Open source is something that anyone can change and share, because it’s publicly available under a generous license. While it first began with computer code, open source now influences how projects and businesses work, and our lives benefit from this open sharing. Open source has grown into a way of…

By Bryson Wong and Jon Follett with Edwin Choi and Juhan Sonin The great promise of electronic health records (EHR) is one of improved care through increased communication and care coordination between providers and patients. Yet, despite the legislative push for meaningful use in 2009 and accompanying financial incentives, nearly…

Digital services can scale more readily than human doctors. It’s a reality that’s fueling a revolution. Add to this the fact that 99% of our health activities are conducted outside of the doctor’s office and we can see how distributed digital health will drive the future of medicine. Wearable gadgets and smartphone apps track data, vital signs, and health…

by Dirk Knemeyer This is the fourth of six articles in our User Experience Maturity series. Read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. While the Web 2.0 period established user experience, it was the release of the iPhone in 2007 that truly took the profession everywhere. Compared to other smartphones, the iPhone offered the perfect fit between work and play, moving the use of computing devices beyond working stiffs and geeks into…

by Dirk Knemeyer This is the third of six articles in our User Experience Maturity series. Read Part 1 and Part 2. In 2001, the creation of the consultancy Adaptive Path brought a surge of formality to user experience. The first consulting firm to style itself as “user experience,” Adaptive Path served as a gravity well for not just user experience directly but the constellation of constituent…

by Jon Follett, Edwin Choi, and Juhan Sonin Healthcare is a utility, a human right, and too damn important to be secret. In these tumultuous times, as the healthcare system in the United States goes through unprecedented changes, as technology upends the practice of medicine and the sciences, and as we debate the nature and role of health in our society, these nine open…

by Dirk Knemeyer This is the second of six articles in our User Experience Maturity series. Read Part 1. The age of user experience formally began with Dr. Donald A. Norman titling himself “user experience architect” at Apple in 1993. While it was not the first time the words “user experience” were used, Norman’s choosing the term for his formal title at one of the most iconic computer companies in the…

by Dirk Knemeyer In the beginning, there were engineers making software. Just as there were inventors who came up with the idea and “just made the thing” for centuries before there were industrial designers, so are the origins of software punctuated by programmers who made ugly and inefficient things. But, those “things” were novel, and they worked. Design…