Healthcare user
experience design.
Research, human factors, and design for medical devices and healthcare applications.
Featured In
Trusted by medical device leaders since 2002
- Medrad
- Edwards Lifesciences
- COBE
- Thermo Fisher Scientific
- Johnson & Johnson
- DermSpectra
- Medtronic
- ANEUVO
- Life Technologies
- Alcon
- Baxter
- Enigma Diagnostics
- Ormco
- Braun
- Niche Bio
- Life Scan
- Gambro
- Wavetec Vision
- Advanced Bionics
Beyond the screen
What is healthcare
user experience design?
Healthcare user experience design shapes how clinicians, patients, and caregivers understand and use medical devices and healthcare applications.
A good healthcare user experience fits the way people work, make decisions, and take action across the entire workflow. Whether you’re developing a new product or improving an existing one, we study how people actually work and translate what we learn into design that supports clarity, confidence, and ease of use.
Understand the person.
Look beyond stated needs. Observe hesitation, uncertainty, workarounds, and the moments confidence changes.
Follow the entire workflow.
Account for handoffs, interruptions, changing system states, and what people need to resume or recover.
Design for the real setting.
Consider who is using the product, what else demands their attention, and the support available around them.
The full clinical workflow
Healthcare UX design for
the moments that matter.
Handoffs, interruptions, and unfamiliar features can change what a person needs from a product. We look for hesitation, uncertainty, and workarounds, then explore how the design can make the next action clearer.
| Moment | Uncertainty | Design response |
|---|---|---|
| Returning after an interruption | “Where did I leave off?” | Make progress visible. Distinguish completed steps from actions that still need attention. |
| Taking over during a handoff | “What changed, and what needs me next?” | Show the current state, recent actions, and outstanding tasks in a clear summary. |
| Deciding whether to press Pause | “Will I be able to resume where I left off?” | Make the device’s behavior predictable.Explain what pausing preserves and how to resume. |
| Recovering from a wrong selection | “How do I correct this?” | Provide an appropriate recovery path. Make the consequences and the next step clear. |
Prototype and test the difficult moments.
Include interruptions, handoffs, first-time use, and recovery in usability sessions with intended users. Observe where people hesitate or seek help, refine the design, and test again.
Our approach
From observation to design decisions.
Research informs the design.
Testing helps us refine it.
- 1
Immersion
Observe the whole workflow, including handoffs, interruptions, workarounds, and changes in confidence.
- 2
Concept design
Use workflows, story mapping, and Anxiety Maps to explore clearer paths.
- 3
Prototype & test
Test task completion, unexpected selections, and recovery with intended users while the design can still change.
- 4
Visual design
Make information, controls, and system states recognizable and consistent.
- 5
Development
Carry the design intent into implementation with clear specifications and collaboration.
Healthcare user experience in practice
Clarity when seconds matter.
HemoSphere advanced monitoring · Selected Areteworks work
Edwards Lifesciences
HemoSphere
Advanced Monitoring
In high-pressure cardiac care, clinicians need to recognize the information that matters without searching through visual clutter.
Here is how clinical research informed a specific design decision in our HemoSphere project.
What research revealed
Clinicians reported looking at the wrong number first. Critical signals competed with secondary information for attention.
How the design changed
We organized the visual hierarchy around clinical importance, distinguished vital data from lab values and alerts, and adapted dashboards to clinical roles.
Questions & answers
Questions about healthcare UX design.
What to expect when designing or improving a medical device or healthcare application.
What does healthcare user experience design include?
It includes understanding users and their environment, mapping workflows, exploring concepts, building prototypes, usability testing, and visual design. We connect these activities so research informs how the product behaves and how people complete their work. Our healthcare UX practice carries that design intent through implementation.
Who do you involve in user research?
We involve the people who will use the product, which may include physicians, nurses, technicians, patients, and caregivers. The mix depends on the intended users and setting. We also consider people involved in setup, handoffs, support, and other activities that shape the overall healthcare user experience.
How do you study real clinical workflows?
We combine interviews with observation of users in their working environment. We follow the whole workflow, including handoffs, interruptions, changing system states, and recovery. We look for workarounds and moments of hesitation, then connect those findings to specific design opportunities.
What are Anxiety Maps, and how do they help?
Anxiety Maps capture where people hesitate, feel uncertain, seek help, or lose confidence during a workflow. We connect these moments to the task, the environment, and the product’s behavior. That understanding helps us explore clearer information, more predictable responses, and easier recovery.
How do you evaluate home-use workflows?
Before design begins, we conduct research in patients’ homes to understand their daily activities, available support, and how the device will fit into their routines. We then create rapid prototypes and test them with intended patients and caregivers, including setup, first-time use, interruptions, and recovery. Explore our UX design for home-use medical devices service.
How does usability testing improve the design?
We test realistic scenarios with intended users while the design can still change. Alongside task completion, we observe hesitation, unexpected selections, and how people recover. Those findings guide changes to workflows, information hierarchy, controls, and feedback. We refine the prototype and evaluate the revised experience.
Can you improve an existing medical device or application?
Yes. We start by understanding the current product, the workflows users rely on, and where confusion occurs. We preserve familiar patterns that work, explore improvements, and evaluate the proposed changes with users. Our HemoSphere case study shows how clinical observations informed a clearer visual hierarchy.
When should we involve Areteworks?
Ideally, before features and workflows are fixed. Early research helps identify user needs and explore alternatives while changes are still practical. We also work with teams improving an existing product or investigating usability concerns. A 30-minute review is a useful starting point for discussing your product and priorities.
Let’s talk
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