One Size Does Not Fit All: Health Care Human Factors When Designing for an Emerging Market

Abstract

This paper discusses the methodologies that were used to understand the users and the usage environment in an emerging market (i.e., India) and how the findings were used to aid the design of a next generation computer system (referred to as a programmer) that will be used in clinics and hospitals to manage cardiac devices. A variety of techniques including observations, interviews, and story-boarding helped to unravel the key differences in the clinical practices between India and the United States. The main differences between these markets were in the following areas: the exam room environment, transportation of the programmer, familiarity and expertise with the programmer, level of cardiac training, documentation practices, and degree of collaboration during device checks. These findings were used to make recommendations for the product design that could meet the unique needs of Indian clinicians.