Mistakes in medicine intake is common among older patients in Hong Kong. Some may lead to fatalities, particularly for older patients who live alone. These elderly patients have to struggle with the small print and poor information design often found on medicine labels. A two-year research project of redesigning medicine labels was launched in 2011 in response to the imminent need for improving medicine labels in public hospitals. The aim of the project is to decrease the number of errors related to medicine intake and to enhance active ageing in the local community through effective information design.
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Designing effective medicine labels for senior citizens in Hong Kong
1. Designing e๏ฌective medicine labels
for senior citizens in Hong Kong
Brian Kwok and Keith Tam
Information Design Lab
School of Design, Hong Kong Polytechnic University
13 April 2012
Information Design Conference ยท Greenwich, UK
ยฉ Information Design Lab, Hong Kong Polytechnic University 2012
2. The population is rapidly ageing in Hong Kong
10
8.89 million
8 2,489,984
28% of total
7 million
population
Hong Kong 910,481 65 years and older
population 6 13% of total
(million) population
65 years and older
4
2
0 year
2009 2039 projected
Source: Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department, Hong Kong Population Projections 2010โ2039
3. Media reports on the existing medicine label design
Source: Age-friendly medicine label survey reported by Sik Sik Yuen
4. 2010 age-friendly medicine label survey
Of the 569 senior respondents . . .
โข 96% felt that the type sizes were too small
โข 90% suggested that symbols could be used as reminders
for times and dosages
โข 84% requested descriptions of drugsโ shapes
and colours
Source: Age-friendly medicine label survey reported by Sik Sik Yuen
5. Main barriers of communication with older people in
the visual presentation of information (WHO)
โข Font sizes on text materials are too small to read
โข Medicine labels are hard to decipher
โข Page layouts are often confusing
โข Too much information in small spaces
Global age-friendly cities guide, 2007, p.63
6. Three types of medicine labels in Hong Kong
Hospital Authority Private clinics
Health Department
7. Hospital Authority medicine label from 1982 (still in current use)
Precautions Quantity of drug
Name of drug
Abbreviated drug name
Dosage & method
Precautions
Name of patient Date of dispensing
Name of clinic Codes for internal use
8. Information listed on the medicine label
1 Name of patient
2 Date of dispensing
3 Address of clinical hospital and name of doctor
4 Trade name or pharmacological name of drug
5 Dosage
6 Method of administration
7 Safety precautions
.
10. Objectives
โข Understand the daily lives of the elderly and observe how
the local older patients take their medicines
โข Identify the problems of existing labels on medicines
distributed in Hong Kongโs public hospitals
โข Develop a patient-centered design approach by designing
a new series of medicine labels
โข Explore new possibilities in label design for improving
accessibility, comprehensibility and usability to the
elderly
.
11. 1 2
Legibility tests conducted by the Redesigning medicine labels as
Information Design Lab an undergraduate class project
12. 1 Legibility tests by IDL
Variables tested
โข Typefaces
โข Type sizes
โข Colours
โข Information prioritisation
โข Spatial organisation
14. Observations at the seniorsโ homes
โข Many do not know much about the medicine and its side effects
โข Main concerns are dosage and method of administration
โข Mostly rely on memory instead of reading the label
โข Precautions and expiry dates are easily overlooked
โข Many reorganised their medicine in their own ways
โข Many recognise medicine by shape and colour of containers
โข Many preserve leftover medicine in refrigerator
15. Information searching
12 participants were asked to
search for phrases on several
labels. Durations were recorded. Search phrases B&W Colour
t
Expired date
Name of hospital
Method of administration
Dosages
7A1
Quantity of drug
Precautions
Name of patient
Functions of drug
5A3
16. Prototype combinations development
This matrix was used to develop 18 prototype combinations based on
the interrelationships between colour, type size, typeface and leading
17. Black and white prototypes: 1 Kai / 2 Song / 3 Hei
12 point 14 point 16 point
18. Colour prototypes: 1 Kai / 2 Song / 3 Hei
Colour for dividing line Colour for patient name Colour for dosage
26. Four types of information groupings and prioritisations
1 Patient information
2 Medical information
3 Precautions
4 Clinical information
27. Typeface preferences
ๅญ้ซ Kai
(calligraphic)
75.4%
ๅญ้ซ Song
(seri๏ฌed) 80.7%
ๅญ้ซ Hei
(sanserif) 82.0% โ
28. Chinese versus Arabic numerals
Many Chinese numerals share similar strokes
and therefore less distinctive than Arabic
numerals at a glance
ไธ ไบ ไธ ไบ ๅ ญ
1 2 3 5 6
ๆฏๆฅไธๆฌก๏ผๆฏๆฌกไธ็ฒ ๆฏๆฅ๏ผๆฌก๏ผๆฏๆฌก๏ผ็ฒ
(3 times a day, one pill each time) โ
29. Date formats
๏ฑ ๏ฒ ๏ณ
4 / 12 / 2012 4โ12โ2012
๏ด ๏ด
Both British and American
date formats are used in
Hong Kong
12 / 4 / 2012 12โ4โ2012
2012 / 4 / 12
ไบ้ถโผไธไบๅนดๅๆๅไบๆฅ
2012 ๅนด 4 ๆ 12 ๆฅ โ
30. 16pt for main information, others no smaller than 8pt
Precautions Quantity of drug
Name of drug
Abbreviated drug name
Dosage & method
Precautions
Name of patient Date of dispensing
Name of clinic Codes for internal use
31. Spatial arrangement
Clinical Information Patient Information
Medicine Information Precautions
32. More variables to be tested . . .
โข Portrait versus landscape format
โข Accommodating varied content
โข Label sizes for various types of medicine containers
โข Test for other stakeholders
.
33. 2 Student assignment
30 students from the Visual Communication
Design undergraduate programme
participated in the project
34. Student participation
โข Started in November 2011
โข Over a period of two semesters
โข Higher diploma and degree students
โข 80 design students participated
โข 75 user tests in total
35. Test participants
More than 70 senior participants with chronic illnesses
70โ85 years old
Three categories of participants
โข Normal eye sight
โข Little to no education
โข Visually impaired
37. ๅท้ป Pro 14pt
Typeface and type size testing Andale Mono 6pt
ๅท้ป Pro 8pt
ๅท้ป Pro 12pt
ๅท้ป Pro 12pt ๅท้ป Pro 10pt
ๅท้ป Pro 10pt
ๅท้ป Pro 14pt Andale Mono 6pt
ๅท้ป Pro 12pt
ๅท้ป Pro 14pt
ๅท้ป Pro 11pt ๅท้ป Pro 7pt ๅท้ป Pro 8pt
ๅท้ป Pro 15pt ๅท้ป Pro 12pt
ๅท้ป Pro 11pt ๅท้ป Pro 10pt ๅท้ป Pro 12pt
ๅท้ป Pro 10pt
ๅท้ป Pro 10pt
ๅท้ป Pro 11pt ๅท้ป Pro 7pt
ๅท้ป Pro 8pt ๅท้ป Pro 11pt
Andale Mono 7ptๅท้ป Pro 15pt ๅท้ป Pro 7pt
ๅท้ป Pro 15pt
ๅท้ป Pro 12pt
ๅท้ป Pro 15pt
ๅท้ป Pro 1pt ๅท้ป Pro 11pt ๅท้ป Pro 11pt
ๅท้ป Pro 10pt
ๅท้ป Pro 10pt ๅท้ป Pro 10pt
ๅท้ป Pro 8pt
ๅท
Andale Mono 7pt
ๅท้ป Pro 8pt
Andale Mono 7pt ๅท้ป Pro 12pt
ๅท
ๅท้ป Pro 12pt ๅท้ป Pro 1pt
49. For more information, please visit
www.infodesignlab.org
Brian Kwok brian@infodesignlab.org
Keith Tam keith@infodesignlab.org
www.infodesignlab.org
@infodesignlab
ยฉ Information Design Lab, Hong Kong Polytechnic University 2012