Signal-to-Noise Ratio

This entry is part 27 of 44 in the series Words

I work at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. UPMC has prioritized IT, and compared with many other academic medical centers, the IT department is fairly well-funded and well-staffed. The central IT umbrella spreads wide, including 16 major hospitals and numerous other facilities. UPMC uses Cerner for an inpatient electronic medical record (EMR) (and for […]

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Wireframes

This entry is part 34 of 44 in the series Words

A common technique for prototyping computer screens is to use wireframes. A recent article in UXmatters discusses wireframes, and asks whether wireframe prototypes are used by program designers as a substitute for real collaboration. That’s a good question. But I think this is a better one: is showing wireframes to people a poor substitute for […]

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Anthropology

This entry is part 33 of 44 in the series Words

When doing usability testing (see Discount Usability Testing) we tend to act like anthropologists, observing people using computers as if they were savages performing quaint native rituals. In a post in UXmatters, Jim Ross argues that we should also use the anthropological technique of participant observation: basically, going native. Or, in other words, trying to […]

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Anti-Data Pixels

This entry is part 29 of 44 in the series Words

Less is More —Mies van der Rohe In high school English class, many of my generation were forced to study a book about writing known as “Strunk and White.” Compared to many other books we were forced to read, it had many advantages. It was short. It was to-the-point. It was full of pithy sayings, […]

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Giveaway

This entry is part 24 of 44 in the series Words

In a February 19 article in the New York Times,  Julie Creswell calls the healthcare IT portion of the 2009 stimulus bill (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009)  ‘a $19 billion government “giveaway”’ resulting from the lobbying of the big HIS vendors. One of the quotes in her article points out the usability limitations […]

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