Exploring Medical Device Interface Design

Abstract

An effective user interface has become a key success factor in the use of self-managed medical devices such as glucose monitoring for diabetic patients. As the quantified-self movement expands, more users are adopting this category of device. Adoption depends on technology acceptance by an aging population with limited expertise but extensive experience with a medical condition that requires constant attention to avoid serious medical complications. These patients will have extreme variability in ease of use and usefulness of the product, especially when compared to users with more technology familiarity or with providers of medical care. This study investigates the range of user interaction and subjective perceptions among users with varied domain expertise and health status and compares them with a control group of healthy users. The impacts of social connection with medical professionals on product cognition are examined.