After listening to Dr. Tom Savel speak to our class about what the CDC was doing with mobile app development, what I found most surprising and fascinating, was how much time, effort and thought goes into creating a user experience.
I didn't think that creating a user experience was going to be easy but I also didn't realize what goes into making a 70 page pdf document into a mobile app. Some of the decisions that need to be made include:
- how to categorize the document (by topics, by chapter, etc)
- how to allow the user to choose the category (list alphabetically, create icons for each category, etc)
- once a user clicks on a category, how is that information displayed? does it read like a book? are there a list of sub topics to click on? should those sub categories be in a list or have icons?
- should topics be cross references? if so, how?
- should there be a back button, a forward button, a 'go to the beginning' button, a 'go to the end' button?
- should there be storage of a users history? If so how? how will they access?
- should there be a home button? where? on the screen at all times?
These questions just hit the surface of all the questions that a team must ask themselves before creating a web app.
Doctors and other health professionals having access to information literally in the palm of their hand, is an amazing concept and I think the field of Health Informatics is only going to grow. I have noticed in the past year or two, my doctors have all converted from written charts to carrying laptops and inputting all information there, I can just imagine mobile being the next step in electronic health records.
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