Designing powerful but user-friendly software, is part science, and part art. This isn’t a story about how to design software and user interfaces – you don’t really need to know about that. It’s more of a look behind the scenes to show how we’ve been able to pack so many sophisticated tools and functions into KareInn while keeping it super-simple for people to use.
There are three key elements to creating software that works for users. These are: designing around users, minimising the need for people to remember things, and being consistent. By holding to these principles we ensure that KareInn simplifies care management while also allowing care management teams greater insight and control – even where there are multiple care homes to manage.
Keep It Natural
Working in a way that feels natural, rather than a way that’s dictated by the software is the most fundamental principle. That’s why we spent many hours with care teams observing and discussing how they work.
The aim was to offer a simplified and streamlined version of what people do, rather than a completely new set of disciplines. User feedback tells us we’ve managed to achieve this through features such as the care plan builder, and also advanced features including clinical workflows and event management.
It’s Not a Memory Test
The next key element of good user interface design is to eliminate the need for users to remember things. A common criticism of legacy IT systems is how useful and even essential tasks and features are buried in menus and sub-menus,
Our simple design principle is that you should never have to remember where to find the feature you need. The system should pre-empt this and present the option clearly.
Always the Same
At the very least there should be design consistency. Some legacy systems have evolved over many years with additional functions and features being bolted on. How these work isn’t always consistent, which just makes life harder than it needs to be.
Our aim is for KareInn to always be intuitive. In other words, staff at all levels can do what they need to do easily and without having to think about it.
Have we got it right? Book a demo and see for yourself.
