Adapting Information Search Tools for use by Health Consumers: Challenges and Lessons for Software Designers

ABSTRACT

Consumers are increasingly using the Internet to find information to support health-related decisions. This study evaluated two software tools, Mr. Taggy and SparTag.us, which are designed to help users filter and identify relevant information and organize and make sense of information. Participants included 80 adults, aged 35–82, who performed health information search tasks. Twenty participants used Mr. Taggy and another 20 used Spartag.us. The search tasks varied according to the tool characteristics. Two corresponding control groups, each with 20 participants, performed the tasks using the Google search engine. Participants also completed cognitive ability tests and a usability questionnaire. The findings indicated that participants using the tools found them useful and usable. However, participants using Google had significantly better task performance. Although cognitive abilities were related to task performance, a wider variety of abilities were related to performance in the aided conditions compared with the unaided conditions. The findings underscore the importance of ensuring that the cognitive demands associated with software tools do not outweigh the benefits of these tools, especially for users who are not highly practiced at using them.

Funding

This study was supported by grant number R21 HS18831-01A1 from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). We thank AHRQ for its support and also thank the various people at the Palo Alto Research Center for their technical contributions to this research.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by grant number R21 HS18831-01A1 from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). We thank AHRQ for its support and also thank the various people at the Palo Alto Research Center for their technical contributions to this research.

Notes on contributors

Mario A. Hernández

Mario A. Hernández is a Senior Research Associate at the University of Miami’s Center on Aging.His research interests include usability assessment of technological systems and web-based design for older populations. 

Joseph Sharit

Joseph Sharit is a Research Professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Miami. He is an investigator in the Center for Research and Education on Aging and Technology Enhancement (CREATE) and a researcher with the Laboratory of E-Learning and Multimedia Research at the Miami Veterans Administration Healthcare System.

Peter Pirolli

Peter Pirolli is a Research Fellow at the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). He is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Association for Psychological Science, the American Psychological Association, the National Academy of Education, and the Association for Computing Machinery SIGCHI Academy.

Sara J. Czaja

Sara J. Czaja is a Leonard M. Miller Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Director of the Center on Aging at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. She is also Director of the Center for Research and Education on Aging and Technology Enhancement (CREATE).