I attended ASCO last month to get a sense of how various companies are handling the new fair balance guidelines, to check out the Boehringer Ingelheim booth for which D2 Creative provided rich media, and to see how other pharma companies are using interactive media in the trade show setting.
With their hands tied by regulatory minutiae, pharma’s media is traditionally several steps behind other industries from a storytelling perspective. It is in the area of technology where pharma is much more free to flex its creative muscles.
A huge, international meeting like ASCO is exactly the type of showcase where one would expect to encounter the latest, greatest media wizardry. Granted, ASCO attendees are an unusually learned audience who are most interested in the science, but they interface with technology just like the rest of us. And when technology enters the fold, the importance of usability—and the user experience—cannot be ignored.
3D MOAs
ASCO booths presented a veritable smorgasbord of 3D animations describing the mechanisms of action (MOA) of both marketed and investigational compounds. The meeting provided the perfect setting for this type of educational eye candy. But there was so much of it that it became difficult to stand out in the crowd.
Enter 3D. Steroscopic presentations required audience members to don 3D glasses. While on first blush this might seem to be an obstacle to garnering attention, having to wear the glasses encouraged viewers to stay through an entire presentation. In such situations seating was wisely provided, adding to the theatricality of the experience.
Touch Screens
Too often I noticed that the content being presented at ASCO was difficult to navigate due to poorly designed user interfaces (UIs) and/or poorly functioning touch screens. Here are a few guidelines designers should consider:
- Make it immediately clear to the user whether they are looking at a display monitor or touch screen. Several times I found myself touching a screen to see if anything would happen.
- Some sort of sensory feedback is useful so the user knows whether their selection has actually registered.
- Observe design conventions. When users see large icons on a HOME screen, those icons are recognized as buttons. I selected several icons on one monitor before I realized that all of the icons were taking me to the same place and that the icons were not actually buttons.
- Test the program on the equipment that will ultimately display the finished piece. One very large monitor had forward and reverse arrows so far out to the edges of the monitor that they were outside the region where one’s eyes would naturally scan.
- Consider the placement of touch screen monitors relative to other monitors/users. Two monitors were touching at a 95-degree angle. Had two users tried to use the two monitors simultaneously, they would have been forced to get very personal with one another.
- Vertically oriented touch screen monitors are most satisfying when the screen real estate is broken out to present video content at the top of the monitor, menu selections at the bottom, and ISI, referencing, and additional messaging in between.
- Beware of small touch panels below larger monitors. These can be disorienting, making the user unsure where to look; particularly when the two monitors are displaying different content.
NOTE: While these guidelines address the user experience, check out Judy Minot’s blog on content and strategic considerations in touch screen development.
Gadgets
Early adopters may be the first on their block with the latest gadget—but there is a price to pay for this privilege, both financially and in terms of reliability. The same is true of the gadgets unveiled at meetings and trade shows.
Think twice before introducing a technology that requires some sort of tutorial or instruction. Very likely, the user will never again need to operate such equipment and that instructional time is chipping away at valuable product messaging time.
It is better to wow an audience with a cleverly presented message in a cleanly functioning medium than to introduce a technology not yet ready for primetime.
The Big Takeaway
When it comes to med ed communications, content is clearly king. But it is critical to take into consideration how this content is actually communicated to the audience.
Tags: ASCO, MOA, new fair balance guidelines, rich media, stereoscopic 3D, touch screen, usability, user engagement, user experience, user friendly design, user interface
