Usability assessment of a digital tool to enhance person-clinician communication in the memory clinic: An expert evaluation

BACKGROUND: From a human-centred design perspective, the web-based tool 'Helder in Gesprek' (Clear in Conversation) has recently been developed to improve person-centred communication in the memory clinic. The aim was to conduct expert testing to identify potential usability issues prior to user-testing and propose corresponding re-design recommendations.

METHODS: The DEMIGNED principles, specifically developed to identify potential usability issues for people with dementia, are used during the expert evaluation. Five experts ( n  = 1 usability, n  = 2 dementia, n  = 2 double-experts) used a heuristic evaluation approach applying the DEMIGNED principles to assess the user-interface (navigation structure, lay-out, and interaction) of 'Helder in Gesprek'. Through deductive and inductive analysis, a unique set of potential usability problems were identified.

RESULTS: Applying the DEMIGNED principles led to the discovery of 42 unique usability problems, related to cognitive principles ( n  = 14), perception principles ( n  = 8), frame of mind principles ( n  = 8), speech and language principles ( n  = 3), or multiple principles ( n  = 9). The mean severity score was 2.32 (SD = 0.85).

CONCLUSION: We identified several unique usability problems across a variety of DEMIGNED principles before usability testing with actual end-users that need to be addressed during re-design. Designers, researchers, clinicians, and policy makers may use these results to improve the usability of web-based tools, thus improving person-centred communication in the memory clinic for people with cognitive complaints.