Healthcare UI Design Standards

Required Plugins

Superpowers plugin: MUST be active for all healthcare UI work — design decisions, component generation, accessibility audits, and compliance checks.

Frontend Design plugin: Required for all web and Android UI generation.

Companion skills: Load webapp-gui-design for web implementations, jetpack-compose-ui for Android implementations. Always load vibe-security-skill — healthcare demands zero-compromise security.

Healthcare UI Design Standards

Design Philosophy

Five non-negotiable principles for healthcare interfaces:

1. Clinical Safety First — UI decisions can impact patient outcomes. Never auto-select medications, never hide allergies, always require confirmation for critical actions. A confusing dosage field can be fatal.
2. Calm Under Pressure — Users are stressed, sick, or overwhelmed. Use clean layouts, soft palettes, generous whitespace, and predictable navigation. Reassure, never overwhelm.
3. Role-Specific Experiences — Clinicians need rapid-scan dashboards. Nurses need task-oriented workflows. Patients need plain language and large touch targets. Admin needs analytics. Never build one-size-fits-all.
4. Compliance by Design — HIPAA, WCAG 2.2 AA, ADA are embedded in every component, not bolted on. Every screen logs access, enforces timeouts, and protects PHI.
5. Context-Aware Density — Show the right amount of data for the situation. Triage screens are dense. Patient portals are spacious. Emergency views strip to essentials.

Tech Stack Integration

Quick Reference

Core Healthcare Color System

Use semantic clinical colors across both platforms:

See references/​design-tokens.md for complete token system.

Essential Patterns

Patient Card (Universal Component)

Every healthcare screen that displays a patient must show this minimum context:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ [Avatar] John Doe, M, 45y    MRN: 1234567  │
│ Allergies: Penicillin ⚠️  Blood: O+         │
│ Primary: Dr. Smith │ Last Visit: 2026-02-20 │
│ ┌─────────┐ ┌──────────┐ ┌───────────────┐ │
│ │ Vitals  │ │ Records  │ │ Medications   │ │
│ └─────────┘ └──────────┘ └───────────────┘ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Rules: Allergy banner is ALWAYS visible (red background if severe). Blood type visible on clinical views. MRN searchable and copyable.

Clinical Alert Hierarchy

Four-tier alert system — consistent across web and mobile:

Vital Signs Display Pattern

┌──────────────┬──────────────┬──────────────┐
│ ❤️ HR: 72    │ 🫁 SpO2: 98% │ 🌡️ Temp: 37.1│
│ bpm [Normal] │    [Normal]  │  °C [Normal] │
├──────────────┼──────────────┼──────────────┤
│ BP: 120/​80   │ RR: 16       │ Pain: 3/​10   │
│ mmHg [Normal]│ /​min [Normal]│    [Mild]    │
└──────────────┴──────────────┴──────────────┘

Rules: Color-code each value (green/​amber/​red) based on clinical thresholds. Show units ALWAYS. Show trend arrows (↑↓→) when historical data exists. Never rely on color alone — include text labels.

Medication Safety — 5 Rights Check

Before any medication administration, enforce UI verification:

1. Right Patient — Display patient name + MRN + photo, require confirmation
2. Right Medication — Show drug name + form + strength, barcode scan option
3. Right Dose — Display calculated dose with weight-based verification
4. Right Time — Show scheduled time vs current time, flag if outside window
5. Right Route — Display route (oral/​IV/​IM/​SC), require selection confirmation

Block administration if any check fails. Log all overrides with reason.

Screen Layout Principles

Web (Tabler/​Bootstrap)

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Top Bar: Facility │ Ward │ Shift │ User │ 🔔│
├──────┬──────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Nav  │ Context Bar: Patient/​Ward/​Date       │
│ Side │ ┌──────────────────────────────────┐ │
│ bar  │ │ Main Content Area               │ │
│      │ │ Cards / Tables / Forms          │ │
│      │ │                                 │ │
│      │ └──────────────────────────────────┘ │
│      │ ┌────────────┐ ┌────────────────┐   │
│      │ │ Quick Panel│ │ Activity Feed  │   │
│      │ └────────────┘ └────────────────┘   │
└──────┴──────────────────────────────────────┘

Android (Compose)

┌─────────────────────────┐
│ TopAppBar: Screen Title │
│ Patient Context Strip   │
├─────────────────────────┤
│                         │
│ Scrollable Content      │
│ (LazyColumn/​Grid)       │
│                         │
│ Cards, Forms, Lists     │
│                         │
├─────────────────────────┤
│ BottomNav: Home│Patients│
│ Schedule│Chat│Profile   │
└─────────────────────────┘

Healthcare-Specific DO's and DON'Ts

DO

• Display allergies on EVERY screen that shows patient context
• Use confirmation dialogs for all medication and order actions
• Show data source attribution (manual entry vs wearable vs lab)
• Log every patient record access in audit trail
• Differentiate human-entered vs device-captured vitals visually
• Show measurement units on ALL numeric values
• Support offline mode for bedside data entry (sync when connected)
• Use aria-live regions for real-time vital sign updates
• Provide undo/​cancel within 10s for non-critical actions
• Enforce session timeout (15min inactive) with save-state recovery

DON'T

• Never auto-select medications from search results
• Never hide the allergy banner for any reason
• Never display PHI in URLs, page titles, or browser notifications
• Never use color alone to convey clinical status — always pair with text/​icons
• Never skip confirmation for orders, prescriptions, or discharge actions
• Never store PHI in localStorage, sessionStorage, or unencrypted cookies
• Never show full SSN/​ID — mask to last 4 digits
• Never allow copy-paste of patient data without audit logging
• Never use placeholder text as the only label on medical forms
• Never auto-dismiss critical alerts

Integration with Existing Skills

healthcare-ui-design (this skill)
    ├── webapp-gui-design ──→ Web layout, Tabler components, DataTables
    ├── jetpack-compose-ui ──→ Android Compose, Material 3, state management
    ├── vibe-security-skill ──→ HIPAA security, encryption, XSS prevention
    ├── dual-auth-rbac ──→ Clinical role-based access control
    ├── mobile-rbac ──→ Android permission gates for clinical modules
    ├── api-error-handling ──→ Standardized clinical API error responses
    ├── api-pagination ──→ Patient list pagination (cursor-based)
    ├── image-compression ──→ Medical image upload optimization
    ├── photo-management ──→ Patient photo capture and storage
    └── report-print-pdf ──→ Clinical report PDF generation

Workflow: Building a Healthcare Screen

1. Identify role — Who uses this screen? (Clinician / Nurse / Patient / Admin)
2. Select layout — Read platform-specific reference (web-implementation.md or android-implementation.md)
3. Apply tokens — Use design-tokens.md for colors, typography, spacing
4. Build components — Use domain reference (patient-records, clinical-workflows, etc.)
5. Add compliance — Apply compliance-accessibility.md checklist
6. Validate — Run WCAG checker, test with screen reader, verify HIPAA audit logging