A Multi-Level Usability Evaluation of Mobile Health Applications: A Case Study.
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Abstract
OBJECTIVE To report a methodological approach for the development of a usable mHealth application app MATERIALS AND METHODS This work was guided by a 3 level stratified view of health information technology IT usability evaluation framework We first describe a number of methodologies for operationalizing each level of the framework Following the description of each methodology we present a case study which illustrates the use of our preferred methodologies for the development of a mHealth app At level 1 user task we applied a card sorting technique to guide the information architecture of a mobile HIV symptom self management app entitled mVIP At level 2 user task system we conducted a usability evaluation of the mVIP in a laboratory setting through end user usability testing and heuristic evaluation with informatics experts At level 3 user task system environment usability of the mVIP was evaluated in a real world setting following the use of the app during a 3 month trial RESULTS The 3 level usability evaluation guided our work exploring in depth interactions between the user task system and environment Integral to the findings from the 3 level usability evaluation we iteratively refined the app s content functionality and interface to meet the needs of our intended end users DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION The stratified view of the health IT usability evaluation framework is a useful methodological approach for the design development and evaluation of mHealth apps The methodological recommendations for using the theoretical framework can inform future usability studies of mHealth apps