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Measuring The Effect Of Affordances On A Crash Cart Medicine Packaging, Javier De La Fuente, Daniel Tachibana, Kristen Leemon, Christine Liu, Colleen L. Twomey, Soma Roy, Laura Bix, Scott Bisheff

Graphic Communication

Abstract: In the United States, most drugs stored in crash carts of emergency rooms are packaged in folding cartons with opening mechanisms that involve pressing and tearing the bottom of the package. Anecdotal evidence and a previous study conducted by the research team suggest that these packages are counterintuitive for lay users. The concept of affordances, how design features communicate actionable possibilities, can be applied to improve the usability of packaging. In order to measure the effect of individual design features and previous experience on opening time and error frequency during first opening attempt, a commercially available package for epinephrine …