Breakout

User-Centered Design of Medical Learning Software

Facilitators:

Jens Doerup, Michael Schacht Hansen & Finn Geneser

Section For Health Informatics, and Institute of Anatomy, University of Aarhus, Denmark

Summary:

User-centered design (UCD) is one of several design strategies to considered when constructing software. In UCD, end users influence software design starting from the very first steps of development to assure that user perspectives are constantly reflected in the design process (1). (For a review of Landauers book see: http://www.cognetics.com /cafe/p_landauer.html).) UCD has been successfully implemented in the development of several software packages (i.e.: http://www.software.ibm.com/ucd/) and has been shown to effectively increase usability, usefulness and user satisfaction of new software.

Frequent interaction between developers and users and analyses of how users react to the software is used to adapt the software to user needs and behavior in an iterative process.

During development of a histology learning tool: Histology Explorer, USD was implemented though regular reviewing of all preliminary versions of the program against a group of medical students and teachers, the multimedia (MM) group. Programming was done by a medical student with specific expertise in the software used (Macromedia Director) and every design feature was planned and implemented in close collaboration with teachers responsible for contents and with the MM group. Testing of the software was conducted in a sequence of cycles involving inexperienced users (teachers and students) who gave feedback on both contents and program design which was subsequently implemented.

The interface that evolved from using the UCD strategy was very simple and resulted in implementation of the following general principles:

 Contents organisation should be logically transparent to the user.

 The user should always know the area of the contents presently under study.

 The user should always know how to navigate (not only go somewhere else, but also know how to take a specific direction relevant to learning needs).

 The amount of structural elements of the interface should be kept to a minimum relative to the amount of contents (functional elements).

In addition to software design, crucial success criteria include availability of expertise in contents, computer science, pedagogics, selection of the right project for a given purpose, considerations on positioning of the software in the curriculum, and availability of support and faculty development (2). We conclude from the present work, that an effective design strategy is an important factor for developers of medical learning software and that UCD, which has proven valuable in software design in many other areas should be considered also by developers of Medical Learning Software.

Reference List

1. Landauer T. The Trouble With Computers. MIT press; 1995.

2. Alexander S; McKenzie J. An evaluation of information technology projects for university learning. Commonwealth of Australia; 1998.

Benefit in Attending Session:

We want to focus on the importance of design strategy for the success of implementing medical learning software.
We would like to share the experience of a very close collaboration between software developers and users.
 

FACILITATOR'S INFORMATION

Jens Doerup
Section for Health Informatics, Department of Biostatistics,
University of Aarhus, Vennelyst Boulevard 6
8000 Aarhus C, Denmark.
Telephone Number:
+45 8942 6123
Fax Number:
+45 8942 6140
E-mail Address:
jd@hi.au.dk
Web Site:
http://www.intermed.dk/jd.htm
 
Michael Schacht Hansen(1)
Finn Geneser (2)
(1)Section for Health Informatics, Department of Biostatistics,
(2)Institute of Anatomy,
University of Aarhus, Vennelyst Boulevard 6
8000 Aarhus C, Denmark.
E-mail Address(es):
msh@hi.au.dk
Web Site(s):
http://www.health.au.dk/microscope/