Human-Centered Design – The Importance of Usability Tests in the Development of Technological Objects

Author(s):  
Álvaro M. Sampaio ◽  
Rita Gonçalves ◽  
Paulo Simões ◽  
António J. Pontes
2010 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kai Kaspar ◽  
Kai-Christoph Hamborg ◽  
Timo Sackmann ◽  
Julia Hesselmann

Die vorliegende Fallstudie befasste sich mit der Effektivität von Usability-Tests als Methodik für die Gestaltung gebrauchstauglicher Software. Ein Online-Bookshop wurde zu zwei Zeitpunkten in einem Entwicklungszyklus mithilfe eines Usability-Tests evaluiert. Aus den im ersten Usability-Test identifizierten Usability-Problemen wurden Gestaltungskonsequenzen abgeleitet und umgesetzt. Die so überarbeitete zweite Version des Bookshops wurde einem weiteren Usability-Test unterzogen, in dem wiederum Usability-Probleme erhoben wurden. Die ausgewertete Stichprobe von 22 studentischen Versuchspersonen unterteilte sich in 11 Novizen und 11 Experten, 10 Probanden waren männlichen und 12 weiblichen Geschlechts. Von diesen 22 Probanden nahmen jeweils 11 an einem der beiden Usability-Tests teil, in denen die gleichen drei aufeinander aufbauenden Testaufgaben bearbeitet wurden. Die Befunde zeigen wie angenommen, dass sich die Quantität der erkannten Usability-Probleme vom ersten zum zweiten Usability-Test verringerte. Entgegen der Erwartung wurde jedoch keine Veränderung der Bedeutsamkeit der erhobenen Usability-Probleme verzeichnet. Entsprechend der Untersuchungsannahmen zeigt sich weiterhin ein Effekt der Kombination von Evaluation und Gestaltung auf die subjektive Bewertung von Gefallensaspekten und der ergonomischen Qualität des Bookshops durch die Nutzer. Zudem stellt sich die Expertise der Nutzer als relevanter Faktor für die Häufigkeit explizit geäußerter Kritik am Produkt dar. Konsequenzen für die Praxis und weitere Forschung im Bereich des Usability-Engineerings sowie die Notwendigkeit einer psychologisch begründeten Definition des Konstrukts des Usability-Problems werden diskutiert.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anvit Goyal

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adriana Klein ◽  
Roseli de Deus Lopes ◽  
Rodrigo Suigh

BACKGROUND EasySeating is a mobile health (mHealth) app that supports the prescription of wheelchair and postural support devices (WPSD). It can be used by occupational therapists (OT) and physiotherapists (PT) who prescribe WPSD. The app offers a standardization of the prescription procedure, showing images, metrics and details that guide the prescriber to decide on the best equipment. It was developed with an iterative mixed-methods evaluation approach. Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the processes involved in the prescription of WPSD and to propose, develop and evaluate a mHealth to support OT and PT prescribers. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to investigate the processes involved in the prescription of WPSD and to propose, develop and evaluate a mHealth to support OT and PT prescribers. METHODS This study was divided into three phases and was carried out as an iterative process composed of user consulting/testing (using a mixed-methods evaluation approach), system (re)design and software development. The first phase consisted of the collection of qualitative and quantitative data to map and understand the users requirements and of the development of the first prototype (v1) of the app. This data collection was performed through semi-structured interviews with 14 OT and PT prescribers, 5 specialized technicians and 5 WPSD users. The second phase aimed at improving the overall functionality of the app and consisted in the development, test and evaluation of the prototypes v1, v2, v3 and v4. A total of 59 prescribers tested and evaluated these prototypes by means of open interviews, semi-structured questionnaires and focus groups. The third phase focused in the usability aspects of the app. It consisted in the development and test of the prototype v5. Eight technology specialists assessed its usability through heuristics evaluation. RESULTS Data collected in phase one indicated there is a lack of standardization on the prescription of postural support devices (PSD). A divergent nomenclature for the PSDs was also found and classified in eight categories. These information guided the development of the first prototype of the EasySeating app. Phase two results pointed that the prescribers value the insertion of the app into their clinical practice, as it accelerates and increases the quality of the evaluation process and improves the organization of the prescription information. Significant suggestions for the improvement of the app were given during the users tests, including the use of images to represent the PSDs. The usability tests from the third phase revealed two strong issues that must be solved: the need of greater feedback and failures in the persistence of the input data. CONCLUSIONS This study demonstrated that there is a lack of systematization of the WPSD prescription process. The evaluation of the developed EasySeating app demonstrated that there is a potential to standardize, integrate and organize the WPSD prescription information, supporting and facilitating the decision making process of the prescribers. CLINICALTRIAL This study was approved by the Research Ethics Board of the Universidade de São Paulo (registered protocol n°53929516.6.0000.0065) URL - http://plataformabrasil.saude.gov.br/login.jsf


1989 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 75-77
Author(s):  
Renate J. Roske-Hofstrand

Author(s):  
Jerry Schnepp ◽  
Rosalee Wolfe ◽  
Gilbert Brionez ◽  
Souad Baowidan ◽  
Ronan Johnson ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 80 (Suppl 1) ◽  
pp. 1479.1-1479
Author(s):  
R. te Kampe ◽  
A. Boonen ◽  
T. Jansen ◽  
J. M. Elling ◽  
M. Flendrie ◽  
...  

Background:Adherence to prescribed urate-lowering therapy (ULT) among gout patients is considered to be among the poorest of all chronic conditions. eHealth programs can be a possible opportunity to foster ULT adherence.Objectives:This study describes the development and usability evaluation of a web-based tool to support ULT adherence among gout patients, specifically designed for a complement to usual care.Methods:The Integrated Change (I-Change) model was used as theoretical basis for the development. The model combines various socio-cognitive theories and differentiates between three phases: a pre-motivational, a motivational, and a post-motivational phase. In practices, the I-Change gout tool contains three sessions, following the three phases of the I-Change model. Patients receive tailored feedback based on their answers in the form of animated videos and text messages after each session, and are prompted to set specific goals and action plans for their ULT adherence. The content and development of the I-Change gout tool was determined along an iterative process within a steering group of clinicians and researchers, supported by patient interviews and gout specific literature related to key aspects of medication adherence behavior. A cross-sectional mixed methods design was used to test usability of the support tool consisting of a think aloud method and a usability questionnaire.Results:The steering group decided on the content of the three sessions of the I-Change gout tool. Depending on the intention to change ULT adherence behavior patients were navigated through the I-Change gout tool, patients with a low intention go through all 3 sessions and patients with a high intention go through the pre- and post-motivational session (figure 1). In total, the I-Change gout tool contains three sessions with 80 questions, 66 tailored textual feedback messages, and 40 tailored animated videos.Figure 1.Flowchart of the computer-tailored I-Change gout tool for urate-lowering therapy adherence.Twenty gout patients and seven healthcare professionals participated in the usability tests. The program end score rating for the gout tool was on average 8.4±0.9 (range 6-10) for patients and 7.7±1.0 (range 6-9) for healthcare professionals. Furthermore, participants reported a high intention to use and/or recommend the program in the future. Yet, participants identified some issues for further improvement of the systems user-friendliness by addressing barriers (e.g. more explicitly navigation) and weaknesses (e.g. technical and health literacy). The I-Change gout tool was updated according suggestions of improvements of the participants.Conclusion:This study provides initial support for the usability by patients and healthcare professionals of a ULT adherence I-Change gout tool. Further studies need to be conducted to assess its efficacy and (cost-) effectiveness in daily practice.Disclosure of Interests:None declared


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 5453
Author(s):  
Hwa-Seob Song ◽  
Jae-Hong Woo ◽  
Jong-Yun Won ◽  
Byung-Ju Yi

Conventional vascular intervention (VI) procedures are typically performed manually under exposure to X-rays, whereby several problems are presented that need to be addressed owing to the patients and doctors being exposed to large amounts of radiation. In such cases, employing radiation protection units is not a long-term solution to avoid physical damage. Therefore, to overcome these issues, we propose a robotic VI system in this study. Moreover, we compare the extent of radiation exposure in the case of the conventional manual VI procedure with that in the case of the robotic procedure. The radiation exposure is then analyzed from the perspective of the doctor. Subsequently, the results of usability tests for two proposed master devices are presented in terms of the NASA task load index (NASA-TLX) and the system usability scale (SUS) score. To verify the effectiveness of the robotic VI system, animal experiments are conducted using a pig model. Among the two types of master devices tested with the proposed robotic VI system, the ergonomically designed 2-degree-of-freedom master device is found to be more effective than the joystick-type device in terms of the usability test scores. Hence, the proposed robotic VI procedure is shown to be advantageous in terms of reducing radiation exposure and improving usability.


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