The growth of opportunities for UX Designers in Healthcare
Opportunities for UX Designers have grown significantly since the start of the pandemic with many sectors adapting to a digital world. The demand for digital products and experiences (and therefore the people who design them) is growing. This isn’t at all surprising if you look at how you, your friends, and your family have adapted to the time, and how so many of our habits have changed this year. There has been a huge growth in online shopping, food deliveries, gaming, health & wellbeing and entertainment industries. Tech is a great place to be right now
One of the biggest growth areas has been the role of UX designers within Healthcare.
New challenges in the healthcare industry have accelerated the development of healthcare innovation. Striving to improve patient care, hospitals and clinics seek ways to digitize medical services and internal administrative processes.
Digital interfaces are becoming unavoidable in day-to-day healthcare practices. It calls for the engagement of user experience professionals to make the interfaces user-friendly and improve the patient experience.
What is healthcare UX?
It defines the experience of users while interacting with digital healthcare systems. Digital healthcare systems encompass different types such as remote consulting systems, medical transcription systems, health monitoring systems, and electronic medical records. In the healthcare sector where there is an abundance of information, and a lack of organization, digital healthcare systems with an engaging user experience can bring valuable changes.
The role of the UX designer in Healthcare is to optimise the usability, accessibility and pleasure of healthcare technology & services. Users can be anyone from clinical and non-clinical professionals, researchers, patient groups or anyone in the general public. There is a huge focus on prevention as well as cure. Opportunities can be in fitness products, mental health support as well as a number of other areas in the health & wellbeing category.
Medical technologies
Products can be used in the care setting or in the patients home. Remote monitoring solutions have flooded into the market in recent times partly to solve a problem that was caused by the pandemic and has highlighted that so much more can be done outside of the hospital environment. It gives patients so much more control and choice. It is a better experience for both patients & clinical staff, saves time improving efficiencies, gives better and more accurate data that can be used for research as well as treatment and is set to be a huge growth area.
Medical technologies aim to improve the efficiency of healthcare, enhance the patient experience, and make the doctors’ hard work a little bit easier. Up until now, Healthcare solutions have not been created with the user in mind but with the pandemic shifting focus and consumers are now demanding more control and better solutions, the role of UX in Healthcare is set to boom. With that comes huge opportunity but also great responsibility to keep safety of patients the top priority.
What does working in UX design in Healthcare offer?
Great pay and stability
The demand for healthcare providers to deliver better patient experience has exploded and we are only at the start of the journey. In 2019, the global digital health market was worth an estimated 175 billion U.S. dollars. The digital health market should reach nearly 660 billion dollars by 2025. UX designers will be in even more demand as this sector grows. With that comes attractive salaries and many start-ups are offering equity packages for senior positions.
The chance to help people
The use of technology in Healthcare is having a huge impact on the quality of life for some patients, and saving the lives of others. Working in this space can be very rewarding and gives the opportunity for UX designers to be involved in meaningful work that can influence the lives of millions of patients.
Stimulating work
Health technology continues to push the boundaries and provides opportunity to collaborate with some of the most creative minds. It is likely to be highly stimulating, working in fast paced environments in a constantly changing atmosphere. It will involve solving some of the most complex problems and working with colleagues at the top of their game. You will be working with highly skilled Product and Engineering teams.
Cutting edge technologies
Healthcare companies are using the latest technologies and as such attract top technical teams so you will be working with the best engineering teams. There are some really ground-breaking products using Machine learning, AI and VR and this can provide an opportunity to be surrounded by some really cool tech.
There are so many ways to be involved in Healthcare as a UX designer. Some of the Key Trends in Healthcare right now are Telemedicine, Remote patient monitoring, Medical Wearables including fitness trackers, Virtual and Argumented Reality, AI and chatbots, Voice user interfaces, Ethical design for mental health products, Electronic Health records (EHR) and this is constantly evolving so there is a lot of room for new ideas.
UX design must be created with different categories of patients in mind at all times. There is often a lot to consider. You can be working with very complex data sets and pathways and not all users will be the same. Products will need to take into account the different characteristics users may have. Characteristics, such as age, mental states, disabilities, health needs and of course tech skills. Products need to be simple and intuitive so users don’t feel confused when they need to quickly find necessary data or functions.
Overall UX design in Healthcare provides a great opportunity to work in a fast paced growing sector at the cutting edge of technology. AND it gives you the opportunity to develop your skills in an environment that adds value and improves people’s lives.
View some of our top UX vacancies here
Senior UX Designer City of London, London
Product Designer UI/UX – Remote Working position
For our full job listing, click here
Are you looking for help with recruiting to your healthcare company?
Are you looking to hire UX designers; or are a UX designer interested in finding out more about opportunities in healthcare? Feel free to contact us.
How to contact us
You can contact us here at Menlo Park, by calling 0113 468 9230 to speak to our friendly team. We can help if you are looking for a new role, or if you are wanting to recruit to your new start up. We will listen to your needs and find you the perfect job or candidate!
You can email us at [email protected] of visit our contact page here.