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Usability Evaluation of a Private Social Network on Mental Health for Relatives

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Abstract

Usability is one of the most prominent criteria that must be fulfilled by a software product. This study aims to evaluate the usability of SocialNet, a private social network for monitoring the daily progress of patients by their relatives, using a mixed usability approach: heuristic evaluation conducted by experts and user testing. A double heuristic evaluation with one expert evaluator identified the issues related to consistency, design, and privacy. User testing was conducted on 20 users and one evaluator using observation techniques and questionnaires. The main usability problems were found to be related to the structure of SocialNet, and the users presented some difficulties in locating the buttons or links. The results show a high level of usability and satisfaction with the product. This evaluation provides data on the usability of SocialNet based on the difficulties experienced by the users and the expert. The results help in redesigning the tool to resolve the identified problems as part of an iterative process.

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Acknowledgements

This research was performed under the University of Salamanca Ph.D. Program on Education in the Knowledge Society (http://knowledgesociety.usal.es) and supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte under the FPU fellowship (FPU014/04783), the Research Group in InterAction and eLearning (GRIAL) (http://grial.usal.es), and the INTRAS Foundation (http://www.intras.es).

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Correspondence to Alicia García-Holgado.

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Funding

This study was funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte (grant number FPU014/04783).

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all participants included in the study.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Patient Facing Systems

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Toribio-Guzmán, J.M., García-Holgado, A., Soto Pérez, F. et al. Usability Evaluation of a Private Social Network on Mental Health for Relatives. J Med Syst 41, 137 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-017-0780-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-017-0780-x

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