BACKGROUND: Effective written consumer medicines information is essential to support safe and effective medicine taking, but the wording and layout of currently provided materials do not meet patients' needs. OBJECTIVE: To identify principles from the wider discipline of information design for use by health professionals when developing or assessing written drug information for patients. METHODS: Six experts in information design nominated texts on best practice in information design applicable to consumer medicines information. A content analysis identified key principles that were tabulated to bring out key themes. RESULTS: Six texts that met the inclusion criteria, were identified, and content analysis indentified 4 themes: words, type, lines, and layout. Within these main themes, there were 24 subthemes. Selected principles relating to these subthemes were: use short familiar words, short sentences, and short headings that stand out from the text; use a conversational tone of voice, addressing the reader as "you"; use a large type size while retaining sufficient white space; use bullet points to organize lists; use unjustified text (ragged right) and bold, lower-case text for emphasis. Pictures or graphics do not necessarily improve a document. CONCLUSIONS: Applying the good information design principles identified to written consumer medicines information could support health professionals when developing and assessing drug information for patients.
BACKGROUND: Effective written consumer medicines information is essential to support safe and effective medicine taking, but the wording and layout of currently provided materials do not meet patients' needs. OBJECTIVE: To identify principles from the wider discipline of information design for use by health professionals when developing or assessing written drug information for patients. METHODS: Six experts in information design nominated texts on best practice in information design applicable to consumer medicines information. A content analysis identified key principles that were tabulated to bring out key themes. RESULTS: Six texts that met the inclusion criteria, were identified, and content analysis indentified 4 themes: words, type, lines, and layout. Within these main themes, there were 24 subthemes. Selected principles relating to these subthemes were: use short familiar words, short sentences, and short headings that stand out from the text; use a conversational tone of voice, addressing the reader as "you"; use a large type size while retaining sufficient white space; use bullet points to organize lists; use unjustified text (ragged right) and bold, lower-case text for emphasis. Pictures or graphics do not necessarily improve a document. CONCLUSIONS: Applying the good information design principles identified to written consumer medicines information could support health professionals when developing and assessing drug information for patients.
Authors: Blake J Lesselroth; Kathleen Adams; Victoria L Church; Stephanie Tallett; Yelizaveta Russ; Jack Wiedrick; Christopher Forsberg; David A Dorr Journal: Appl Clin Inform Date: 2018-05-02 Impact factor: 2.342
Authors: Jo Rick; Jonathan Graffy; Peter Knapp; Nicola Small; David J Collier; Sandra Eldridge; Anne Kennedy; Chris Salisbury; Shaun Treweek; David Torgerson; Paul Wallace; Vichithranie Madurasinghe; Adwoa Hughes-Morley; Peter Bower Journal: Trials Date: 2014-10-25 Impact factor: 2.279
Authors: Andrea Lynn Murphy; David Martin Gardner; Steve Kisely; Charmaine Cooke; Stanley Paul Kutcher; Jean Hughes Journal: ISRN Obes Date: 2013-11-20