Medical Vocab
A plain-language dictionary of medical words, for patients and carers.
- Role
- Product designer
- Category
- Healthcare
- Project type
- New concept
- Year
- 2026
Design brief
Help patients and carers understand the medical words they meet in letters and appointments so they can make sense of their health.
01 · Brief
A letter full of words nobody explained.
I designed for the moment right after a letter, a test result or an appointment.
02 · Directions
Three ways to read one word.
Agents built a bedside card, an anatomy plate and a clinic notebook, each with the same three screens.
03 · Prototype
One word, four cards.
Each term is a small deck: plain words first, then its parts, the clinical meaning and related words.
Three looks. One notebook.
Checked against
17
test questions I walked through myself, with no test agents or real people.
From a first look to a gentle review.
What worked
- 01Plain words first, the clinical meaning later.
- 02The four-card deck kept each idea on its own.
- 03Search forgave typos and abbreviations like HbA1c.
What I’d change
- 01Let people capture words straight from a letter.
- 02Use licensed content and recorded audio from the start.
- 03Check understanding, since “understood” is self-reported.