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. 2018 Sep 12;9(3):714–724. doi: 10.1055/s-0038-1668093

Table 3. Usability issues rated 4 (catastrophic) by at least 1 expert reviewer.

Catastrophic usability issues
Discharge instructions are missing. Severity of condition is not conveyed
No information explaining inadequate weight gain, which seems clinically important
Diagnosis description is not clear. Initial encounter is written twice but it is not clear if the initial encounter is from a fall, a sports accident, or a fall during a sports accident
Medication instructions list other medications and current medications. It is not clear if the patient is already on ibuprofen and are going to add an additional 200 mg of ibuprofen or if this is the same prescription
Care Plan & Goals is highly confusing. Medications section is unnecessarily complex and redundant
Follow-up contact is listed under Patient Education Information
Order of information is confusing throughout
Lack of structure makes navigation within the document difficult
Highly inconsistent indentation, use of columns, font size and type, spacing, tables, and even footer text all contributes to a difficult to discern structure, hard to read, and very confusing
Lack of color/contrast and seemingly arbitrary use of large text and bold text make determining, let alone understanding, emphasis very difficult
Some subheaders/sections are in larger text than parent header(s)
Formatting and issues with page breaks contribute to problems grouping information