Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/235547

Title

Measuring the usability and usefulness of online patient decision aids: a demonstration of methods

Author(s)

Brehaut, J. C.;  O'Connor, A. M.;  Tugwell, P.;  Lindgaard, Gitte;  Santesso, N.;  Cranney, A.;  Graham, I.

Abstract

Background: As the Internet becomes more important for providing health care information to consumers, decision aid developers are increasingly producing or adapting their tools for the Web. To date, however, there has been little systematic effort to discover how best to make use of this medium when providing patient decision support. The computer usability literature distinguishes between usability (easy to use, find, navigate, etc.), and usefulness (the right information for a specific decision maker) of online information. We will demonstrate a number of methods and techniques for studying the usability and usefulness of online patient decision support, in the context of decision support tools developed for patients with musculoskeletal disorders. Methods: The multimedia presentation will demonstrate a number of qualitative and quantitative techniques, drawn from the computer usability and naturalistic decision making traditions, being used in the Ottawa Patient Decision Support Laboratory. The problems and benefits associated with conducting web-based surveys of decision support users will be discussed, as will the role of expert user evaluations. We will demonstrate how the cognitive walkthrough, a standard usability inspection method used to identify components of a task, can be extended to develop a coding scheme (goals, subgoals, and actions required) against which the performance of individual users can be compared. We will also demonstrate how a portable usability laboratory (or lower-tech, less costly versions thereof) can allow access to a rich variety of data sources, including user session transcripts, experimenter field notes, video of the user, and video screen captures of the user session. Coding this rich variety of information at different levels of fidelity will be discussed and demonstrated. Conclusions: There has been little work done on how patient decision support can most effectively be presented on the Web. We will demonstrate a variety of empirical methods designed to enable decision support researchers to address this gap in the literature.

Publication type

Conference paper

Source

Paper presented at 'Implementing Shared Decision Making In Diverse Health Care Systems and Cultures', the 3rd International Shared Decision Making Conference, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, 14-16 June 2005

Publication year

2005

Keyword(s)

Decision making;  Health care information;  Online patient decision aids;  Patient decision support;  Usability;  Usefullness

Publisher

University of Ottawa

Publisher URL

http://decisionaid.ohri.ca/ISDM2005/

Copyright

Copyright © 2005.