Hypermedia use by the Disadvantaged: Assessing a Health Information Program

Abstract

Hypermedia, as an audiovisual tool that users can tailor to meet their individual information needs, has considerable potential for communicating about complex topics to naive users — including the educationally and economically disadvantaged. This study evaluates the ability of low-income, ethnically-diverse persons to successfully navigate a hypermedia health information program designed for their use. This study, using protocol analyses, detailed content analysis of videotapes, and questionnaire data from 32 African-American, Hispanic, Native American, and Anglo low-income women, found very positive overall user reactions to the program's understandability and case of use and identifies characteristic navigation patterns and some problems that these persons have in using such a hypermedia program. Some minor differences in responses and characteristic problems due to age, ethnicity, and education level were also found. The authors suggest guidelines for the development of such computer-based interactive programs for use by disadvantaged populations and other lay or naive adult users.

Adapting hypermedia for use by less sophisticated users poses special problems and offers special opportunities. Hypermedia use by disadvantaged persons is of particular interest in two respects: educationally and culturally disadvantaged persons provide a demanding benchmark for programs designed for lay users, and hypermedia itself may be better-suited than some traditional communication modalities for imparting information to the disadvantaged.