Does the UI or UX matter more for a Hospital Management System?

Does the UI or UX matter more for an HMS

February 25, 2016

Hospital Management System or HMS becomes the essential factor in hospitals and healthcare centers as far as user expectations are concerned. Today, everyone expects a computerized system there taking care of everything. Right from the reception to the laboratories and from canteens to in-house medical shops, every operational task is carried out by the centralized IT-based HMS.
IT companies offer a wide spectrum of software from a heavyweight full-fledged CRM system to a tailor-made solution specific to a hospital. Requirement specs are studied, and a suitable option is suggested to the client.
When an HMS is installed in a healthcare unit, all mundane tasks are carried out by automated systems. From recording transactions to generating reports and from maintaining a knowledge base to the disposal of diagnostic reports; everything happens fast and accurate. People have time to do valuable and meaningful work. The management gets the correct status of the operations and can take right decisions based on MIS reports.

Why is UX or UI critical while choosing software?

According to IT stalwarts, the success of software depends on two important aspects. The first is how good it fulfills the functional requirements of the users. The second thing is how good the user experience while working on it. Interestingly, the second aspect is more important from the end-user perspective. Since operational people are supposed to spend long hours in front of the user interface of HMS, ease of use and looks are imperative.
In the competitive world of software development, UX is the USP (Unique Selling Proposition) of an HMS. From the individual page layout to the main menu and from the color combination to the graphics; every aspect is pivotal. When the UX design is pleasant, smooth and seamless; the convenience felt by users and makes the product success. Whether it is the big picture or the finest details, good designers always pay good attention to it.
UI or User Interface determines the usability and speed of the software. How fast the pages get loaded? How simple the navigation is? How elegant do the screens look? All these questions are answered by designing attractive user interface by software designers. Visual appeal and attractiveness define the quality of the HMS.

Good UX and UI make the software commercially hit

An excellent user experience makes sure that the customer satisfaction is high (here the team members are the users). It improves employee retention and increase ROI by giving a pleasant experience to the patients and business associates.
Software experts say that a good UX design should take three important things in mind:

Design that takes care of the users. It means that the software design should take care of color schemes, fonts, clarity, and controls. Navigation and search, accessibility and modular design should be easy to use.
Design that doesn’t ignore activity-centered approach at the same time. There should be minimum activities and steps in each step.
Design that makes use of the latest technology. Features that will maximize the application success should be included in the design. Flexibility and adaptability are two critical aspects.

The approach of a good designer is to use measures that improve software usability and easiness of use. Creating a positive user experience is the key to success.
When users buy the HMS for their organization, they may not rightly evaluate the importance of it because they are not software expert. It is the responsibility of the marketing or technical team of the software Development Company to explain it to them. Installing a user-friendly and easy IT-based Hospital Management system is pivotal to the success of a hospital.

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Written by: Chintan Mehta

Chintan Mehta is a co-founder at KNOWARTH Technologies (www.knowarth.com) and heads Cloud/RIMS. He has rich progressive experience in Systems & Server Administration of Linux, AWS Cloud, Devops, RIMS and Server Administration on Open Source Technologies. He is also a AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate.Mr. Mehta’s vital role during his career in Infrastructure and Operations has also included Requirement Analysis, Architecture design, Security design, High-availability and Disaster recovery planning, Automated monitoring, Automated deployment, Build processes to help customers, Performance Tuning, Infrastructure Setup & deployment, Application Setup & deployment along with setting up various office at different locations with a fantastic sole ownership to achieve Operation Readiness for his organizations he had been associated with.He headed Managed Cloud Services practice with previous employer and had received multiple awards in recognition to very valuable contribution made to the business of the group. He was involved in creating solutions and consulting to build SAAS, IAAS, and PAAS services on Cloud. He also led ISO 27001:2005 implementation team as a joint Management Representative. Chintan has authored "Hadoop Backup and Recovery Solutions" and reviewed “Liferay Portal Performance Best Practices” book.Chintan Mehta has done Diploma in Computer Hardware and Network certification - from reputed institute in INDIA.