Yes, non-terrible data entry UI.
Seriously, have you ever looked at the software your nurse or doctor is dealing with while they are supposed to be talking to you? It's hot garbage.
Seriously, have you ever looked at the software your nurse or doctor is dealing with while they are supposed to be talking to you? It's hot garbage.
It's like staring into an alternate dimension where VB6 never died and no version of Windows past 98 was ever released.
We use all our own file formats! You want to migrate to another software? Well, there's no current way to export your databases and reports to anything readable by anything in existence, but if you tell us the feature you're looking for, we'll just glom it on for you like we did with our pet project from college until it became the bloated fortress of invented-here syndrome you're using now!
I believe that interfaces end up the way they do for a reason. I'm curious what the reason is for healthcare -- is it a disconnect between stakeholders in the design stage? Lack of budget?
I'm hoping you can help me learn beyond the "design by committee" or other cliches. or at least understand those cliches in a medical setting.
A friend of mine works for one of the EMR software companies, though he doesn't program any more. I've also experienced the adoption of large scale enterprise packages such as SAP and SharePoint.
As I understand it, the UI design is literally an afterthought, because it doesn't exist at the time of sale. The expectation is that somebody will adapt the software to the customer's processes by creating custom UI's, data base structures, and work flows. There is a mad scramble to throw this stuff together and make it work. I suspect there is simply no time to sit down with workers and respectfully find out how they do their jobs. And processes that worked because the employees didn't follow the procedure, suddenly stop working when coded into software.
Considering the staggering size some of these projects are (peripheral evidence of complexity like table counts as mentioned here, and more solid evidence like raw lines of code, number of UI controls from big to small), it quickly becomes economically infeasible to put a modern shine on things when you have features you could be building to make more sales.
A decent UI in 2000 looked much different from now anyway. Also, the programmers probably aren't in charge of looks/design.