Designing User-friendly Interfaces
For Healthcare Applications

Introduction

Mobile apps play a crucial role in improving patient care and enabling more efficient and safe clinical workflows. They also support the management of health information for patients and health professionals and efficiently fulfill diverse care needs. In many health settings constrained by limited resources, apps facilitate access to medical expertise and information. Given the far-reaching impact of apps on healthcare, clinical developers have increasingly assigned user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) design a pivotal position in the development life-cycle. It will fail if a mobile health (mHealth) app doesn’t meet users’ expectations.
It guides how the content is laid out to make sure it’s aesthetically appealing and easy to navigate – a visually appealing and handy structure. Good UX design can also do things such as track common paths that users take to navigate between areas of the app or anticipate another action someone may take by placing a helpful button on another screen. UI design and good UX design both make the app effective, usable, and efficient for people to use. For healthcare apps that rely on people understanding what the app is asking them and effortlessly engaging in those actions, good UI and UX design is vital. They impact the extent to which a person is satisfied with using it, how much they’ll use the app, how easy it will be to use, and, ultimately, whether the app is successful in helping a person achieve their desired health outcome.
By incorporating thoughtful design into healthcare apps, patient experience, workflow, and outcomes can be drastically enhanced. In this article, we will explore design tenets that can make healthcare applications easy, friendly, and impactful for users.

Key Principles of User-Friendly Design

Simplicity and clarity

• Importance of a clean and straightforward design - A clean, simple design is very important for an intuitive and user-friendly interface. In healthcare applications, where the user might have to deal with medical terms or manage high-stress situations, a lot of clutter can prevent users from focusing on the problem at hand. A simple interface eliminates unnecessary distractions and cognitive load, making it easier to use the app efficiently.
• Techniques for minimizing complexity and enhancing readability:
  • Streamlined navigation - Create simple, intuitive navigation structures that keep users on track and encourage them to visit the most important parts of your site. Label your menus and categories with clear terms and order them by priorities so that it is easier for users to find what they need.
  • Clear visual hierarchy - Employ typography, color contrast, and spacing to make your hierarchy clear. The main information and actions should be prominent, and secondary elements should be less so.
  • Concise content - Present information in a concise and clear manner. Sentences should be kept short and simple to avoid the use of jargon and enable the content to be digestible for users of all backgrounds.
  • Effective use of white space - Use white space to separate out sections, and to decrease the amount of visual information on the page, which assists with reader focus and readability.

Consistency

• Maintaining design consistency across the app - One of the biggest no-nos is having inconsistencies in the app. It’s important that the user can predict how a new screen will look based on the current screen. The user should also be able to remember where his main button is based on this same consistency.
• Use of standardized UI elements and familiar design patterns:
  • Standardized UI elements - Use the same buttons, icons, and form fields across your app. Users need to be able to look at those elements and immediately know how to act on them.
  • Familiar design patterns - Adhere to established design patterns that users are accustomed to. This includes familiar navigation structures, interaction cues, and visual styles. Consistency with design standards helps users feel more comfortable and confident when using the app.

Accessibility

• Designing for users with disabilities - An accessible design provides interfaces that help all users, including users with disabilities, effectively fulfill their service needs through the app. Accessibility is a legal requirement and an important best practice in providing an inclusive user experience.
• Implementing features like voice commands, screen readers, and adjustable text sizes:
  • Voice commands - Provide users who use mobility devices or who prefer to use the app hands-free with voice command functionality to facilitate navigation and use of the app.
  • Screen readers - If the site is built for screen readers, users who are visually impaired will be able to engage with it better. Providing sufficient contrast and alternative text for images and non-textual content will help.
  • Adjustable text sizes - Provisions for adjusting text sizes to meet users' visual needs. Fonts that scale smoothly and ensure that text remains readable and legible at a variety of sizes.

Designing for different user groups

Patient-centric design

• Features that enhance patient engagement:
  • Appointment scheduling - A patient can easily book an appointment and move or cancel it using the app. Include reminder notifications to the patients and decrease no-show rate.
  • Health tracking - Provide the ability to track vital signs, medication adherence, physical activity, and other key health indicators. Present this information in charts and graphs, which will assist the patient in monitoring their health progress over time.
  • Personal health records - Provide individuals with access to their own health records, test results, and treatment plans. Provide an easy-to-use interface for viewing, storing, and sharing their health information.
• Creating an empathetic and supportive user experience:
  • Emotional support - Emotional support features – stuff that makes emotional support available, such as access to mental health resources, other patient support communities, or wellness tips. Add reinforcements to the whole app.
  • User-friendly language - Use non-technical language and clear instructions to make interactions straightforward. Explain medical terminology and app features where necessary so patients understand their health information and how to use an app.
  • Customization options - Allow patients to customize features of the app, such as how often they receive notifications or which themes they want to view. Personalization will increase engagement and make the app feel more personalized to each user.

Healthcare professional-centric design

• Prioritizing functionality and efficiency:
  • Quick access to patient records - Make sure there is functionality available for caregivers to access and update patient records whenever needed, including prior medical history, current treatment, lab results, etc. Make these fields searchable.
  • Streamlined workflows - Design workflows that minimize time spent by the HCP entering data, such as after each patient visit, or doing repetitive tasks. Integrate tools for tracking appointments, referrals and communication with other members of the health team.
• Designing for high-stress and fast-paced environments:
  • Real-time data access - Provide real-time data updates and alerts to help you make decisions in a timely fashion. Make sure that critical information is highlighted and usable for your decisions.
  • Intuitive interface - Create a user interface that is not cognitively overloading, and that allows for quick actions. Use big buttons, appropriate icons and symbols, and easy navigation to fit in with busy healthcare environments.

Essential UI/UX elements for healthcare applications

Navigation

• Designing intuitive navigation menus and pathways:
  • Simplified menu structures - Provide a straightforward menu that is intuitive and user-friendly. Avoid having too many top-level categories that make it difficult to navigate through the app. Use simple and obvious label names to point users in the right direction.
  • Logical flow - Set up navigation pathways that make sense for users’ tasks and goals. Make it easy for them to return to screens they were on before—or to the general site map—so that they don’t wander aimlessly.
  • Search functionality - Search functionality should allow for either a text search or link to search functionality that identifies information or features on the page or facilitates searching for additional content from the same site. External ‘hyperlink’ style features that open a new window could also be useful. The search mechanism should also be able to use auto-suggestions to narrow down search results and make it easier for the user to obtain pertinent information faster.
• Importance of easy access to key features and information:
  • Prioritize key features - Place call-to-action buttons, menus that make it easy to purchase items, or other features made by or paid for by a company in a prominent location, such as at the top left or center of the home screen (or default dashboard if there is no home screen).
  • Responsive design - Make sure menu elements change size and are visible on all screen sizes and devices. Also, make sure mobile and tablet views are still usable and accessible.

Data visualization

• Effective presentation of health data:
  • Clear and concise charts and graphs - Break down health data into informative charts, graphs and progress bars. Use the right chart type (for example, line graphs for trends or pie charts for proportions) to make the data easier to interpret.
  • Data integration - Examples of visualizations that integrate data from various sources to present a coherent picture of a subject. Historical health statistics at a national level – such as life expectancy, child mortality, etc – could be plotted alongside current statistics to reflect progress.
• Ensuring clarity and actionable insights:
  • Highlight key information - Use color, labels, and annotations to call out important data points or trends and make it easy for the user to identify what’s important.
  • Interactive elements - Incorporate interactive features like drill-down options or hover-over details to allow users to explore data further and gain deeper insights. This interaction should be intuitive and enhance the user’s understanding of the data.

Feedback and error handling

• Providing clear and actionable feedback for user actions:
  • Instant feedback - Give users immediate feedback in response to their actions to let them know that an action was entered and processed successfully. For instance, display success messages, change the cursor’s appearance, or animate graphics to confirm successful completion of actions.
  • Actionable instructions - When users need to take additional steps, tell them what to do next. After a form submission fails, tell them what errors occurred and how to correct them, or instruct them to re-attempt the action.
• Designing user-friendly error messages and recovery options:
  • Informative error messages - Your error messages should be informative and descriptive. Don’t use technical jargon. Describe the problem and provide context. For example, instead of “Error”, say “Invalid email address format. Please enter a valid email.”
  • Recovery solutions - Provide users with a way to recover from their errors or undo their actions. Arrange for buttons or links to retry the last action, edit the current input, or cancel the current task. Make sure there’s a simple path back from error messages to productive task completion.

Testing and iteration

Usability testing

• Methods for testing UI/UX with real users:
  • Beta testing - Invite a group of real users to test the app before the official launch. You can get feedback on usability, functionality, and user experience. Real-world usage can often expose side effects that remain unknown during internal testing.
  • A/B testing - Try out different versions of a feature or interface element and test them one against the other to determine a higher-performing version. For example, test two versions of the same button – one with extra writing and another with a different color – to find out which one results in faster user completion of a request or a higher engagement rate.
  • Usability surveys and interviews - Ask users how they felt about the product, what the experience was like for them, what impediments they faced, and what aspects could be improved. This can reveal pain points and areas for improvement.
• Gathering and analyzing feedback to refine the design:
  • Feedback collection - Use various tools, such as in-app surveys, feedback forms, and user observation sessions, to collect feedback from users and encourage them to share their suggestions and objections to the app.
  • Data analysis - Look for key themes in user feedback. Look for trends in the users’ responses to identify areas of the design that require changes; prioritize changes based on the relation of the area to the overall functionality of the app.
  • Iterative adjustments - Perform user tests, then make informed corrections to the design based on the findings of the analysis. Run another test to see if the updated version improved the user experience, specifically addressing your discovered problems.

Conclusion

Interfaces designed with users in mind can improve interactions and help ensure users get the most out of the app. Interfaces that incorporate attention to simple usability principles—ease, consistency, and accessibility—can be intuitive and user-friendly and help patients, clinicians, and caregivers reach their health and wellness goals through measurable improvements in human interaction. Proper design can ensure that users know where they are within an app, can access important data easily, and are not metaphorical tramps in a digital diner.
By collecting user feedback through iterative tests and using an iterative design process, the app can be continuously improved and evolve to meet users’ needs and expectations over time. With these design aspects prioritized, health apps can achieve higher user satisfaction, produce better health outcomes, and have a stronger impact on modern healthcare.