Back to Annual Meeting

Back to Annual Meeting

APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Sylvette La Touche, MA, NCC, Amy S. Billing, MSSA, Nancy L. Atkinson, PhD, Robert S. Gold, PhD, DrPH, Jing Tian, MD, and Fang Yan, MD. Department of Public and Community Health, Public Health Informatics Research Laboratory, University of Maryland, College Park, Suite 2387 Valley Drive, College Park, MD 20742, 301-405-8292, latouche@umd.edu

Creating and testing a health promotion instrument for its usability in underserved populations is an essential step in demonstrating its effectiveness. For the instrument to successfully penetrate its target audience, the design team fused its ideas with the needs and abilities of the population. The University of Maryland's Public Health Informatics Research Laboratory and Maryland Cooperative Extension collaborated to create the ‘Eat Smart, Be Fit, Maryland!' website. Funded by USDA, this website provided insight about how to most effectively disseminate health information to low-income communities.

The website used interactive tools to promote healthy eating, physical activity, and food budgeting to adults. Prior to its launch in December 2004, residents from five Maryland counties were recruited to participate in message and concept testing. They rated the website's appeal, appropriateness, and relevance. Based on the participant's feedback, the website was developed. Later, the design team conducted usability testing on the completed website to assess whether the information tool was achieving its initial objectives. Usability testing was conducted to assess the appropriateness of the website's literacy level and readability, ease of use, and user experiences and satisfaction using the site.

This presentation will provide an overview of the usability testing procedures, including an in-depth discussion of the methodology and instrumentation that was used. The results of this usability testing and its implications for creating websites for underserved populations will also be presented. Additionally, a discussion on how to apply the usability results to enhance programming for this population will be provided.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant will be able to

• Describe how usability testing can be used to enhance online interventions for low literate audiences.
• Discuss the importance of usability testing as a unique technique for understanding the needs and abilities of underserved populations.
• Recognize the factors that are needed to create an educational and user-friendly web experience for low literate populations

Keywords: Community-Based Health Promotion, Underserved Populations

Related Web page: www.eatsmart.umd.edu

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No