A FRAMEWORK FOR THE DESIGN OF PERSONAL HEALTH INFORMATION SYSTEMS USER INTERFACES

Abstract

There is an increasing drive for patients to have greater participation in the management of their own health, even beyond hospital visitations. This participation requires them to have access to their Personal Health Information (PHI) in order for them to continue managing their own health. However, medical data might not be easily interpreted by non-medical users with no medical training background, and further that its inappropriate presentation may lead to misunderstanding and unintended consequences. Human Computer Interaction (HCI) is concerned with developing interactive technologies such as Electronic Medical Records (EMR) systems that are accessible, useful, usable and safe for users. These systems store PHI that is important for the non-medical users. Therefore, this research sought to develop a framework for the design of the user interfaces of Personal Health Information Systems (PHIS) in order to effectively communicate PHI to non-medical users. The specific objectives were, to examine the context of use of the user interface design of the PHIS, to develop a framework that guides user interface design of PHIS, to apply the framework on user interface design of PHIS, and lastly, to evaluate the effectiveness of the framework in communicating PHI to non-medical users. The research approach was qualitative in nature, employing the design thinking research methodology. The findings revealed challenges of presenting PHI to non-medical users which informed the development of PHI presentation framework. To apply the framework, User Interface (UI) design prototypes presenting blood pressure readings were developed. The evaluation report showed the effectiveness of the framework in the UI designs and the extent in which the framework was applied in the UI designs. In conclusion, the study developed a framework for User Interface Design (UID) of PHIS, and it recommends presenting other types of PHI tests on UI using the framework.