A Toolkit for the Usability Evaluation of Digital Health Technologies

Abstract

Introduction: NHS digital applications are often assessed against the NHS Digital Technology Assessment Criteria (DTAC). However, Small to Medium Enterprise (SME) developers often find DTAC itself ‘heavy going’. One criterion of DTAC is usability and SME developers need guidance on how to meet this criterion. My PhD is a four-part study to develop such guidance. Methods: (i) a scoping review of the methods of usability testing, (ii) development of a novel way of employing a usability scale, dividing it into discrete chunks to prevent “questionnaire fatigue”, (iii) development of a toolkit, (iv) application of the toolkit with SMEs. Results: (i) The scoping review identified 133 papers. (ii) The simpler way of administering the usability scale gave comparable results. (iii) I developed a toolkit that gives guidance on which testing method to employ, the number of participants, and the types of output. (iv) I have used the toolkit to guide three SMEs (two more in progress) in testing digital health technologies. Conclusions: The toolkit will aid SMEs in meeting DTAC criterion for usability. Further research is needed to refine and validate the toolkit and develop methods for evaluating new types of digital health applications such as virtual reality and voice interfaces.