Involution's hGraph, an open source health metrics visualization, was recently featured in Wired Magazine online, highlighted in the article, “How Restyling the Mundane Medical Record Could Improve Health Care.” The Wired spot discusses hGraph’s strong social component: By tracking the data for entire families hGraph illustrates how some conditions, like obesity and heart disease, can be affected by collective health choices.

Health IT Buzz, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services innovation blog, also mentioned hGraph as a notable entry to the Patient Health Record Graphic Design Contest, where it inspired the judges and challenged the status quo. The article notes that Involution designers “weren’t afraid to think outside the box.” A simple-to-use tool like hGraph has the potential to improve patient care, prevent medication errors, and supply clear health metrics. By making health records usable and interactive, this software can empower doctors, caregivers, and patients to make better health decisions and save lives.

Dominic Flask, Editor of The Designer’s Review of Books, recently reviewed Involution’s Design Axioms deck, created by Juhan Sonin, along with Luke Wroblewski, Andrei Herasimchuk, and Dirk Knemeyer. The deck features striking graphics, detailing sixteen foundational principles that outline the essential rules of interface design.

The Design Axioms deck serves as a recommended pathway for UI designers, telling you where to spend your energy and where not to, when it comes to interface design.

Flask writes, “Overall, Design Axioms is an excellent reference deck for the beginning interface designer and provides a good set of principles to start building an educational foundation upon.” The deck is organized into four sections: "Let Data Scream", "Prototype Like Crazy", "What Interface?", and "Know Thy Code". To complement the bold imagery, the writing is direct and commanding. For example, take this excerpt from Real Data is Truth:

Shortcuts make design more efficient. Sometimes, they also make it worse. Injecting Lorem Ipsum and other dummy data into design during the creation process sucks. Dummy data leads to dummy design. […] Great design surfaces Truth, and real data is Truth.

As Flask notes Design Axioms won’t make you a master of interface design in a single day — after all, the Design Axioms are not about cutting corners — but you “would be in pretty good shape if you started that day by flipping through the Design Axioms deck.” If you’re serious about design and coding, the Design Axioms deck is a great weapon to have in your arsenal. If nothing more, it will provide you with an assertive, creative guide toward becoming the best software designer you can be. And for UX teams, the Design Axioms are a great resource for inspiration, brainstorming, and critique sessions.

Involution client uTest has launched Applause, an analytics tool that offers clear, explicit data about what users truly feel about mobile apps. Applause enables app-owners to see how each version of their app measures up and the ability to compare their app to those of their competitors. Applause features sleek multi-version app graphs and a revolutionary rating scheme, with user interface design and development by Involution.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), challenged designers across the United States to re-imagine the presentation of the medical record in order to create a better patient experience. The objective of the Health Design Challenge was to create a usable, beautiful medical record enabling patients to more easily manage their health, and health professionals and caregivers to more effectively understand and use patients’ health information. On January 15, from the over 230 submissions, Involution Studios entry — a dynamic, system view of your health — was selected for the online showcase, featuring the most innovative designs that challenged the status quo. There’s no doubt that a well-designed medical record has the potential to provide many positive outcomes, including improved care coordination, prevention of medication errors, and quick, on demand access to critical health information in emergency situations.

hRecord and hGraph
Involution has long been involved with the design of open source solutions for the healthcare industry. We’re sharing a sample of our hRecord designs here, including versions for iPad and iPhone. You can also view our complete Health Design Challenge submission.

The way in which patients and doctors make healthcare decisions — from choosing therapies to evaluating possible side-effects — is changing rapidly based on newly available genetic testing and analysis. Involution client GeneInsight, a subsidiary of Partners HealthCare is on the forefront of this revolution in personalized medicine.

Last week, Partners HealthCare was featured in a Boston Globe article detailing its ground-breaking technology in whole genome sequencing. The innovative work in this space is being done by Partners HealthCare Center for Personalized Genetic Medicine (PCPGM), which is dedicated to making people’s lives healthier and better by transforming the practice of medicine through increased personalization — based on the accelerated integration of genetic knowledge into clinical care.

The Health Design Challenge, sponsored by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), is encouraging the UX design community to rethink the presentation of the medical record in order to create a better patient experience. The objectives are to design a usable, beautiful medical record that enables patients to more easily manage their health, and health professionals and caregivers to more effectively understand and use patients' health information.

Involution is pleased to announce a free, open source, iOS version of Design Axioms, which is now available on the iTunes app store for both iPhone and iPad.