Localisation and usability evaluation of an information diary tool to measure health information access and exposure

Abstract

Title: Localisation and usability evaluation of an information diary tool to measure health information access and exposure

Background: It is a challenge to connect data about the health information people are exposed to and their health attitudes and behaviours. A digital information diary tool was developed to address this challenge, and we tested its usability when localised for a specific study.

Methods: We used a mixed methods design to evaluate how participants used the information diary and their perspectives of usability. Participants were recruited from a primary care clinic and used the tool for a week. We measured usability with the System Usability Scale (SUS) questionnaire. We explored issues qualitatively via interviews with participants, analysing the data using thematic analysis.

Results: The tool was updated for use in three languages and tested with 24 participants. The mean SUS score was 69.8±12.9. Five themes emerged related to utility: functioning as a health information diary; discussing information diary with their doctor; learning about the credibility of information; being more aware of what they access because of the tool; and comparing their results with others. Four themes related to usability were: ease of use; confusion about selecting information source categories; capturing offline information with photos; and assigning a trust level.

Conclusions: We evaluated the process of localising an information diary tool and discovered challenges related to balancing the requirements of researchers using the tool for data collection and the way users wanted to use the tool. We did not encounter any major challenges with localisation, suggesting the tool could be quickly adapted to local contexts globally.