A hospital information technology group asked me to evaluate and revise their print dialog window, as it produced nearly 15 help desk calls each week. The goal was to simplify the dialog box so that the user could clearly identify how to print a selected admission of a specific patient.  

One of the biggest challenges to its simplification was that this dialog box needed to support three different tasks. Dialog boxes are designed to support one task path, one goal or purpose. This constraint, combined with the fact that the "census list" is a separate vendor program, affected the final design. The following three illustrations show the before, during and after images. The basic task sequences served by this dialog box are:

Step 1.1: Find Patient

Search by Patient Number

Step 1.2: View All Active Patients - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - GOAL #1

View "Census" List (all active inpatients)

Step 2: Find Patient Chart

•  Select Admission Item (Pull-down Menu)

•  For ICU, select item by date/time of admission

Confirm Admission Item (View) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - GOAL #2

Step 3: Send to Selected Printer

Choose location (Pull-down Menu)

•  Pick printer at that location (Pull-down menu)

Step 4: Print - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - GOAL #3

Hit button to print

BEFORE

Prior to this project, the application RemoteView/Reprint Manager provided this dialog box to users:

DURING

As a member of the Human-Computer Interaction Team, I reworked the dialog box to support the user's task path and to conform to standards, guidelines and conventions for Windows-based dialog box design. The following two- and three- part windows sequences were created for presentation to the programming team who had designed the RemoteView/Reprint Manager application:

Version 1: Two Dialog Boxes   

 Version 2: Three Dialog Boxes

These dialog boxes attempted to (a) simplify, (b) organize and (c) distinguish the tasks associated with this dialog box. Having two (and ultimately three) different task paths and task goals supported by this dialog box was the most constraining factor met by the proposed design. Combining the two task paths in one dialog box (Version 1) afforded users the chance to print faster, one step faster. In Version 2, the print button has an ellipsis (...) to indicate that another dialog box will open to accept printer settings. In both versions, the patient record information was duplicated to remind and reassure the user what record they were reviewing.

Because these menu items are not populated based on what is selected in those pull-down menus that precede it, they could be clustered into one dialog box. Furthermore, since the census list is not attached, and cannot therefore populate the search field as a browse feature, its functional purpose had to be modified on the interface in the final version.

AFTER

In presenting the two alternative dialog box sequences (two and three windows), the programming team clarified that constraints needed to be met. Those constraints suggested that (a) some users would use the dialog box just to get to the Census List, (b) some users would only want to view the admission and (c) those who want to print do not want to go through multiple screens to do so.

For these reasons, the functionality was aligned in a single column so that all options were visible to the user. Settings (as pull-down menus) were associated with the corresponding functionality by splitting the dialog window with a fine horizontal line. By putting Census List in the upper right hand corner, it will be quickly seen by users but not command greater importance than other functionality available at this dialog. The two "chevron" arrows on the Census List button indicate that it will open another window, as the census list is a vended product beyond the scope of the client team.

Alison Andrews |   alison@functionlust.com