Key principles to guide development of consumer medicine information--content analysis of information design texts.
BACKGROUND
Effective written consumer medicines information is essential to support safe and effective medicine taking, but the wording and layout of currently provided materials do not meet patients' needs.


OBJECTIVE
To identify principles from the wider discipline of information design for use by health professionals when developing or assessing written drug information for patients.


METHODS
Six experts in information design nominated texts on best practice in information design applicable to consumer medicines information. A content analysis identified key principles that were tabulated to bring out key themes.


RESULTS
Six texts that met the inclusion criteria, were identified, and content analysis indentified 4 themes: words, type, lines, and layout. Within these main themes, there were 24 subthemes. Selected principles relating to these subthemes were: use short familiar words, short sentences, and short headings that stand out from the text; use a conversational tone of voice, addressing the reader as "you"; use a large type size while retaining sufficient white space; use bullet points to organize lists; use unjustified text (ragged right) and bold, lower-case text for emphasis. Pictures or graphics do not necessarily improve a document.


CONCLUSIONS
Applying the good information design principles identified to written consumer medicines information could support health professionals when developing and assessing drug information for patients.
Raynor
David K
DK
School of Healthcare, University of Leeds, England. d.k.raynor@leeds.ac.uk
Dickinson
David
D