iPad for medical professionals

I am currently working on a iPad app.

Curiosity got me and was thinking of various way iPad can be used for other than business professionals.

Medical professionals came to my mind, just came up with a quick list of areas where it can be applied.

• Real time view of patient history and medical reports
• All patient test results (X-rays and MRIs) can be accessed via ipad as soon as its uploaded onto the system
• Learning tool for medical students (Video’s, podcasts, notes, books, curriculum, blogs)
• Research tool for doctors
• Real time report and patient status monitor for senior hospital management
• Video conference between hospital/doctors/patients on the move
• Video conferencing between medical professionals across the world
• Note taking tool (voice-recognition software would let doctors dictate notes)
• Instant on the go access to patient medical history
• Specialist can educate their patients by showing them the anatomy of their speciality in a rich graphical and interactive qay

o Heart surgeons can show the block in the heart through an interactive anatomy of the heart.

o Podiatrist / foot doctor can ‘peel back’ various layers of the foot anatomy to show patients what is wrong.

Adobe Catalyst - Next step towards interactive prototyping

I had visited the Adobe seminar at Chennai on 24 Nov 09, where i was impressed by the turnout. Around 500 people had turned out, eventhough the start time was 8.30 am.


The main focus was on Adobe Catalyst and Adobe Flash Platform (i.e. Flex 4)


Adobe Catalyst is about creating rich interactive prototype without writing code – we can import PSD files and start creating the demo app from the layers. No coding knowledge is required and the final prototype would be as we can expect from a fully developed application with the richness of Flash. This prototype once approved can be handed over to the developers to plug in the server connectivity, data binding etc…

This is an interesting tool and has a lot of potential for RIA based prototyping. Designers would be able to showcase their design in a real time interactive fashion before actual development takes place. Dependency on a developer in such circumstances also reduces.

Adobe claims no coding knowledge is required, but i would say some knowledge would reduce the designers learning curve.

The prototype once approved can be handed over to the developers to plug in the server connectivity, data binding etc…

special thanks to Abhijit Thoshar for nominating us for this interesting event.

Banning Mobiles in Schools - by Krish Ashok

I was reading Krish Ashoks blog on "Banning Cellphones in School"

http://krishashok.com/blog/2009/08/banning-cellphones-in-school/

He advocates that change should be embraced and his examples on past attempts to resist change were un-questionable.

An idea immediately jumped into my mind (luckily i was not in the bath tub ;)

Why not build a Web 2.0 app for schools to integrate the students phone with the school CMS?

The possibilities are endless - This would take the education domain to a whole new level.

Not only the students but the parents too can be targeted - (apart from asking them to pay for it)

One quick tag line - "Taking the class room to the student"

RIA for Automobile Industry

Automobile industry has been one which has been the long time patron for new technologies. I would say they were the pioners in using RIA solutions.

Volkswagen Used car locator is one such example. I would not rate it high on innovation as we come across such sites by the dozens now. However i would rate it high on the simplicity and neatness of the application.

Highlights of this application are good Information Architecture, highest degree of task optimization and content level navigation.

Check out - http://www.volkswagen.co.uk/used/search

Creating a usability dashboard

http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/dashboard.html

Now this site is a must read for those in BI, RIA or UX line. The article is constructed around the usability of creating a dashboard. But i see it as the tutorial for collecting the KPI which form the foundation of all dashboards - this is realted to B1's

The representation of the KPI's in one page forms the RIA part

And the overall readability forms the UX part of it.

Why i am asking you to read it is that you will not get such a explanation with examples in any real life situation.

Read it and let me know ur views

What will be the focus in 2009?

Good question isnt it. Well this is what i have been thinking from my last entry. Well my answer to that is RMA - Rich Mobile Application.

You might ask hey why is Subbiah jumping from Rich Internet to Rich Mobile application. My answer is simple - mobile screens are going to be the next window to the internet.

What i am talking about is the next revolution. Imagine doing most of the work we do on the computer in the mobile itself.

Blog,
Share photos
read/send mails
Check the news
RSS feeds
Pay bills
Fund transfer
book tickets
Play games
............ and the list goes on.

The catch now is how much of this can be done in such a small device. Come on where is the user experiece angle here.

This is where the RMA steps in. Not only will will one be able to do the above and more but they would be satisfied using the mobile for it.

Watch out for more on RMA

Designing Executive Dashboards by Tom Gonzalez

For all those in RIA field, Dashboard is not a new word. In fact it is one of main most asked for requirement in the RIA space.

Tom Gonzalez is the founder and Managing Director of BrightPoint Consulting, and has a wonderful article on Designing Dashboards: Part 1 , Part 2 and Choosing Correct Metrics & KPIs .

I would highly recommend reading this article.