Abstract:
This paper reports on research carried out in the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) on the interaction between a human and a mobile device, in the specific case where a healthcare professional uses the mobile device to access a medical application. The quality of mobile user interface is crucial in the healthcare domain, as the attention of healthcare professionals is usually on the patient and not on the system, and so low-quality UIs may lead to critical medical errors. In this research, the quality-in-use measurement model (QiU-4-MUI) is used to empirically investigate the impact of HCI principles on the quality of an MUI, in terms of five important characteristics, namely, effectiveness, productivity, efficiency, error safety, and cognitive load. The work investigates the applicability of these quality characteristics as indicators of the impact on user interface design of HCI principles, such as mental model, metaphor, feedback, affordance, and visibility. A controlled experiment was carried out among 23 doctors in a hospital environment to empirically investigate the impact of HCI principles on the quality in use of a mobile user interface, in terms of the QiU-4-MUI characteristics and in the healthcare context.
Keywords
Healthcare applications; Human computer interaction principles; Quality-in-use measurement model; Mobile user interfaces; Controlled expeiment
Citation: Reem Alnanih, Olga Ormandjieva Mapping HCI Principles To Design Quality Of Mobile User Interfaces In Healthcare Applications http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2016.08.014
Available online: 10 August 2016
Copyright: © 2016 Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Conclusion and Future Work
In this research, we have assessed the impact of HCI principles on the quality of MUIs in the healthcare context, in terms of: i) increasing user safety by minimizing human error, ii) increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of the execution of the tasks carried out by doctors, iii) increasing the productivity of the doctors, and iv) reducing the cognitive load on the doctors. The empirical investigation results confirmed that considering the HCI principles Mental Model, Metaphor, Visibility, Affordance, and Feedback in the MUI design leads to increased quality-in-use of the MUI.
The empirical evaluation of the effect of the HCI principles on the quality-in-use of PHIS2-based mobile app revealed that the app is a success in terms of helping doctor perform tasks in very rapidly, effectively, in terms of selecting the minimum number of correct actions required, safely, in terms of reducing the number of incorrect actions, and productively, in terms of completing the task successfully in less time. In addition, the doctor’s cognitive load was reduced by decreasing the number of actions required per view.
More case studies will be evaluated in our future work to determine the applicability of the HCI principles on MUI in different domains and to different types of healthcare application. Moreover, the approach will be compared to the MUI design of the same application without applying the corresponding HCI principles. re application. Moreover, the approach will be compared to the MUI design of the same application without applying the corresponding HCI principles.
Acknowledgments
We thank King Abdulaziz University Hospital for their collaboration and facilitating the conduction of the experiments.