"Knobology"

Special Interest Areas interaction design
1

Knobology is the term nurses and doctors use for the mastery of the knobs, buttons, dials, and software controls of a complex machine. To a designer, this sounds like a joke, but it is a real term used in medical imaging, particularly sonography (ultrasound).

The designer’s goal is an intuitive, seamless interaction where the controls are obvious. To a nurse, “learning the knobology” means memorizing a complex, arbitrary sequence of physical inputs required to make the machine do its job under pressure.

I am told this is a neutral term, but is this widely known in the industrial design field? It seems to highlight a gap between the world designers hope to be creating and the end result the users deal with.

2 Likes
2

New to me, but I like saying it. :rofl:

3

I bet attaining knobology competency includes no-look access and successful interaction. A bit more critical and nuanced than reaching for the volume knob in the pickup truck.

2 Likes
4

Might need a term that more geographically universal. I don’t imagine my British friends saying that with a straight face.

But certainly the thought behind it super important. Someone I know who focuses almost solely on medical hardware UX/ID told me once that he is constantly fighting what he calls the “train and blame” philosophy wherein a company makes a very difficult to use product, but pays for extensive training programs so they can then blame the medical techs for using the machine incorrectly.

2 Likes
5

Yes and repetitive stress injuries is a real concern in certain tool-intensive fields like ultrasound, that no training can completely eliminate.

1 Like
6

Yes, very funny from a brit perspective. One of my favorite youtubers is a brit who reviews stereo and electronics, but just the knobs, under the name knobfeel, for a similar joke. https://www.youtube.com/@KnobFeel/videos

But it also appears to be an indigenous US medical term. Here is a NIH research paper Breast ultrasound knobology and the knobology of twinkling for marker detection

The term is at least a little jokey, but it highlights the gap between a designer, who surely meant well, but designed only one model from one manufacturer. The manufacturers compete by differentiating. A nurse uses multiple models across their career, each with slightly different interfaces and features.

Compare to cars, where you can almost get into any car and drive off.
I’m not sure there is a solution here, but it was neat to hear the other perspective.

2 Likes