Conditions
It’s been a while since the Caribbean region received detailed guidelines to help medical professionals treat patients with Diabetes. After a full revision of the previous guidelines, it was agreed to approach the delivery of information in the form of modules that considered the needs of professionals at different areas of diabetic care. A specified module focusing on the supply-chain management at primary care facilities (for example), is much easier to find the right information, than having a single book that covers all aspects of diabetic care.
The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) in association with the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) and World Diabetes Foundation (WDF), teamed up to revise and completely redesign the guidelines from the ground up.
Challenges & Solutions:
For a medical professional, time is a limited resource. A typical day requires them to balance their time between many clients, so saving a few minutes each day can help them be a lot more productive. My challenge therefore, was to design 5 modules that allow these professionals to find the right information quickly, with as little error as possible. The typefaces, shapes and colour were critical elements used to intentionally achieve this:
Typefaces needed to be clear, with careful consideration for persons with poor vision. Therefore, bigger font sizes were favoured.
Different shapes were used to quickly differentiate information in an algorithm. It was also used as an indicator for ending sections of a table. For example, a straight edge at the end of a page suggests that the information continues on the next page. A curved edge however, suggests the end of a section.
Colour was essential to providing hierarchy in tables, algorithms and headings. It was also used in tables to quickly read information in a row. Following the only blue row at the top of a table is much faster than following 1 of 3 blue rows adjacent to each other.