Designing Health Websites Based on Users' Web-Based Information-Seeking Behaviors: A Mixed-Method Observational Study

Area of Science:

• Human-Computer Interaction
• Health Informatics
• Information Science

Background:

• Laypeople increasingly rely on the internet for health information.
• Challenges exist in finding and discovering accurate health information online.
• Existing consumer health websites often lack support for exploratory information seeking.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and evaluate a novel consumer health website, Better Health Explorer, that supports diverse health information-seeking behaviors.
• To derive design implications for future consumer health websites and health information-seeking applications.

Main Methods:

• A user-centered design approach was employed to create Better Health Explorer.
• A laboratory-based observational study compared Better Health Explorer with a standard health website.
• Mixed methods, including screen recordings, activity logs, browsing histories, and interviews, were used for data analysis.

Main Results:

• Better Health Explorer improved the health information-seeking experience, offering a wider information scope and engaging environment.
• Participants demonstrated better knowledge acquisition, increased page reads, and more query reformulations.
• Increased time spent on discovery in exploratory tasks indicated higher user engagement.

Conclusions:

• Better Health Explorer effectively supports varied and dynamic health information-seeking behaviors.
• Understanding diverse seeking behaviors is crucial for designing effective health websites and apps.
• Key design considerations include dynamic scope, serendipity support, trust, and interactivity.