Improving Clinical Decision Making Through Ecological Interfaces

Robert E. Shaw's Intentional Dynamics Laboratory was the impetus for considerable applied research that both stimulated and tested Shaw's developing theory. In this article, the author describes the work she and Shaw did together on clinical display design, using this project as a vehicle through which readers may gain a sense of what those who worked in Shaw's laboratory experienced. The article begins with an introduction to the patient safety problem as it relates to clinical display design, reveals the source of the problem as analogous to the central problem in perceptual psychology, then explores how an ecological psychology developed by Gibson and extended by Shaw's intentional dynamics can contribute to a solution. The author then describes how she and her colleagues have applied the ecological approach to clinical display design and the results of that effort.