Employing a user-centered cognitive walkthrough to evaluate a mHealth diabetes self-management application: A case...

Area of Science:

• Human-Computer Interaction
• Digital Health
• Usability Engineering

Background:

• Mobile health (mHealth) systems are increasingly used for chronic disease self-management.
• Traditional usability testing methods can be costly and time-consuming.
• Existing efficient methods may lack a user-centered focus.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and validate the user-centered cognitive walkthrough (UC-CW) method.
• To address deficiencies in the original cognitive walkthrough (CW) technique.
• To assess UC-CW's effectiveness, efficiency, and user acceptance compared to the think aloud (TA) protocol for mHealth applications.

Main Methods:

• A comparative study involving 12 diabetes patients divided into UC-CW and TA groups.
• Users evaluated the same mHealth self-management application using their respective methods.
• UC-CW incorporated user-centric evaluations, a dual-domain facilitator, validated tasks, higher-level tasks, and a streamlined process.
• Post-evaluation included NASA RTLX for cognitive load and semi-structured interviews.

Main Results:

• UC-CW identified more usability problems (26) than TA (20), including more critical issues.
• Both methods found similar severity ratings and heuristic violations.
• UC-CW was more efficient in terms of time per problem and overall evaluation.
• Participants reported UC-CW as more enjoyable, easier, and less cognitively demanding than TA.
• UC-CW highlighted the need for personalized features for diabetes management.

Conclusions:

• The UC-CW method is effective for identifying significant usability problems and user needs in mHealth applications.
• UC-CW demonstrates efficiency and high user acceptance, making it a valuable addition to usability evaluation techniques.
• The findings support the utility of UC-CW for researchers evaluating mHealth self-management tools.