Development and user testing of a wellness data visualization solution
Al-Musawi, Mohammed (2015)
2015
Master's Degree Programme in Information Technology
Tieto- ja sähkötekniikan tiedekunta - Faculty of Computing and Electrical Engineering
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2015-12-09
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tty-201511171712
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tty-201511171712
Tiivistelmä
Use of information technology in health and wellness attracts a lot of attention these days from the general public, health care professionals, and the research community. A significant amount of research has been done lately in order to find ways to visualize health and wellness data in a holistic way which is easy to use and understand.
The main objective of the thesis was to develop a health and wellness solution for visualizing the health and wellness status of an individual and monitoring his/her progress in the health and wellness coaching. The research focused on three main issues: 1) Devel-oping a Progress data component which allows for monitoring the adherence of clients to tasks and to see their performance, 2) integrating the component with two other com-ponents in the system to create a Health and wellness overview solution, and 3) testing and evaluation of the component and the solution to assess usability issues and to gather user feedback.
The research followed a user-centered approach by focusing on the users and tasks from the beginning of the design process. This approach also included iterative design, with cycles of design, test, measure, and redesign. This approach was chosen to reach a high level of usability and user satisfaction by obtaining direct and indirect user feedback and requirements throughout the design process.
After implementation, testing and evaluations were conducted in two phases, namely after the implementation of the Progress data component, and after the integration of the component with the rest of the system. The evaluations were conducted with two different types of potential users: general users, and experts in usability issues. Many different techniques and methods were used in the evaluation studies. These included four standardized usability questionnaires, and the comparison of the data between them, in order to obtain high levels of reliability of the data.
The results showed a high level of satisfaction with all the metrics of usability of the system, with average responses between 5.66 and 6.60 in the 7-point Likert scale. With regard to overall user satisfaction, the results were equally positive in all four question-naires, with scores between 6.02 and 6.46 in the Likert scale.
Some issues of interaction between the different components of the system still need further development, and the design should be evaluated on and, if need be, redesigned for, devices with different screen sizes. The results indicate that successful visualization can help people understand better their holistic health and wellness data.
The main objective of the thesis was to develop a health and wellness solution for visualizing the health and wellness status of an individual and monitoring his/her progress in the health and wellness coaching. The research focused on three main issues: 1) Devel-oping a Progress data component which allows for monitoring the adherence of clients to tasks and to see their performance, 2) integrating the component with two other com-ponents in the system to create a Health and wellness overview solution, and 3) testing and evaluation of the component and the solution to assess usability issues and to gather user feedback.
The research followed a user-centered approach by focusing on the users and tasks from the beginning of the design process. This approach also included iterative design, with cycles of design, test, measure, and redesign. This approach was chosen to reach a high level of usability and user satisfaction by obtaining direct and indirect user feedback and requirements throughout the design process.
After implementation, testing and evaluations were conducted in two phases, namely after the implementation of the Progress data component, and after the integration of the component with the rest of the system. The evaluations were conducted with two different types of potential users: general users, and experts in usability issues. Many different techniques and methods were used in the evaluation studies. These included four standardized usability questionnaires, and the comparison of the data between them, in order to obtain high levels of reliability of the data.
The results showed a high level of satisfaction with all the metrics of usability of the system, with average responses between 5.66 and 6.60 in the 7-point Likert scale. With regard to overall user satisfaction, the results were equally positive in all four question-naires, with scores between 6.02 and 6.46 in the Likert scale.
Some issues of interaction between the different components of the system still need further development, and the design should be evaluated on and, if need be, redesigned for, devices with different screen sizes. The results indicate that successful visualization can help people understand better their holistic health and wellness data.