On November 14th, Bill Hart-Davidson, Co-Director and senior researcher at Writing in Digital Environments Research (WIDE) at Matrix, spoke at Michigan’s 9th annual World Usability Day event at Michigan State University. World Usability Day is the largest gathering of industry professionals, world-class academics, government leaders, and students facilitating the progression of usability, user experience, and user-centered design. World Usability Day was founded to explore ways to ensure that the services and products important to life are easier to access and simpler to use.
During the last five years, over 1,750 conference participants from all parts of North America representing industry, government, and academia have attended the annual event at Michigan State University. This year’s theme was Healthcare: Collaborating for Better Systems. Hart-Davidson’s talk, “Evaluating User Experience for mHealth Services: A Pre-Rollout Case Study” discussed an upcoming project that WIDE is eager to get started. The goal of this project is to evaluate and improve a mobile health (mHealth) service delivered to patients undergoing treatment for Type II diabetes and heart disease in Federally Qualified Health Clinics.
“Nearly 26 million Americans have diabetes and face life-shortening risks related to heart disease. Studies show that patient-centered communication between clinicians and patients predict more favorable clinical outcomes among people with diabetes and other conditions but have not been widely implemented, particularly among low income populations,” Hart-Davidson said.
He outlined the user experience evaluation plans WIDE has to improve the quality of service for patient-centered communication in Federally Qualified Health Centers in Michigan.The team will implement and evaluate two approaches to patient-centered communication, one of which involves the use of mobile phone messaging (SMS) as reinforcement during care.
