[1], a fighter pilot ace that (IIRC from a documentary) also turned off the comm link from his RIO to avoid the potential distraction. He was able to speak to his RIO, he just wasn't interested in what the RIO had to say to him. Wow. His political career later went down in spectacular flames. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_Cunningham https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_Cunningham