The waiting is the hardest part..
We’ve talked a lot about Service Design recently, and there are few places where this approach can have a greater impact than a hospital setting. One of a hospital’s service points is the waiting room. Given the heightened emotional states of waiting family members, giving people plenty of time and space to worry usually won’t end well. It’s a classic example of friction in user experience.
In a recent hospital visit, I experienced the role of family member in the surgery waiting room. To help manage my expectations, and presumably to alleviate the burden of family constantly asking staff, the hospital has implemented a patient tracker system. The surgery desk staff handed me a postcard-sized orientation card with my patients’ identifying code, along with written instructions for how to track my patient’s status on a large display. Honestly, I have only one basic question: “Where is my family member in the process?”
While this patient tracker system is well-intended, and is clearly driven by robust backend technology, it misses several opportunities to accomplish its primary mission of answering my basic question. As in the case shown here, these backend technical tools and platforms often contribute to, or even create, the problem. Since I have plenty of time to wait in this space, I can’t help but imagine myriad ways in which this could be improved. Perfecting the “art of the wait” can come in the form of a few simple recommendations, so, we redesigned it. Shown here is a before and after to help understand the huge difference that simple design principles can make on quickly comprehending information:


Use common language:
This is a typical example of how an organization projects their own internal jargon to an external audience. It’s efficient for the staff, but very hard for the general public to decipher. PACU and PC INTRA are not self-evident to a non-medical person. This is a case where you need to translate it into simple English. If you must know, PACU stands for Post-Anesthesia Care Unit, and is the phase where the patient is recovering from being “under”. Even the surgeon’s name is coded and repeated, adding to noise and confusion.
Use space logically and efficiently:
A lot of space is wasted here, which compounds many of the user experience issues. The distance between elements makes it harder to read because it forces the type to be smaller than it should be. This screen has many structural elements that contribute to overall noise and inhibit comprehension. For example, there are five steps in the process, but nine columns across the screen. I’m sure there is an internal system reason why it is there, but it only serves to add complexity and confusion for the public viewer.
Color should clarify. not confuse:
The original experience takes great steps to code each of the five steps with a specific color. Given that this is something that users will only experience once, or very infrequently, there is no advantage to “training” a user. There is a color legend across the top, but its placement isn’t helpful. Green means PACU, but I don’t know what PACU is without my paper reference to decode it. In short, color adds noise to this equation.
Make it easy to read from a distance:
This is a big issue, especially when the average age of the family members in the waiting room tends to trend older. Even though the patient tracker is on a 42 inch screen, it requires that most people get out of their seat to read it. Our redesign actually triples the size of the text, even while increasing the number of patients shown at a given time on the display.
Make it mobile:
Many family members are already tethered to their phones, so it makes sense to give them access to the patient’s status, and push notifications of changes. It affords them a personal focus on only their patient’s information, and frees them to move about the hospital to ease their wait. Just as important, it presents a huge advantage of being shareable with other friends or family members who are not present at the hospital. This is where a simple Web form is an easy solution.
All of the issues above are interrelated and you can maximize effectiveness through a careful balance of design priorities. If you solve one of them, you start to solve another. Easy, right? Great user experiences don’t just happen, they must be designed to fit the audience and their context of need.
For more information: Robert Abbott, Senior Partner, Context Digital. rabbott@contextdigital.com