Design 21: Social Design Network

As an alternative way of dispensing my icons, I have come up with the idea of printing labels by a compact label printer instead of using printed labels. This way you can always print the exact number of labels that you need and don’t have to worry that you would run out of needed labels. (You never know how many labels you need for what types of labels since symptoms vary depending on patients.) Also, a compact printer allows for saving some space in working area of pharmacies. Regarding the way of sorting icons based on certain categories, (warnings, cautions and instructions, etc,,,) if you can have LCD touch screen (or LCD screen + manual buttons) on the printer it makes much easier to sort icons out by digitally visualizing them.

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I conducted my second user testing through an online survey system so that I can get as many feedbacks as I can. The advantage of collecting answers this way is enormous. First of all, I can contact people no matter where they are as long as they can be wired. In other words, I can contact people from various kinds of areas who have different cultural backgrounds. I actually send some of my surveys to Asian countries and European countries as well as United State. (I have few friends over there.) In this way, I can expect answers from more diverse areas. This is a great opportunity to see how universal my icons are. Another advantage of this method is its quantity of answers that I can collect. Since my design is all about universality, it is essential to get a great number of answers and analyze how they are interpreted in a big scale. In other words, the more correct answers I get, the more universal my icons are.

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I am thinking about simple Package/Dispenser system for my icons shown in the picture. Each icon comes in a roll which is individually put through a rod. Pharmacists can look at all icons at once and pick up right ones categorized based on “INSTRUCTIONS” “WARNIGS” “CAUTIONS”. In this way, they don't get confused when they pick up icons.

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In the mid-term review, I received many useful feedbacks. I have summarized those so that I can reference to them for my next step.

Most of people told me that my icons make sense but had questions about how they are distributed in a real situation where pharmacists have to apply my tags onto drug containers in a simple and consistent manner. It is clear that a pharmacist is a very busy job. Adding just an extra work of applying tags in addition to their normal jobs does not sound so hard, however it is quite a complex work when they are tied up with other works and have to manage them at the same time. As a solution to that, I have to come up with an organized distribution system for my icons so that pharmacists can quickly and accurately pick up right ones out of many other icons and apply them. I think I need to sort my icons based on some categories (dosage, frequency? etc,,,) and put them together in ways that pharmacists can easily recognize my icons. (in booklets, rolls or sheets?)

The other comment that I got during the review is about the ergonomics of my design. People often say that my tags look a little bit unstable on a container. Since my tags are constantly exposed to the contact of patients’ hands, they have to be more stable and durable. I think the problem with fragile of my icons derived from both my material choice and attaching method. I have to think about the material for final prototype which is more lasting. (I am just using ink-jet printed illustr...

My mission is to reduce adverse drug events among patients with low literacy by providing visual medication instruction.

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I conducted my prototype testing 2/20 at Literacy Assistance Center, which is a non profit organization dedicated to support and promoting the expansion of quality literacy services in New York. In my user testing, I showed my illustrations to people there without showing text information and ask them to answer what they think each illustration is supposed to mean. Over all, I would say that most of my illustrations are interpreted as I intended, however there are some exceptions of course. I am not going through every single point they mentioned to refine my design here because I think I need more test results to see which points are most relevant and which ones I should redesign my illustrations based on. I really need to sum up all tests results I am going to get through other test methods as well including online survey and testing with random people. From there I will start to analyze them to figure out what makes my design illegible and how I can make them better. In general, one of things I noticed during my testing is the fact that the older test subjects are the harder for them it is to get a correct answer. This is a very obvious result I witnessed in my test. It makes me think that I should take their literacy level into consideration as a first priority while designing my illustrations.

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I have updated my medication instruction illustration. I refined old ones based on feedbacks I got in class and redesigned new ones from scratch as well. One of things I did for design refinement is making every design elements including lines, shapes, color contrast, texts clearer than before. I got rid of all small visual elements in illustrations and tried to design with as bold visual elements as possible so my they have more recognizability to their design. I am planning to add more illustrations as needed and continue to refine them.

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I have come up with the new way of attaching my tags on the drug container. It has been an issue that tags will block the important medication information patients need when I directly attach them on the surface of a container. However, by making part of a tag transparent, I can make it posible to stick tags without letting them block the infomation underneath. This works out for various kinds of containers.

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