The importance of usability testing in the development of an internet-based smoking cessation treatment resource.
It has been cogently argued that Web-based interventions hold substantial promise to deliver effective cessation to a wide audience. However, the potential effectiveness of a site is constrained by fundamental issues such as ease of navigation and structure of information, which impact a visitor's ability to find relevant information. Use of content and Web-design experts to assist in the development of cessation sites is a common approach. This approach, although highly useful, may fail to adequately identify problems that a more typical, target user would experience when visiting the site. Formal usability testing provides a user-centric approach to assessing a site's functionality. In this paper, we provide an example of this approach used in the development of a cessation Web site.
Stoddard
Jacqueline L
JL
National Cancer Institute, Tobacco Control Research Branch, 6130 Executive Blvd MSC7337, Bethesda, MD 20892-7337, USA. stoddaja@mail.nih.gov
Augustson
Erik M
EM
Mabry
Patricia L
PL
D000328:Adult; D003258:Consumer Behavior / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination; D007255:Information Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D020407:Internet / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011786:Quality Control; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000379:methods*; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D014029:Tobacco Use Disorder / Q000534:rehabilitation; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014584:User-Computer Interface