| dc.description.abstract | Usability is often ignored; many software developers focus on the functionalities and give little thought to the usability. This hinders the users and also damages the reputation of developers and the softwares. Such systems fail in use, scale up, and at times score very low when evaluated for usability. Users are not satisfied, systems are created ad hoc, and often abandoned, thus resulting in a waste of human and economic resources. Users many times describe the systems as complex, not intuitive and requiring a lot of training for successful use. There are a number of existing usability evaluation frameworks; however, they are suboptimal in providing health information systems (HIS) usability evaluation explicitly at the design and development stage. They each evaluate different aspects of HIS pertinent to human, organizational and technological factors. The frameworks differ in terms of generality and specificity, timing based on the system development phases, thus there exists a gap of an integrated evaluation framework that can merge critical usability
constructs together and also be utilized at the design and development of HIS products. The objectives of the study were first to develop an integrated usability evaluation framework for the design and development of HIS, secondly to investigate the existing usability evaluation frameworks in HIS, thirdly to analyse the user
involvement and satisfaction levels in HIS during the design and development phase using integrated software usability measurement tools and finally, to validate the developed integrated usability evaluation framework for the design of HIS. The study was conducted in selected public health facilities in western Kenya. The research study applied mixed methods research to gain detailed understanding of the entire HIS design and development processes. Simple random, and purposive sampling were used to select the health care workers i.e medical officers, clinicians, nurses, records staffs and patients who interact with the systems on a day today basis. Both survey questionnaires and focus group discussions tools were used to collect data. Data analysis was done using ordinal logistic regression and thematic analysis for qualitative data. Results showed that users were never involved in the process of development of the current HIS that they are using thus were never satisfied with the processes. User involvement and participation during the design and development
positively influences user satisfaction levels therefore ease of use, efficiency, safety/errors of HIS has the potential to reduce the number of mortalities and readmissions in the health facilities. HIS developers need to consider utilizing the components, dimensions in the developed integrated usability evaluation framework
as they provide a perfect opportunity to promote engagement and consider key constructs throughout the development life cycle. Health care providers need to provide real time feedback to the development team of any mis-alignment and emerging usability issues during the design and development process. There is need to capture the dynamics, processes, and interrelationships involved in technological change during the user engagement during the development of the health information systems. | en_US |
