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Simple But Iconic: Implications for Designing Icons Representing Delays in Time-Critical Medical Events

Published: 11 May 2024 Publication History

Abstract

Decision-support tools that increase awareness of time-critical pending tasks can help reduce delays during life-saving interventions. However, conveying the urgency of tasks through visual alerts remains a challenge. This case study describes our design and evaluation of delay alerts represented by icons within a decision-support system for emergency medical events such as trauma resuscitation. We used iterative sketching to design a series of icons for three delay alerts and two online surveys with a total of 55 clinicians to evaluate the icons. Although we have prioritized interpretable icons based on common icon design principles, clinicians preferred the simplest rather than the most interpretable icons. This case study contributes design guidelines for icons representing complex processes and concepts that can be applied to other types of time-critical teamwork.

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References

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  • (2025)Designing Computerized Support for Delay Awareness During Time-Critical TeamworkCompanion Proceedings of the 2025 ACM International Conference on Supporting Group Work10.1145/3688828.3699649(99-102)Online publication date: 12-Jan-2025

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    cover image ACM Conferences
    CHI EA '24: Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
    May 2024
    4761 pages
    ISBN:9798400703317
    DOI:10.1145/3613905
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    Published: 11 May 2024

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    Author Tags

    1. Alerts
    2. Clinical Decision-Support System (CDSS)
    3. Complex workflows
    4. Emergency medicine
    5. Icon design
    6. Icons
    7. Survey
    8. Trauma resuscitation

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    • (2025)Designing Computerized Support for Delay Awareness During Time-Critical TeamworkCompanion Proceedings of the 2025 ACM International Conference on Supporting Group Work10.1145/3688828.3699649(99-102)Online publication date: 12-Jan-2025

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