ABSTRACT
The Ubiquitous User Interface In the past decade, the area of human-computer interaction has blossomed from being a gleam in the eye of a few researchers to becoming an integral part of many medical devices and, consequently, their user’s daily working environment. Today, the user interface is among the first things that users ask about and marketing people demand when discussing new medical device software. To the user, the interface is the system. For today’s medical device users, communication with the system has become at least as important as the functionality the system provides. Although a mind-boggling number of colors and new graphics and interaction styles are available, the problems of clumsy, difficult, and hard-to-use computers are still pervasive. All of the medical devices and systems using computers and containing microprocessors and microcontrollers are all undoubtedly computing well in their intended use but are they communicating? Users are less and less willing to accept anything that isn’t “user friendly,” because they have been spoiled by the natural, easy-to-learn, easy-to-use, direct manipulation interfaces they enjoy on nonmedical systems. From the user’s perspective, usability has become a key issue.
