Mistakes in medicine intake is common among older patients in Hong Kong. Some may lead to fatalities, particularly for older patients who live alone. These elderly patients have to struggle with the small print and poor information design often found on medicine labels. A two-year research project of redesigning medicine labels was launched in 2011 in response to the imminent need for improving medicine labels in public hospitals. The aim of the project is to decrease the number of errors related to medicine intake and to enhance active ageing in the local community through effective information design.

1. Designing effective medicine labels
for senior citizens in Hong Kong
Brian Kwok and Keith Tam
Information Design Lab
School of Design, Hong Kong Polytechnic University
13 April 2012
Information Design Conference · Greenwich, UK
© Information Design Lab, Hong Kong Polytechnic University 2012

2. The population is rapidly ageing in Hong Kong
10
8.89 million
8 2,489,984
28% of total
7 million
population
Hong Kong 910,481 65 years and older
population 6 13% of total
(million) population
65 years and older
4
2
0 year
2009 2039 projected
Source: Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department, Hong Kong Population Projections 2010–2039

3. Media reports on the existing medicine label design
Source: Age-friendly medicine label survey reported by Sik Sik Yuen

4. 2010 age-friendly medicine label survey
Of the 569 senior respondents . . .
• 96% felt that the type sizes were too small
• 90% suggested that symbols could be used as reminders
for times and dosages
• 84% requested descriptions of drugs’ shapes
and colours
Source: Age-friendly medicine label survey reported by Sik Sik Yuen

5. Main barriers of communication with older people in
the visual presentation of information (WHO)
• Font sizes on text materials are too small to read
• Medicine labels are hard to decipher
• Page layouts are often confusing
• Too much information in small spaces
Global age-friendly cities guide, 2007, p.63

6. Three types of medicine labels in Hong Kong
Hospital Authority Private clinics
Health Department

7. Hospital Authority medicine label from 1982 (still in current use)
Precautions Quantity of drug
Name of drug
Abbreviated drug name
Dosage & method
Precautions
Name of patient Date of dispensing
Name of clinic Codes for internal use

8. Information listed on the medicine label
1 Name of patient
2 Date of dispensing
3 Address of clinical hospital and name of doctor
4 Trade name or pharmacological name of drug
5 Dosage
6 Method of administration
7 Safety precautions
.

9. Comparing medicine labels from different countries

10. Objectives
• Understand the daily lives of the elderly and observe how
the local older patients take their medicines
• Identify the problems of existing labels on medicines
distributed in Hong Kong’s public hospitals
• Develop a patient-centered design approach by designing
a new series of medicine labels
• Explore new possibilities in label design for improving
accessibility, comprehensibility and usability to the
elderly
.

11. 1 2
Legibility tests conducted by the Redesigning medicine labels as
Information Design Lab an undergraduate class project

12. 1 Legibility tests by IDL
Variables tested
• Typefaces
• Type sizes
• Colours
• Information prioritisation
• Spatial organisation

13. Seniors aged 60–84 at a community centre for seniors

14. Observations at the seniors’ homes
• Many do not know much about the medicine and its side effects
• Main concerns are dosage and method of administration
• Mostly rely on memory instead of reading the label
• Precautions and expiry dates are easily overlooked
• Many reorganised their medicine in their own ways
• Many recognise medicine by shape and colour of containers
• Many preserve leftover medicine in refrigerator

15. Information searching
12 participants were asked to
search for phrases on several
labels. Durations were recorded. Search phrases B&W Colour
t
Expired date
Name of hospital
Method of administration
Dosages
7A1
Quantity of drug
Precautions
Name of patient
Functions of drug
5A3

16. Prototype combinations development
This matrix was used to develop 18 prototype combinations based on
the interrelationships between colour, type size, typeface and leading

17. Black and white prototypes: 1 Kai / 2 Song / 3 Hei
12 point 14 point 16 point

18. Colour prototypes: 1 Kai / 2 Song / 3 Hei
Colour for dividing line Colour for patient name Colour for dosage

19. Prototype rating

20. Finding the best one amongst the prototypes

21. Prioritisation of information

22. Information chunking

23. Information chunking

24. Information organisation

25. Information organisation

26. Four types of information groupings and prioritisations
1 Patient information
2 Medical information
3 Precautions
4 Clinical information

27. Typeface preferences
字體 Kai
(calligraphic)
75.4%
字體 Song
(seriffed) 80.7%
字體 Hei
(sanserif) 82.0% ✔

28. Chinese versus Arabic numerals
Many Chinese numerals share similar strokes
and therefore less distinctive than Arabic
numerals at a glance
一 二 三 五 六
1 2 3 5 6
每日三次，每次一粒 每日３次，每次１粒
(3 times a day, one pill each time) ✔

29. Date formats
  
4 / 12 / 2012 4–12–2012
 
Both British and American
date formats are used in
Hong Kong
12 / 4 / 2012 12–4–2012
2012 / 4 / 12
二零⼀一二年四月十二日
2012 年 4 月 12 日 ✔

30. 16pt for main information, others no smaller than 8pt
Precautions Quantity of drug
Name of drug
Abbreviated drug name
Dosage & method
Precautions
Name of patient Date of dispensing
Name of clinic Codes for internal use

31. Spatial arrangement
Clinical Information Patient Information
Medicine Information Precautions

32. More variables to be tested . . .
• Portrait versus landscape format
• Accommodating varied content
• Label sizes for various types of medicine containers
• Test for other stakeholders
.

33. 2 Student assignment
30 students from the Visual Communication
Design undergraduate programme
participated in the project

34. Student participation
• Started in November 2011
• Over a period of two semesters
• Higher diploma and degree students
• 80 design students participated
• 75 user tests in total

35. Test participants
More than 70 senior participants with chronic illnesses
70–85 years old
Three categories of participants
• Normal eye sight
• Little to no education
• Visually impaired

36. Card sorting
To understand how the
elderly participants organise
information

37. 儷黑 Pro 14pt
Typeface and type size testing Andale Mono 6pt
儷黑 Pro 8pt
儷黑 Pro 12pt
儷黑 Pro 12pt 儷黑 Pro 10pt
儷黑 Pro 10pt
儷黑 Pro 14pt Andale Mono 6pt
儷黑 Pro 12pt
儷黑 Pro 14pt
儷黑 Pro 11pt 儷黑 Pro 7pt 儷黑 Pro 8pt
儷黑 Pro 15pt 儷黑 Pro 12pt
儷黑 Pro 11pt 儷黑 Pro 10pt 儷黑 Pro 12pt
儷黑 Pro 10pt
儷黑 Pro 10pt
儷黑 Pro 11pt 儷黑 Pro 7pt
儷黑 Pro 8pt 儷黑 Pro 11pt
Andale Mono 7pt儷黑 Pro 15pt 儷黑 Pro 7pt
儷黑 Pro 15pt
儷黑 Pro 12pt
儷黑 Pro 15pt
儷黑 Pro 1pt 儷黑 Pro 11pt 儷黑 Pro 11pt
儷黑 Pro 10pt
儷黑 Pro 10pt 儷黑 Pro 10pt
儷黑 Pro 8pt
儷
Andale Mono 7pt
儷黑 Pro 8pt
Andale Mono 7pt 儷黑 Pro 12pt
儷
儷黑 Pro 12pt 儷黑 Pro 1pt

38. Symbol testing

39. Symbol testing

40. Colour testing

41. Label orientation testing

42. Students’ prototypes

43. Students’ prototypes

44. Students’ prototypes

45. Students’ prototypes

46. Students’ prototypes

47. Students’ prototypes

48. Damien Hirst Image 2 caption

49. For more information, please visit
www.infodesignlab.org
Brian Kwok brian@infodesignlab.org
Keith Tam keith@infodesignlab.org
www.infodesignlab.org
@infodesignlab
© Information Design Lab, Hong Kong Polytechnic University 2012