Inocencio Maramba|Arunangsu Chatterjee|Craig Newman
Methods of usability testing in the development of eHealth applications: A scoping review
University of Plymouth|University of Plymouth|University of Plymouth
number ehealth applications exponentially increased recent years 325000 health apps available major app stores addition ehealth applications available platforms pc software web sites even gaming consoles digital applications usability one key factors successful implementation ehealth apps reviews literature empirical methods usability testing ehealth last published 2015 context exponentially increasing rate app development year year updated review warrantedto identify explore summarize current methods used usability testing ehealth applicationsa scoping review conducted literature available april 2014 october 2017 four databases searched literature considered inclusion 1 focused ehealth application includes websites pc software smartphone tablet applications 2 provided information usability application 3 provided empirical results usability testing 4 full short paper abstract published english march 2014 extracted data pertaining usability evaluation processes described selected studies133 articles met inclusion criteria methods used usability testing decreasing order frequency questionnaires n 105 task completion n 57 thinkaloud n 45 interviews n 37 heuristic testing n 18 focus groups n 13 majority studies used one n 45 two n 46 methods testing rest used combination three n 30 four n 12 methods testing usability none studies used automated mechanisms test usability system usability scale sus frequently used questionnaire n 44 ten frequent health conditions diseases ehealth apps evaluated usability following mental health n 12 cancer n 10 nutrition n 10 child health n 9 diabetes n 9 telemedicine n 8 cardiovascular disease n 6 hiv n 4 health information systems n 4 smoking n 4 iterations app reported minority studies n 41 use thinkaloud pearson chisquared test 2 1115 p 005 heuristic walkthrough pearson chisquared test 2 448 p 005 significantly associated least one iteration app developedalthough exponential increase number ehealth apps number studies published report results usability testing apps increased equivalent rate number digital health applications publish usability evaluation results remains small fraction questionnaires prevalent method evaluating usability ehealth applications provide overall measure usability pinpoint problems need addressed qualitative methods may useful regard use multiple evaluation methods increased automated methods eye tracking gained traction evaluating health apps research needed methods best suited different types ehealth applications according target users health conditions addressed