An experiment on data sharing options designs for eHealth interventions

Area of Science:

• Human-Computer Interaction
• Digital Health
• Health Informatics

Background:

• eHealth technology facilitates personal health data sharing among stakeholders.
• Users require control over who accesses their health information.
• Current eHealth interventions offer data sharing functionalities, but visual design research is limited.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare two visual designs for eHealth data sharing options: data perspective vs. party perspective.
• To evaluate designs based on user trust, privacy concerns, ease of use, and information control.
• To understand inter-factor influences and provide design recommendations for privacy.

Main Methods:

• A between-subjects online experiment involving 123 participants.
• Participants interacted with one of two visualized data sharing designs.
• Data analysis included t-tests, correlation, and regression analyses.

Main Results:

• The data perspective design resulted in higher information control (t(97) = 2.25, p = .03).
• Regression analyses indicated that trust and ease of use influence all sharing-related factors.
• User experience is demonstrably affected by the visual design of data-sharing options.

Conclusions:

• eHealth data sharing design choices critically impact user trust and ease of use.
• The data perspective design offers enhanced information control.
• Actionable design advice for enhancing privacy in eHealth interfaces is provided.