A comparative evaluation study of basic interaction techniques for PDAs in point-of-care situations

Ole Andreas Alsos; Benjamin Dabelow

4th International ICST Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare

Research Article

A comparative evaluation study of basic interaction techniques for PDAs in point-of-care situations

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@INPROCEEDINGS{10.4108/ICST.PERVASIVEHEALTH2010.8835,
    author={Ole Andreas Alsos and Benjamin Dabelow},
    title={A comparative evaluation study of basic interaction techniques for PDAs in point-of-care situations},
    proceedings={4th International ICST Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare},
    proceedings_a={PERVASIVEHEALTH},
    year={2010},
    month={6},
    keywords={Interaction techniques mobile computing userinter/aces usability point of care comparative study experimental simulation usability evaluation.},
    doi={10.4108/ICST.PERVASIVEHEALTH2010.8835}
}

Ole Andreas Alsos
Benjamin Dabelow
Year: 2010
A comparative evaluation study of basic interaction techniques for PDAs in point-of-care situations
PERVASIVEHEALTH
ICST
DOI: 10.4108/ICST.PERVASIVEHEALTH2010.8835

Ole Andreas Alsos¹^,*, Benjamin Dabelow²^,*

1: Dept. of Computer and Information Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
2: Medical Faculty, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

*Contact email: ole.andreas.alsos@idi.ntnu.no, benjamin@dabelow.eu

Abstract

This qualitative usability evaluation study has compared interaction techniques of a paper based medical chart and three versions of a PDA based system, based on interaction with stylus, finger or hardware buttons. Users' preferences and opinions were collected from 56 simulated hospital ward rounds with 14 physicians. Despite a number of disadvantages compared to paper the users preferred PDA-based interaction techniques. Within the PDA-based interaction techniques the physicians' preferences showed large variations. Moreover, the techniques had different qualities in different situations. The study identifies 14 factors influencing the users' preference and shows how each interaction techniques accommodate each factor. This study can inform the design and choice of interaction techniques on new handheld point-of-care systems.

Keywords: Interaction techniques mobile computing userinter/aces usability point of care comparative study experimental simulation usability evaluation.

Published: 2010-06-07

: http://dx.doi.org/10.4108/ICST.PERVASIVEHEALTH2010.8835