Vertical Color Maps: A Data Independent Alternative to Floor Plan Maps

Location sharing in indoor environments is limited by the sparse availability of indoor positioning and lack of geographical building data. Recently, several solutions have begun to implement digital maps for use in indoor space. The map design is often a variant of floor-plan maps. Whereas massive databases and GIS exist for outdoor use, the majority of indoor environments are not yet available in a consistent digital format. This dearth of indoor maps is problematic, as navigating multistorey buildings is known to create greater difficulty in maintaining spatial orientation and developing accurate cognitive maps. The development of standardized, more intuitive indoor maps can address this vexing problem. The authors therefore present an alternative solution to current indoor map design that explores the possibility of using colour to represent the vertical dimension on the map. Importantly, this solution is independent of existing geographical building data. The new design is hypothesized to do a better job than existing solutions of facilitating the integration of indoor spaces. Findings from a human experiment with 251 participants demonstrate that the vertical colour map is a valid alternative to the regular floor-plan map

Healthcare media design for low-literate users

Low health literacy has been associated with poor outcomes in health care. Recent research suggests that good healthcare media can help to reduce the literacy barrier and enhance health outcomes. However, the majority of healthcare media are constructed for well-educated users rather than those with low literacy skills. This begs the question of whether or not various healthcare media have the same effect on low-literate users. Immigrant populations are vulnerable to serious health disparities, and language barriers and these may further exacerbate their limited health literacy in accessing health care information. Yet, ways to help low-literate parents to look after their children by applying healthcare media are still at an early stage of development. The aim of this study is to establish useful design strategies for Graphic and Information designers when planning and designing healthcare media for low-literate users. This research was implemented through four experiments, including a focus group interview and questionnaire survey, a pre-post knowledge test, a usability evaluation, and semi-structured interviews. The findings revealed the problems immigrant parents usually encounter in caring for their children’s health. The results demonstrated that the influence of interventions by leaflets and websites on low-literate users is not significantly different. The findings also showed the criteria used by low-literate users to evaluate healthcare media and the visual factors of healthcare media that affect their satisfaction. An assessment checklist related to the design of health educational materials for low-literate users was also listed. This is an interdisciplinary research that integrates Design, Communication and Public Health. It provides a holistic framework for improving health intervention using various methodologies, including development, experiment, observation, comparison, and analysis