Keywords User-Centered design - social inclusion - medical informatics applications - aged
- health services accessibility
1 Introduction
To support the aging population, development of Health Information Technologies (HIT)
for older adults is on the rise [[1 ], [2 ]]. These technologies, including health and wellness apps for smartphones (mHealth),
wearables (medical devices), patient portals, smart home technologies and other digital
health devices (eHealth), are being developed and marketed -- often directly to the
consumer -- to promote self-management of chronic illness, maximize functional status,
and foster safe, independent living. For example, HIT can improve patient medication
adherence through the use of automated reminder systems (e.g., “smart” medication
dispensers), provide self-care advice for people with chronic illnesses like diabetes
or heart failure, or identify and mitigate fall risk factors in the home [[3 ]
[4 ]
[5 ]]. Existing research on HIT design emphasizes the importance of engaging older adult
end-users throughout the design lifecycle to align interventions with user requirements,
patient values, and context of use and to optimize usability [[6 ], [7 ]]. When this is not the case, HIT has been perceived to be “more trouble than it
is worth” [[8 ], [9 ]], too time-consuming [[10 ]], unreliable [[11 ]], or generally burdensome [[12 ], [13 ]].
A range of usability engineering methods (UEM's) can be applied to provide insight
on the user interface and/or functional problems end-users encounter when interacting
with a system. Developers and human factors engineers can involve end-users by conducting
usability tests and cataloging usability issues, workflow pain points, and eliciting
new requirements. Common usability testing methods with end-users include user-simulations
with think-aloud protocols, retrospective think aloud, semi-structured interviews,
and self-reported satisfaction surveys (e.g., the System Usability Scale or Single
Ease Questionnaire) [[14 ], [15 ]]. Such UEMs can contribute to improve HIT designs by aligning interventions with
users' needs and 16]. In a paper examining the ethical concerns inherent with testing
older adults [[17 ]], the authors argued that autonomous older adults with good functional status and
high health literacy are more likely to participate in usability testing of HIT. By
contrast, adults with advanced chronic illness, cognitive impairment, and physical
disabilities may be under-sampled, and therefore, under-represented in usability testing.
The same can be said of patients struggling with health-related social needs such
as poverty, housing instability, and food insecurity. Not enrolling older adults and
especially vulnerable ones in HIT usability-testing may lead to low accessibility
of HIT for this demographic. Barriers to HIT use specific to this group will not be
discovered and removed through the design process [[18 ], [19 ]]. To guide consumer-informatics design, (GW, LP, MJ) reviewed the literature on
barriers to technology use among older adults and created the MOLD-US conceptual framework.
The MOLD-US framework identifies four key aging processes that may affect HIT use:
(1) cognition, (2) motivation, (3) physical ability, and (4) perception [[20 ]]. Besides age-related declining capabilities, vulnerable older adults may also experience
impairments arising from comorbidities, such as declining eyesight as a complication
of diabetes, decreasing neuromuscular function with peripheral neuropathy or increased
cognitive decline due to dementia. When (vulnerable) older adults are participating
in usability tests, testing methods may not adequately account for the cognitive and
functional impairments seen in older adults. For example, the Think-Aloud method provides
a unique source of information on cognition: it generates direct data on concurrent
thought processes during task performance [[21 ]]. As such, this method carries a certain “cognitive load” and makes assumptions
about the cognitive abilities of participants, including communication, attention,
working memory, visuospatial processing, and speed of comprehension. These abilities
often progressively decline as a function of aging and older adults may not be able
to participate in UEMs such as the Think-Aloud method. Consequently, sampling bias
favoring younger adults can skew usability test results and lead to the implementation
of HIT interventions that disenfranchise (vulnerable) older adults. This is especially
of concern when these interventions are aimed to help consumers self-manage chronic
illness or meaningfully participate in shared medical decision-making. New developments
from the International Standards Organization (ISO) provide quality requirements and
a health app quality score calculation method specifically for mobile applications
[[22 ], [23 ]]. The new ISO standard aims to support the development and assessment of “easy to
use” health- and wellness apps. Although attention has been paid to the importance
of testing with intended end-users, how to perform these studies and what challenges
developers and manufacturers face when targeting older adults remain undefined.
This paper offers an overview of expert-based recommendations for developers of consumer-facing
HIT on how to conduct best-practice HIT usability testing with (vulnerable) older
adults. Our ultimate aim is to support inclusive HIT design and evaluation for this
demographic, and in doing so, improve the alignment of evaluated HIT to (vulnerable)
older user populations.
2 Methods: Expert Inquiry
2 Methods: Expert Inquiry
We first conducted a workshop at the Medical Informatics Europe Conference and invited
experts in the human and organizational factors of HIT implementation and research
to share their insights on usability testing with (vulnerable) older adults. The International
Medical Informatics Association Working Group on Human Factor Engineering in Health
Informatics and the European Federation for Medical Informatics (EFMI) Working Group
on Human and Organizational Factors of Medical Informatics (HOFMI) endorsed and promoted
this workshop. The aim of the workshop was to share expert insights, including how
to improve representation of older adults, best-practice testing methods, and ways
to improve the quality and validity of results. In total, 10 experts joined the workshop,
of which seven had a high level of expertise. Afterwards, we completed a second round
of expert inquiry to validate and iterate on the results from the workshop and to
propose a final set of expert-derived recommendations. Five experts from the IMIA
WG participated in the second round of expert inquiry.
2.1 Study Design
First, in a plenary workshop, we gave participating experts a summary of the MOLD-US
framework to help the group understand the heterogeneity of aging and related comorbidities.
We then shared our two research questions: (1) what barriers affect user-based usability
testing of eHealth solutions with older adults? ; and (2) what are the best methods
for usability testing with older adults?
Second, workshop facilitators evenly divided experts into three groups addressing
each of the main HIT domains: eHealth, mHealth, and medical devices. We divided the
groups according to experience level (using academic rank as a proxy), research focus,
and number of human factors engineering publications in healthcare. LP, GW, and RM
each facilitated one group. Participants answered the main questions by writing their
answers on index cards, providing a brief explanation of the answer, and pinning them
to a board. The facilitators used a semi-structured collective interview grid to explore
in detail the barriers and testing methods listed on index cards and help experts
synthesize and structure their answers. The facilitators then guided each group through
an affinity mapping activity wherein participants discussed and sorted each barrier
card into one or more related testing methods. The workshop was concluded by a plenary
discussion on each group's result board and index cards, aimed to gain general consensus
on the recommendations.
Finally, through purposeful sampling [[24 ]] members of the IMIA HFE in Health informatics WG with experience with HIT usability
testing with (vulnerable) older adults (BL, DL, HM, LVV, VL) were invited to participate
in the second round of expert inquiry. After formal acceptance to participate, the
results from the workshop were shared to validate and provide additional insights
to the results. Participants could iterate on each other's comments and were asked
to use the following process to provide additional insights and validate the topics:
(1) read the results in-depth; (2) provide comments; and (3) add any missing or needed
discussion. Two of the authors (LP and TE) then completed a thematic analysis by coding
all comments on the basis of the UCD framework [[25 ]] to identify if additional themes needed to be added and to validate the final organization
of themes, recommendations, and key elements.
3 Results: Recommendations
3 Results: Recommendations
The experts provided nine recommendations supported by 37 key-elements for conducting
HIT usability testing with older adults. Recommendations were organized into three
overarching themes: (1) empathetic approach and trust-building, (2) new requirements
to testing and study design, and (3) adjustments to UEMs for testing with older adults.
The following paragraphs describe each theme in detail and provide a checklist of
the recommendations and key-elements per theme.
3.1 Empathetic Approach and Trust-Building
All expert groups mentioned that it was especially important to have an empathetic
approach towards older adults throughout the whole scope of the evaluation project.
This approach is important to build trust; if the older adults trust the evaluators,
they will be more likely to share their true experiences and feedback regarding the
HIT intervention. Building empathy with older adults and proctoring successful usability
sessions requires several complementary strategies. First, when working with intended
users of HIT, it is crucial to apply the more general “universal communication precautions
protocol” that is used in communicating with patients [[26 ]]. The universal communications precautions approach outlines standard steps to optimize
communication and understanding whilst avoiding implicit bias. Evaluators should emphasize
throughout the evaluation(s) that there are no “incorrect” actions; all observations
are important, and any findings or concerns identified will be used to improve the
product and help countless other users. Also, be certain to provide brief and clear
instruction, and avoid technical jargon. These instructions should be provided both
verbally and in writing whenever possible. Experts also recommend using standardized
easy-to-process scripts such as the script provided in [Table 1 ].
Table 1 Example standardized script for trust building in HIT usability testing
It is important to understand that usability testing for older adults is a social
experience, not just an opportunity for researchers to garner information on designs.
In addition, researchers should understand and respond to each older adult's motivation
to participate. Participants may want to help science or technical innovation, see
the testing session as a means for social contact, or a means to feel like a worthy
and contributing member of society. Experts agreed that such an approach would increase
older adults' motivation to participate in usability testing and their genuineness
in expressing experiences with the tested intervention. Experts also recommended to
frequently emphasize during testing why the older adult's involvement in this type
of research is important. In doing so, the social impact can be explained and the
difference between (the scope of) the research project and usual care activities can
be addressed in more detail. Older adults may not be aware of this difference and,
particularly those with cognitive impairments, may have trouble understanding research
activities.
Finally, HIT evaluators must be adequately trained in communication skills, with emphasis
upon cultural competence and effective techniques to engage older adults and those
with physical and cognitive disabilities. Usability testing sessions should be followed
up with direct observations and feedback sessions to continually reflect on communication
skills and refining testing approaches (see [Table 2 ]).
Table 2 Recommendation and checklist of key elements mentioned by experts on the theme Empathetic approach and building trust .
3.2 New Requirements to Testing and Study Design
Experts concluded that setting additional requirements for the testing phase would
improve the quality of testing. Experts specified three add-ons to plan and perform
a usability test with older adults: (1) ensure pre-usability testing; (2) stimulate
the involvement of relatives, friends, and caregivers; and (3) analyze older participants'
capacities and skills through intake meetings and context analysis.
A foremost prerequisite when testing HIT with older patients was to perform pre-usability testing . Though bugs are often detected in usability testing, when involving older adults,
it is crucial that program bugs have been eliminated as much as possible. Experiencing
bugs in a system increases stress among older adult participants and it deters them
from actually reporting on their interaction with design aspects that are the focus
of the intended evaluation. When wireframes, mock-ups or prototypes are being used
in testing with older adults, evaluators should take time to explain that most of
the functionalities will not work as expected. During an early design phase, tasks
should be kept simple and sessions should focus on just a few key features at a time.
If the product passes initial tests, later tests can include more complex tasks or
higher levels of fidelity. In doing so, pre-testing would be a new phase in the planning
and performance of the HIT evaluation study. Evaluators first perform a pre-test of
the version of the HIT application to detect bugs and/or complications older adults
may face during usability testing. The detected bugs and/or complications can then
be either solved before actual testing or included in the usability test script to
support expectation management of the older adult when interacting with the HIT.
Next, encouraging involvement of family, friends or caregivers > in (vulnerable) older adult usability testing of HIT is crucial. This recommendation
requires delicacy; some adults might consider this a sensitive or embarrassing topic
if they do not believe they have friends, loved ones, or caregivers. Nonetheless,
having a family member or friend present during the HIT usability testing is likely
to support the older adult and enhance comprehensibility of the evaluation tasks to
be performed by participants. Experts suggested including family members when using
certain usability testing methods such as interviews or surveys. That is, conducting
an interview with both a family member and the older adult present as well as interviewing
the older adult and the family member separately. Involving caregivers (e.g., nurses,
care navigators) as part of the expert team, evaluation team, or advisory panel is
also essential, considering they are a consistent presence and contact person for
many older adults.
According to the experts, intake meetings and context analysis of participant characteristics that are specific to the actual use of the HIT innovation
may help to gain insight into what developers or Human Factor experts / usability
researchers need to consider during the usability test. Depending on what is assessed
or tested, and the population of study, researchers may want to include in their study
design assessments of physical / cognitive skills in case they need to control for
them. Ideally, these assessments would be conducted by professionals, as they can
require additional expertise and sensitivity to administer. Alternatively, with informed
consent, this information about the participants could be extracted from electronic
records. If relevant, it is recommended to assess participants' digital skills before
conducting the usability tests, to make sure to cover the range of low to high digital
skills.
Experts mentioned that theoretical frameworks may inform contextual analysis pre-testing,
such as those that recognize age-related and disease-related barriers possibly influencing
HIT use, such as the MOLD-US framework or the extensions to this framework for considerate
mHealth design [[19 ], [20 ]] (see [Table 3 ]).
Table 3 Recommendations and checklist of key elements mentioned by experts throughout the
study on the theme Pre-testing and study design.
3.3 Adjustments to UEMs for Testing with Older Adults
Experts recommended several adjustments of current UEMs to improve testing with older
adults. First, they recommended adapting the instructions and locations for testing
to older adult participants. These adjustments focus on recognizing cognitive barriers
of older adults by adapting the length and the set-up of the test. For example, as
mentioned above, instead of having one longer usability test session in which several
tasks are evaluated, a set of multiple short sessions can be performed. Each session
may consist of one brief task, followed by a brief interview to obtain relevant information
from the participant. Usability evaluations likewise can be performed in a set of several evaluations for instance spread out in a week's time or by planning a specific pop-up in a healthcare facility such as a day-test location at an outpatient clinic where older adults are invited
to test an application. This allows for an unrushed execution of usability tasks.
Another recommended adjustment, when recording usability problems, is to explicitly
and recurrently explain to older adults why the evaluation is recorded and that recordings
will be processed anonymously. This aims to provide the opportunity for the older
adult to provide continuous consent [[27 ]].
Other recommendations regarding UEMs relate to the location of the evaluation. It
is always best to emulate the context of use; a gold standard is to conduct tests
in the users' homes or to shadow the participant there for a short period of time.
If this is not possible, an alternative is to hold tests in “living labs”. These are
laboratories designed to replicate the home environment and equipped with cameras
and microphones to observe behavior as unobtrusively as possible. For example, living
labs can mimic older adults equipped apartments and contain context specific elements
such as grab bars, walk in bathtubs and telephones with big numbers. Performing evaluations
at settings that are unfamiliar to older adults or look like a clinical lab or office,
should be avoided as the results are highly unlikely to be representative of the real-world
experiences of older adults.
Flexibility of testing protocols (e.g., providing more time to participants, taking
breaks between testing) and constructing usability testing approaches with specific
goals in mind can be more efficient, maximizing the useful information obtained whilst
minimizing the burden on participants. Other suggested adjustments aim to adapt the
usability testing method to allow for collective testing. These additions were related
to the social experience of older adults participating in usability evaluations and
the representativeness of the test to participants' social use of the HIT. With the
traditional Think Aloud protocol, participants verbalize their thought processes while
completing a task. Typically, the individual does this without assistance. However,
this may not reflect how the individual would complete this task in context. Therefore,
as a variant to an individual usability test including the Think Aloud method, the
“peer discovery” method was suggested. In this variant, the older adult can interact
with the technology together with a family member or caregiver. The idea behind this
approach is that they can help each other during the Think Aloud as they would in
their personal context. When peers work together they express their impressions, frustrations,
and thought processes more naturally; therefore, this variant yields a clearer picture
of how a technology is used and where users struggle. The peer discovery approach
also increases the sense of naturalism and mitigates the sense of artificiality often
associated with usability testing. In relation to this, experts mentioned the concept
of “peer community” usability testing as an addition to UEM methods. In this variant
the older adult can use the technology together in a group setting with other older
adults, again to stimulate a more natural expression of their impressions, frustrations,
and thought processes in interacting with the eHealth intervention. The idea of peer
discovery and community is valuable as long as it replicates actual use in context.
For example, it is unwanted for other users to assist participants with tasks when
that would not be the case in the real world.
Lastly, suggestions were given on methods for usability testing of HIT when implemented
in practice (post-design): shadowing, observing an older end-user of the evaluated
technology in their environment for a period of time in combination with log file
data via analytics software. The latter allows for a completely unobtrusive way of
gathering objective data which can supplement and help interpret data from interviews
and usability-tests. Triangulating methods may give a more accurate insight into people's
daily interactions with the HIT intervention, as well as causal factors contributing
to non-use of the HIT (see [Table 4 ]).
Table 4 Recommendations and checklist of key elements mentioned by experts throughout the
study on the theme Suggested adjustments to UEM's for testing with older patients.
4 Discussion
The recommendations provided in this paper aim to support evaluators, healthcare professionals,
decision makers, software developers and other HIT stakeholders in performing user-based
usability evaluation studies of HIT interventions for older adults. These recommendations
can be immediately applied to improve the design, planning, and execution phases of
usability evaluations. We performed an expert inquiry wherein human factors experts
shared their strategies for conducting tests of consumer-facing technologies with
older adults. By sharing these experiences and best-practices, we aimed to increase
awareness of aging processes influencing the quality and inclusivity of usability
evaluation studies with older adults. Though some of these recommendations might apply
to usability testing in other populations, we believe they are most directly applicable
to evaluation studies involving older adults and can empower older adults to engage
in participatory design and develop products that best meet their needs. In doing
so, we aim to contribute to the scientific evidence base for HIT interventions.
4.1 Benefits of Proposed Recommendations to Redesigns
The recommendations can be applied to any HIT evaluation involving older adults throughout
the user-centered design lifecycle. Insights derived from testing with older adults
may improve the perceived usability and usefulness of a product by older adults [[28 ]]. For example, informational displays and data visualizations should be accessible
to individuals with visual impairment. This will assist people with low health literacy,
low digital literacy, and cognitive decline [[29 ]
[30 ]]. Further, it is important to configure features and functions to best meet the
needs and requirements of target users. Similarly, workflows and information flows
should be simple and intuitive. For example, developers should strive to minimize
the number of steps required to complete a task and ensure consistency in input/output
features [[28 ]]. Older adults indicate they prefer clear instructions and online support to help
them understand how to complete their tasks using the technology [[18 ], [28 ]]. Applying the recommendations of this paper to usability testing with older adults
is likely to improve insights on how to best design these aspects of information presentation,
navigational structure, data interoperability, and clarity of instructional support
for older adults.
To assess the validity and completeness of our recommendations, we encourage researchers
and HIT developers to report how they integrated these recommendations into their
application design lifecycle and their usability tests with older adults. We recommend
engaging a multi-disciplinary team; not only of human factors researchers and HIT
developers, but also healthcare professionals, cognitive scientists, neuropsychologists,
and geriatricians. Geriatricians and geriatric care teams (including physical rehabilitation
specialists, nurses, and social workers) may be especially valuable to the design
process by leveraging their expertise working with elderly patients. These specialists
can help clarify the physical and cognitive impairments that affect functional status,
provide in-depth knowledge on the age-related and disease-related factors that can
limit HIT adoption, and suggest evidence-based and people-centered strategies to respectfully
engage older adults. This is relevant to possibly expanding the identified issues
of this population to usability testing and further developing the overview of recommendations
to solve such issues.
4.2 Proposed Recommendations Aiding Representative Project Management
Some of the recommendations emerging from this expert inquiry have implications for
project management, research design, and proctoring of usability evaluations. Experts
offered a wealth of recommendations, including: (1) providing communication training
to evaluators; (2) performing “pre-usability” tests; (3) hosting intake meetings;
(4) conducting assessments of older adults' capacities and skills; (5) observing or
shadowing the participants; and (6) having more than one test-moment with a participant.
Implementing these recommendations can be time and resource intensive. Nevertheless,
these issues are frequently encountered during testing, leading to higher expenses
and/or delays in deliverables. Therefore, including these steps, such as holding an
intake meeting to assess older adults' capacities and skills (e.g., IT literacy, functional
status, quality of life), might lend deep insight into their barriers to participate
(e.g., mobility issues impacting participation in location-sensitive usability tests).
We believe our recommendations can inform and streamline usability testing project
management, even in the earliest phases of HIT development. For example, considering
these recommendations when projecting staffing resources and a research budget (e.g.,
reimbursement of participant and caregiver travel expenses) can improve the precision
of cost estimates. Regarding the length of a project involving end-users in user-centered
design processes, previous research has shown that the contribution of end-users significantly
altered the ultimately designed technological intervention from the initial prototype
[[31 ]]. Yet as a consequence of end-users' involvement, it took longer than expected to
develop the intervention. Usability testing with older adults requires more time than
with younger populations due to the added elements during the preparation and execution
phase of the test, such as the intake meeting or performing several test sessions
instead of one. Therefore, it is important to budget time and resources accordingly
in the initial project proposal and at pre-defined milestones based upon the end-users
insights gained through the usability tests. Paradoxically, both financial resources
and development time are scarce in HIT development, implementation and evaluation
projects. We nevertheless stress that investing finances and time for the involvement
of older adult end-users in a user-centered design process is crucial to provide accessible
and inclusive HIT solutions. Beyond ethical questions, or missed opportunities, when
usability testing is not representative of potential end-users of a HIT, with respect
to characteristics of individuals, their goals or their social and environmental context,
there is a significant risk that all of the invested development funding will be wasted
because the intervention is not scalable or sustainable due to poor adoption.
4.3 Challenges of Proposed Recommendations Related to Standardization in Usability
Testing of HIT
The recommendations proposed in this paper make an important contribution to the performance
of UEMs for an aging patient-consumer demographic. Benefits notwithstanding, our recommendations
may be challenging to operationalize and standardize across usability testing research.
By not complying with scientific requirements of standardization in HIT usability
testing, it can be difficult to compare findings or establish benchmarks. More research
is needed to test and validate standardized instruments and methods with an older
adult population. Future work can focus upon how to empirically compare results from
standardized usability test with older adults with and without incorporating these
recommendations. To conclude, in the near term we believe it is important to strike
a balance between scientific constraints of usability testing and barriers in older
adults' participation.
5 Conclusion
A comprehensive set of nine recommendations and a checklist of 37 elements to support
the application of these recommendations in usability test evaluations of HIT with
older adults have been developed by means of experts' insights. Further, the results
of usability tests will become more robust when these recommendations are applied,
contributing to an important step towards evidence-based, inclusive and accessible
HIT for vulnerable older adults.