title: The McMaster Optimal Aging Portal: Usability Evaluation of a Unique Evidence-Based Health Information Website.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Increasingly, older adults and their informal caregivers are using the Internet to search for health-related information. There is a proliferation of health information online, but the quality of this information varies, often based on exaggerated or dramatic findings, and not easily comprehended by consumers. The McMaster Optimal Aging Portal (Portal) was developed to provide Internet users with high-quality evidence about aging and address some of these current limitations of health information posted online. The Portal includes content for health professionals coming from three best-in-class resources (MacPLUS, Health Evidence, and Health Systems Evidence) and four types of content specifically prepared for the general public (Evidence Summaries, Web Resource Ratings, Blog Posts, and Twitter messages).
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Our objectives were to share the findings of the usability evaluation of the Portal with particular focus on the content features for the general public and to inform designers of health information websites and online resources for older adults about key usability themes.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data analysis included task performance during usability testing and qualitative content analyses of both the usability sessions and interviews to identify core themes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 37 participants took part in 33 usability testing sessions and 21 focused interviews. Qualitative analysis revealed common themes regarding the Portal's strengths and challenges to usability. The strengths of the website were related to credibility, applicability, browsing function, design, and accessibility. The usability challenges included reluctance to register, process of registering, searching, terminology, and technical features.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The study reinforced the importance of including end users during the development of this unique, dynamic, evidence-based health information website. The feedback was applied to iteratively improve website usability. Our findings can be applied by designers of health-related websites.
authors.affiliation: Health Information Research Unit, Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Angela M
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0449-0572
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Barbara
authors.forename: Maureen
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1968-6765
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dobbins
authors.forename: R Brian
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1453-3196
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Haynes
authors.forename: Alfonso
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3331-8766
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Iorio
authors.forename: John N
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7917-3657
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Lavis
authors.forename: Parminder
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8107-3193
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Raina
authors.forename: Anthony J
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5240-6449
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Levinson
keywords: Internet; aging; consumer health information; elderly; evidence-based medicine; health informatics; knowledge translation; online health information; qualitative research; usability testing; website