Accepted for/Published in: JMIR mHealth and uHealth
Date Submitted: Feb 2, 2020
Date Accepted: Aug 10, 2020
A User-centered Design Process of an mHealth Application for Health Professionals: A Case Study
ABSTRACT
Background:
User-centered design (UCD) processes are mostly carried out for consumers or clients in mobile health (mHealth) technology, and it has not yet fully explored the area of mHealth application (“app”) for healthcare professionals (HCPs).
Objective:
Our objective is to generate a simple and functional UCD process for mHealth apps for HCPs; specifically, for an app that delivers medical laboratory related information.
Methods:
A stratified random sample of doctors and nurses was recruited for the study. The design activities were planned in the following sequence: focus group discussion for situation analysis and information architecture (IA), design activity 1 for wire-frame designing, design activity 2 for experience prototyping, user and usability testing session 1 and 2.
Results:
The final design of the app, including functions, IA and interactive elements were largely influenced by the participatory design based UCD activities. As a result of the design process we could identify the mental models of processing laboratory related information, requests and prioritization; furthermore, their personal preferences based on experience. These findings were directly or indirectly incorporated into the app design. Participants and working around their cultural barriers were significant learning opportunities. Besides, designing the study around time constraints, understanding the benefits of participatory design approach for designing IA and facilitating communication, and collaboration between multiple stakeholders stood out amongst the lessons learnt.
Conclusions:
We recommend a UCD process based on a participatory design approach in mHealth app design which is enriched with focus group discussions where possible.
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Copyright
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