User Centric, Inc. (US) recently conducted an independent usability study of two existing online personal health record (PHR) applications, Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault. (Neither Google nor Microsoft commissioned or participated in this study in any manner.)
While participants’ overall evaluations were certainly influenced by features, security, privacy and trust, it is critical to note that their major difficulties with both applications - and their strongest criticisms - were related to the user experience.
During this study, 30 participants representing patients completed key tasks using both PHR application and provided qualitative feedback, ratings and preference data on five specific dimensions: Overall usability, utility (usefulness of features), security, privacy and trust. Participants were generally new to the concept of PHR applications.
During this study, 30 participants representing patients completed key tasks using both PHR application and provided qualitative feedback, ratings and preference data on five specific dimensions: Overall usability, utility (usefulness of features), security, privacy and trust. Participants were generally new to the concept of PHR applications.
During the study, they completed seven tasks using both the Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault applications which included three application-specific tasks that explored each application’s unique features.
Based on this usability study, User Centric has identified several guidelines to be included in a working model for PHR interfaces that facilitates user adoption. The complete complimentary study by User Centric, Inc. is available.
Based on this usability study, User Centric has identified several guidelines to be included in a working model for PHR interfaces that facilitates user adoption. The complete complimentary study by User Centric, Inc. is available.