Screening for potential drug-drug interactions is an important component of patient safety. In a previous post I commented on a study that looked at the ability for drug-drug interaction software to detect clinically significant interactions. I also remarked that it’s important for this type of software to minimize the number of minor interactions displayed; otherwise, providers may start to ignore all of the alerts. The challenge of course is to try to discern which alerts are signal and which are noise. Read further >

1. Consumption or Creation?

A recent report by usability guru Nielsen on the iPad reiterates a common understanding about the iPad, which is that it’s mostly for media consumption. Email is “the only slight exception to the rule.” This might be true now but it is not a sign of things to come. Read further >

Human-centered design is one year old this month: standard ISO 9241-210 was born in May 2010. Sorry, I recognize most people find neither human-centered design nor standards so interesting to celebrate. And really, there is much about the abstract and weighty language which can be a bit tedious at times. But the real power of international standards come from the fact that they are ‘international’ and that they are ‘standards.’ Read further >

When I was very young, one of my favorite activities was building things with Lego bricks. I don’t know how exactly how many of them I had, but it’s safe to say it was in the hundreds. I had red, white, yellow, and blue ones. I had short, long, thin, and thick ones. I had wheels, windows, and lots of little decorative pieces. I spent an extraordinary amount of time turning ideas into things with them. Read further >

“A lot of people in technical professions just don’t ‘get’ design. They think it’s just putting on a pretty interface”

That’s not me saying it… I read it on the Communications of the ACM website, which published two very interesting blog posts by Jason Hong (assistant professor in computer science at Carnegie Mellon) on “Matters of Design.” Read further >

User experience design is a hot topic in my own organization these days. I stumbled across various articles recently that address this fascinating topic. I’ve come to realize that it’s undervalued and also often oversimplified. (Note: other contributors to this Intelligent Solutions blog, for example my colleague Ornella Zampieri, have explored facets of this same topic). Read further >

Next year I will celebrate my 30-year anniversary in software development. I don’t really write code anymore, but every day I work with and around people who do. I still have a software developer’s mind, and I really enjoy being around software people. Read further >

In a business to business market (B2B) we often refer to ‘the Customer’ as the End-user which is not necessarily the case. Contrary to business to consumer market (B2C) there isn’t always a direct relation between the purchaser and the End-user of a product in B2B. However, after recent very successful launches of consumer devices and services this differentiation has become distorted. So instead of focusing on the Customer, focus instead on the persons actually pushing the buttons. Read further >

I see at least one article in the B2B media every day advising publishers to build social communities around their products or interest groups. But without any real direction, how well can we create a community that our readers will want to be part of? I recently attended a webinar, sponsored by the American Society of Business Publication Editors, titled Leveraging the Power of B2B Social Communities, that provided some suggestions on how to manage a successful community. Read further >

“You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression”

Most people believe that quote originated somewhere on Madison Avenue in the advertising business. I don’t know about that, but I believe what it says. First impressions matter in personal relationships, business relationships, and in marketing to customers. Making a positive first impression even has a place in the software industry. Take the following, for example.

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