ed-informatics.org

The Whorf-Sapir hypothesis says that our language shapes how we think. It’s been moderately debunked in recent decades, but it’s likely true, at least in small part. And one of those small parts is when someone coins a new word that encapsulates a new idea. There has been a debate within philosophy since Plato’s time […]

Updates, December 2014, October 2016: short addenda at end. Speaking of “Bad Design Killing” a big part of the discussion at the ACEP Informatics Section meeting in San Francisco this month was about one particular usability problem with CPOE: entering orders on the wrong patient. I’ve done this myself – as far as I know […]

At a recent meeting, one of my partners noted how good for patients and emergency physicians it would be if we could access medical records from the rival hospital system in town. It certainly would, but given the controversies between the big players (one giant system that includes hospitals, physicians and a major regional medical […]

  When designing a computer screen, we have to keep in mind one of the defining elements of the computer monitor: its ability to display many colors. Having desktop publishing software does not mean we know how to design a magazine, and just because we have color monitors does not automatically mean that we know […]

Make things visible: bridge the gulfs of execution and evaluation. Use technology to make visible what would otherwise be invisible, thus improving feedback and the ability to keep control. –Donald A. Norman, The Design of Everyday Things Norman states: Mapping is a technical term meaning the relationship between two things, in this case between the […]