Establishing usable innovations

The persistence of the science to service gap is evidence that evidence is not enough when defining evidence-based programs. Innovations must be developed with attention to the internal and external validity of the innovations themselves so that innovations can be replicated and scaled. This paper outlines the requirements for establishing an innovation, recommends standards for a usable innovation, and describes the usability testing processes to meet those requirements. Usability testing is a systematic process to efficiently and effectively determine the essential components and to develop a fidelity measure for an innovation. Usability testing is the foundation for research to establish the internal validity ("the basic minimum without which any experiment is uninterpretable") and external validity ("asks the question of generalizability") of the innovation itself. Once the essential components of a usable innovation are defined, measured, and linked with outcomes, implementation and scaling of usable innovations with fidelity can narrow the science to service gap.