Medical user interfaces in film

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Medical user interfaces in film

User interfaces in Hollywood blockbusters aren’t meant to look realistic, accurate, or be user friendly. They are there to look badass. That, however, doesn’t mean we can’t draw inspiration from them. I have taken apart countless UI scenes frame by frame and learned about the studios that designed them.

Some of my favorites ones are listed below. You can find high res pictures by going to studios’ pages.

Iron Man 2 (2010)

Created by Prologue

Iron Man 1 (2008)

Tony: “Now, when you pull it out just make sure you don’t pull out, there’s a magnet at the end of it…”

Pepper: “What’s wrong?”

Tony: “Nothing, I’m just going into cardiac arrest because you YANKED it out.”

Notice the change in color from blue to red in the screen behind them.

The following is the final fight scene between ~~The Dude~~ Obadiah and Tony. Notice the information bubbles on the right (PET, EKG, EEG, TEMP) in the first and (ARM, ARC, ENV, ICE) in the second (along with PET redlining). Click on the pictures for higher resolution.