Evaluation of Interface Language to Promote Successful Navigation within a Patient Portal

Patients often receive questionnaires (forms) to fill out online within their patient portal. Questionnaires are usually required by the doctor’s office or health facility to obtain new or updated information about the patients for either administrative or clinical purposes. Each of the numerous possible forms are assigned a name by which they are presented to the patients in the online portal.

Team

Ryan Ahmed (independent research done for client of EPAM Systems)

Objective

• Identify problems and opportunities related to interface language currently used to describe forms.

• Identify barriers to efficient navigation to form related tasks and offer recommendations for improvement.

Process

Questionnaire

Participants were asked to suggest up to 3 names for sections in the patient portal before any existing naming is introduced. Participants were then asked to provide definitions of terms commonly used within the patient portal. Responses were used to report most common suggestions and how well existing terms are understood. Finally, a list of most meaningful terms were recommended.

Tree Test

Study participants were given tree tests asking to choose a menu item, from the conceptual menu structure of the patient portal, expected to contain each of a given set of features or content. Responses were analyzed to report summarized gaps in understanding and the level of expectation match.

Prioritization

All actionable study findings were prioritized using effort-value prioritization matrix and documented as resolution decisions for development.

Outcome

• Recommendations were provided for language to use and language to avoid per user suggested names and how accurately they described existing names.

• User errors and difficulty in navigation were reported along with recommendations for optimum alternate access pathways.

• Resolution steps were defined with prioritized action plans mutually agreed between cross-functional teams for phased implementation.