Simple But Iconic: Implications for Designing Icons Representing Delays in Time-Critical Medical Events

Decision-support tools that increase awareness of time-critical pending tasks can help reduce delays during life-saving interventions. However, conveying the urgency of tasks through visual alerts remains a challenge. This case study describes our design and evaluation of delay alerts represented by icons within a decision-support system for emergency medical events such as trauma resuscitation. We used iterative sketching to design a series of icons for three delay alerts and two online surveys with a total of 55 clinicians to evaluate the icons. Although we have prioritized interpretable icons based on common icon design principles, clinicians preferred the simplest rather than the most interpretable icons. This case study contributes design guidelines for icons representing complex processes and concepts that can be applied to other types of time-critical teamwork.