The Oropharyngeal Cancer Treatment Decision Aid is a decision-making tool intended for patients who are considering their treatment options. I designed an icon set for this web-based tool, which would be used as a visual to help patients determine if they will move forward with surgery, radiation treatment, or chemotherapy.
Originally, we had adjusted the surgery icon to be more friendly by adding eyes and making the figure more feminine. However, the icons underwent a feasibility study and initial feedback revealed that bias had resulted from the original surgery icon being depicted as human, whereas the radiation and chemotherapy icons were depicted without a human. We remedied this issue by redesigning the surgery icon as a crile forceps on a medical tray, a familiar tool that we determined would not cause alarm to patients, but would remove the human element.
