Touchless interfaces for healthcare communication - Exploring touchless interfaces to support healthcare workers when communicating on mobile devices

Abstract

In healthcare, efficient communication is crucial for delivering proper patient care. The utilisation of individual communication devices for healthcare workers is growing more widespread to optimise workflows and address alarm fatigue. With this change comes challenges, considering the high demand for infection control and the many hands-on tasks performed by healthcare workers. Touchless interfaces have emerged as a possible solution to face these challenges. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to answer the following research question: What should be considered when designing touchless interfaces to support healthcare workers when communicating on a mobile device? To address the research question, a pre-study followed by an iterative design process was conducted. Five separate visits to hospitals took place to observe and identify the unique needs of healthcare workers and the problems they face. These visits resulted in 12 problem areas exemplifying areas where touchless interfaces could be beneficial. Subsequently, requirements were formulated based on the pre-study and user studies, indicating what should be considered when designing touchless interfaces. Through the requirements, it became evident that eye tracking was not a suitable option for healthcare workers. However, both voice user interface and gesture-based interface emerged as viable alternatives. Two prototypes were developed to exemplify different approaches to implementing the requirements. The prototypes Myco Mini and Myco Main are two compact devices that assist healthcare workers in various situations by enabling interactions using a voice user interface and a gesture-based interface. The evaluation of the prototypes showed that the voice user interface was more approved, both in terms of its ease of use and social acceptance. Therefore, additional studies are needed to research gesture-based interfaces before implementing them for communication purposes in healthcare environments.