JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Birth plans are meant to be a declaration of the expectations and preferences of pregnant woman regarding childbirth. The My-Prenatal-Care application (app) engages pregnant women in an educational intervention for a healthy pregnancy. We hypothesized that users’ positive perception of an in-app birth plan is a relevant step for establishing direct communication between pregnant women and the healthcare team, based on an online report available at app.

Objective:

To evaluate pregnant women’s perception about the communicability of birth plan preparation using a mobile app.

Methods:

This was an observational, exploratory, and descriptive study. The methodology was user-centered, and both qualitative and quantitative approaches were employed. The tools of the Communicability Evaluation Method were applied. Eleven pregnant women evaluated their experience of using a birth plan prototype interface. The evaluation was performed in a controlled environment, with authorized video recording. Eight task-oriented interactions were proposed to evaluate interface communicability with users when using the Birth Plan menu. For evaluating perceptions and experiences, a survey with structured and open-ended questions, in addition to the free expression of participants, was conducted. The primary outcomes assessed were interface communicability and user’s perception of the Birth Plan prototype interface in the My-Prenatal-Care mobile app. Secondarily, we involved users in the prototyping phase of the interface to identify bottlenecks for making improvements in the app.

Results:

Regarding users’ performance in accomplishing previously prepared tasks, we found that 10/11 (91%) women were capable of completing at least 6/8 (75%) tasks. A positive relationship was found between the number of communicability problems and the success of completing the tasks. An analysis of the records revealed three communicability breakdowns related to the data entry, save, and scrollbar functions. The participants freely expressed suggestions for improvements, such as for the Save function and the process of sharing the birth plan form upon completion.

Conclusions:

The users had a positive perception regarding the Birth Plan menu of the My-Prenatal-Care app. This user-centered validation enabled the identification of solutions for problems, resulting in improvements in the app.