Designing electronic health interventions for pediatric emergency departments: Usability testing methods for youth, parent and clinician participants (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Usability tests provide important insight into user preferences, functional issues and differences between target groups for health interventions and products. However, there is limited guidance on how to adapt the usability testing approach for a youth audience, especially for digital health interventions. OBJECTIVE Therefore, this methods paper outlines a novel approach for conducting usability tests with a diverse audience of youth, parents and clinicians in the development of two digital health tools for the pediatric emergency department (ED) setting. METHODS This paper outlines the methods for usability testing as part of a broader study aimed at co-designing ED discharge communication tools with youth, parents and clinicians. The broader study involved co-designing two digital tools: one for asthma and one for concussion. A mixed methods approach to usability testing was used to assess the functionality of these tools through two rounds of testing. A mix of youth, parents and ED clinicians were invited to participate in each round of usability testing. Participants were asked to provide feedback on the tools through quantitative surveys and open-ended qualitative questions. The usability testing approach was adapted to suit each target group, such as including a youth in the data collection process, to enhance the quality of the data. The severity of usability problems was analyzed following the first round of testing and each tool was refined based on this feedback. The second round of usability tests involved collecting both qualitative and quantitative feedback on the revised tools. RESULTS Outcomes from the usability tests will be disseminated through a subsequent publication. Results will include demographic characteristics from each user group from both rounds of testing, severity of usability scores, qualitative and quantitative feedback, and differences between test outcomes between each target group. CONCLUSIONS This paper provides novel guidance for conducting usability tests with youth participants when designing digital health tools. This approach may be adapted to different healthcare contexts for other youth participants. Further research should continue to explore ways to design usability tests that are suitable for youth audiences as there is still a significant gap in the literature around this topic.