Centre for Information Design Research

Congratulations go to Part 3 students, Mel Towriss and Peter Loveland (pictured above) who, over the summer, took part in the University’s Undergraduate Research Opportunity Programme (UROP) and worked with Centre for Information Design Research. Their project examined how on-screen text format affected people’s reading speed and comprehension, as well as people’s views on which text formats were most appropriate for different purposes. The texts used for the study dealt with employers’ responsibilities to run a payroll and were drawn from the GOV.UK web site. Mel and Peter found strong agreement among study participants regarding the text formats; for example, what might be appropriate for beginner or professional readers of the information. Reading times for the different formats did not differ significantly across format but there were differences in comprehension of the information they presented. Mel and Peter were runners up in a research poster  competition for all students taking part in the UROP scheme and will be taking their poster to the 2015 British Conference of Undergraduate Research.

Last week saw the launch of the Berkshire Healthcare handbook for carers of people with dementia. The handbook is the product of a joint research project between Centre for Information Design Research and Berkshire Healthcare Foundation Trust to understand the information needs of carers of people with dementia and respond with an appropriately designed resource. Once the handbook itself has been launched our research will continue, to examine how it is used; and the complete process of initial research, design development and user feedback will be made public so that it can be used by other healthcare organisations, in the UK and elsewhere. The project has been commissioned by Berkshire West Confederation of Clinical Commissioning Groups as part of their response to the Prime Minister’s Dementia Challenge which was set up to encourage innovative approaches to dementia care.

Although there has been increased media coverage of dementia over recent years, it is still a poorly understood condition, and most people have no idea of the medical and social support services that are available to help someone with dementia stay independent. The handbook aims to fill gaps in people’s understanding and provide practical tools that will help family members and friends who are looking after someone who has dementia.

The handbook has been developed with the input of scores of carers, who have contributed to interviews about their experience, reviewed drafts of the handbook content and commented on design prototypes. Similarly, professionals from Berkshire Healthcare’s dementia services have also given their input, helping shape the handbook from the beginning of the project. Involving people who will use information resources in their development is standard practice at Centre for Information Design Research and the Cochrane Review has recently cited evidence for the effectiveness of health information that is developed with the input of its potential users.

The collaboration between CIDR and Berkshire Healthcare started with the development of a pain assessment questionnaire for carers to complete, to help doctors understand the pain symptoms of people with dementia who were admitted to hospital and to adjust their pain medication accordingly. This questionnaire has been trialed successfully at the Royal Berkshire Hospital and is now being presented at geriatric medicine conferences as an example of the positive impact of empowering dementia patients’ carers to contribute to the process of care.

Centre for Information Design Research is now carrying out a range of projects relating to health care, including tackling medicines waste, increasing the detection and treatment of acute kidney injury in hospitals and documenting assessments of patients’ capacity to make decisions about their treatment.

The Dementia handbook for carers has been designed as a paper resource, which is what research showed carers needed. The boxes of copies taken to the launch were snapped up, with comments from carers that it was just what they had been looking for.  But it can also be accessed on-line at www.berkshirehealthcare.nhs.uk/dementiahandbook.

The Handbook has featured on Meridian TV, BBC Radio Berkshire and Jackfm.

The University has launched its biodiversity mapping tool, KiteSite, which is to be used in teaching to track sightings of plant and animal life and, through GPS, map their location on campus. The tool was developed from existing open-source software by a joint team of biologists, computer scientists and designers as part of a University-funded Teaching and Learning Development project. Typography student, Liam Basford (pictured centre), developed the branding and communications for the project. He is with Bethany Everett (left), one of a group of student volunteers who tested the tool, and Alison Black, of Centre for Information Design Research, who was part of the academic team involved in the project.

Here at CIDR we are gearing up for the next Information Design Association (IDA) conference, Information design matters, on 7–8 April at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), London. There is an impressive programme, which promises to provoke some interesting debate.

The programme sections cover:

• Visualising information
• Design for health and wellbeing
• Information narratives
• Crossing boundaries in information design
• Information environments
• Theory to inform practice in information design
• and a panel debate

along with guest speakers, Ken Garland and Michael Blastland.

The line up of speakers includes many friends and colleagues, past and present, including Sue Walker presenting her recent research Designing information for children: how Marie Neurath and her team did it. Eric Kindel will also be discussing the Isotype Institute’s important post-war publications, Future books and Future magazine, comparing design approaches, and the relationship between editorial strategy and the graphic presentation of information.

Of course CIDR will also be discussing our work with Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust to create a manual for carers of people with dementia. Alison Black will discuss how user research informs design decision-making and will look at the role of different kinds of research in the development of a complex document.

If you haven’t got your ticket yet, book now, come along and join the debate.

Meteorologists aim to predict potentially disastrous weather events to a level that can help the public take action to guard against loss. The weather science behind these predictions involves a degree of uncertainty that is sometimes difficult for non-specialists to interpret. The illustration above shows a typical depiction of a hurricane’s path (this one from 2004), which has been shown to be misinterpreted by non-specialists. The area covered by white ‘cone of uncertainty’ around the line of forecast is typically seen as unlikely to be affected at the same intensity as the area on the line itself.

As part of the project PURE, funded by the Natural Environment Research Council, Centre for Information Design Research are working with the University of Reading’s Departments of Meteorology and Psychology to look at how risk and uncertainty might be communicated to people using forecasts that incorporate an element of uncertainty. In this  post on the PURE network’s blog, Alison Black discusses some of the difficulties in communicating and interpreting  risk and uncertainty.

Alison Black talks at an  Oxford Academic Health Science Network  event, in collaboration with Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, on Mental and Physical Health Interface, held at University of Reading in June.
Click here or on the picture to see a video of Alison’s talk.