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User Requirements for a Clinical Interface to Support Lower Limb Rehabilitation Using Wearable Inertial Sensors: An Iterative Design Study
ABSTRACT
Background:
Wearable inertial sensors offer a promising approach for objective movement analysis in rehabilitation. However, despite advances in sensing accuracy, adoption in clinical practice remains limited. One barrier is the lack of clinician-facing software interfaces that translate sensor data into clinically interpretable information aligned with rehabilitation workflows.
Objective:
We aimed to identify clinician-centred user requirements and interface design considerations for wearable inertial sensor systems supporting lower-limb rehabilitation.
Methods:
We conducted an iterative user-centred design study with three clinicians involved in rehabilitation: a neuro-physiotherapist, a musculoskeletal physiotherapist, and an orthopaedic surgeon. The study consisted of (1) semi-structured interviews to elicit clinical requirements, (2) think-aloud evaluation of an initial wireframe interface mockup, and (3) evaluation of a revised mockup informed by earlier feedback. Sessions were audio-recorded, transcribed, and analysed using thematic analysis to identify clinician requirements and interface design considerations.
Results:
We identified four clinician-centred requirement themes spanning clinically meaningful movement metrics beyond standard functional tests, pragmatic sensor setup and calibration, interpretable longitudinal visualisation, and workflow-aligned reporting and task support. Across these requirement areas, clinicians consistently indicated that interpretability, setup burden, and workflow fit would influence whether such a system would be practical and acceptable in routine use.
Conclusions:
Through iterative engagement with clinicians, this study identifies rehabilitation-specific interface requirements for wearable inertial sensor systems in lower-limb rehabilitation. These findings articulate how successful translation into practice depends on concrete design features such as guided sensor placement, calibration options suited to patients with limited mobility, interpretable longitudinal visualisation, and reporting features that fit routine clinical work. Together, they provide early-stage design guidance on how clinician-facing rehabilitation interfaces should structure setup, calibration, visualisation, and reporting when presenting wearable-derived movement data.
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Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.