Medical information design and its legislation

This chapter shows the relation between current European legislation and the information on packaging and labelling of medicines. It describes some of the assumptions of this legislation and shows how these affect the design of information for patients. The chapter traces some of the historical roots of the legislation and guidelines in order to frame the situation in 2015. It comments on the process on how labelling is written, designed, and tested, and shows how these activities are restricted and separated. Because it is likely that other areas of information design will be more strictly regulated, the example of medicines needs to be understood to build on best practice and avoid similar mistakes.