Shadowing clinicians before writing a line of code
Clinicians abandon software that adds clicks to a moment when their hands are full; designing around real observed workflow — not a requirements doc — is what gets a clinical system adopted.
By WASS Product design
What we saw
Nurses documenting from memory an hour after care because the screen was across the unit. Physicians keeping paper notes to avoid a slow EHR. A medication workflow that took nine taps at the exact moment both hands were occupied.
None of this was in the requirements document. All of it determined whether the software would be used.
The five principles
1. Minimise interaction cost where load is highest — the bedside, the handover, the code.
2. Make the common path the default path; hide the rare one.
3. Never make a clinician re-enter something the system already knows.
4. Fail visibly and safely — a clinician must always know what was and was not recorded.
5. Design for interruption; clinical work is never linear.
Frequently asked questions
- Why do clinicians abandon clinical software?
- Because it adds interaction cost at the busiest moments — extra clicks at the bedside or during handover — so they work around it with paper or delayed documentation.
- What is contextual inquiry in healthcare software?
- Observing clinicians doing real work in their real environment before writing requirements, so the design reflects actual workflow, interruptions and constraints rather than an idealised description.
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