A comparison of usability methods for testing interactive health technologies: Methodological aspects and empirical evidence
A comparison of usability methods for testing interactive health technologies: Methodological aspects and empirical evidence
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DOI：
10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2008.10.002
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发表时间：
2009-05-01
影响因子：
4.9
通讯作者：
Jaspers, Monique W. M.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Jaspers, Monique W. M.
目的：可用性评估现在被广泛认为是交互式医疗保健应用程序成功的关键。然而，可用的可用性检查和测试方法的范围很广，这可能会使决定可用性评估计划变得困难。为了指导新手在人机交互领域，我们提供了一个概述的方法和实证研究可用的三个可用性检查和测试方法最常用的methods.Methods：我们描述了两个“基于专家”和一个“基于用户”的可用性方法：（1）启发式评估，（2）认知演练，和（3）大声思考。所有三种可用性评估方法都适用于实验室环境。启发式评估是一种相对有效的可用性评估方法，具有较高的收益成本比，但需要评估人员具有较高的技能和可用性经验，以产生可靠的结果。认知演练是一种比启发式评估更结构化的方法，更注重计算机应用程序的可学习性。认知演练的主要缺点是所需的任务和用户背景描述的详细程度，充分应用的最新版本的技术。有声思维是一种非常直接的方法，可以深入了解最终用户在与系统交互时遇到的问题，但数据分析是广泛的，需要认知工效学和计算机系统应用领域的高水平专业知识。讨论和结论：三种可用性评估方法都显示了其有效性，各有优缺点;没有一种方法显示出任何显著的结果，表明它在所有情况下都特别有效。最好是将相互补充的不同技术结合起来使用，因为它们的集体应用将比单独应用更强大。已经出现了支持终端用户测试的创新的移动的和自动化解决方案，使得新的健康护理应用的实验室、现场和远程可用性评估的组合方法更加可行。(C)2008爱思唯尔爱尔兰有限公司保留所有权利。
Objective: Usability evaluation is now widely recognized as critical to the success of interactive health care applications. However, the broad range of usability inspection and testing methods available may make it difficult to decide on a usability assessment plan. To guide novices in the human-computer interaction field, we provide an overview of the methodological and empirical research available on the three usability inspection and testing methods most often used.Methods: We describe two 'expert-based' and one 'user-based' usability method: (1) the heuristic evaluation, (2) the cognitive walkthrough, and (3) the think aloud.Results: All three usability evaluation methods are applied in laboratory settings. Heuristic evaluation is a relatively efficient usability evaluation method with a high benefit-cost ratio, but requires high skills and usability experience of the evaluators to produce reliable results. The cognitive walkthrough is a more structured approach than the heuristic evaluation with a stronger focus on the learnability of a computer application. Major drawbacks of the cognitive walkthrough are the required level of detail of task and user background descriptions for an adequate application of the latest version of the technique. The think aloud is a very direct method to gain deep insight in the problems end users encounter in interaction with a system but data analyses is extensive and requires a high level of expertise both in the cognitive ergonomics and in computer system application domain.Discussion and conclusions: Each of the three usability evaluation methods has shown its usefulness, has its own advantages and disadvantages; no single method has revealed any significant results indicating that it is singularly effective in all circumstances. A combination of different techniques that compliment one another should preferably be used as their collective application will be more powerful than applied in isolation. innovative mobile and automated solutions to support end-user testing have emerged making combined approaches of laboratory, field and remote usability evaluations of new health care applications more feasible. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.