1. Usability Study of the WebMD Smartphone App: Overview, Testing Results, & Final Recommendations Brock Bass Natalee Cartee Rebecca Cook Mike Wilson

2. Introduction

3. The use of applications (apps) on smartphones is growing annually. According to a Pew report on mobile health; 84 % of smartphone owners have downloaded an app (Fox & Duggan, 2012). One type of app, health apps, are of particular interest to this project. A previous survey found that approximately one in five smartphone users has downloaded some form of a health app (Fox & Duggan, 2012).

4. Introduction: About the App This app provides patients with a variety of services including: a symptom checker description of conditions description of drugs and treatments first aid information local health listings a pill identifier The symptom checker is the primary feature of the app. This feature allows you to enter symptoms from either a list of pre- programmed options or by using the model figure and tapping the problem-area, which in turn, brings up a list of possible related symptoms.

5. Methodology: Personas Jill Jones 32 years old 2 kids (Ben-5 and Emily-8) She just celebrated her 10 year anniversary with her husband Jason Jason is a consultant for an engineering company. He is out of town a great deal of the time and isn’t home when Ben falls ill. The family have a nightly skype date to stay connected. High school/some college education (associates degree) Dental Hygienist - 60k a year Works 50 hrs a week 10 year of experience Mason Taylor Male college Student 21 years old Goes to school out of state so cannot visit a family doctor Uses university’s health center for any minor medical visits Has never sought out medical care while in college outside of the university’s health center Mom scheduled medical appointments when he was living at home Senior majoring in Biology Taking 19 hours this semester Has been dating Gabriella Owens since sophomore year

6. Methodology: Paper Prototypes

7. Methodology: Testing Procedures Test Logistics Conducted in Cooper Library around 7pm and in Brackett Hall Atrium around 10am 5 college-aged male and female participants Began by giving each participant a briefing on the study in which they would be participating Testing of Old System > SUS Survey > Testing of New System > SUS Survey

8. Results: System Usability Scale IDSurvey of OldSurvey of NewPercent Change 1234512345 69 42 33 34 67 85 78 68 75 79 23.0% 85.7% 106.0% 120.6% 17.9% Overall usability increased from old to new system

9. Results: Task Times Overall task time decreased from old to new system

10. OLDNEW

11. Great minds think alike?

12. April 2013 WebMD App Update