For the IncuBaby user interface, even though I conducted an informal usability test, I followed the recommended steps to conduct a proper usability study. Coming in with no prior usability study experience, I found it fascinating and insightful to work through the process. In the previous weeks, I created a PowerPoint with the UI designs I wanted feedback on and questions I wanted to answer. I was also advised that it’d be possible to give out more information than I should unless I create a script for myself. That way, everyone gets the same information, and no information involuntarily slips out. And later, I found that it was the perfect step to help me take notes during the tests and put together a worksheet that would provide guidance for the interns who might conduct the test in Malawi. Several of the SEED interns in the OEDK participated in the test and gave me a lot of helpful feedback and several new ideas to address some of the issues with my designs. It’s interesting to see what another pair of eyes can notice… the range of what some people think of as clean or cluttered…how people take a glowing “Check Sensor” light to mean a wide range of different things…or how people make connections when similar colors appear in different places on the UI.  I think it would be interesting to see how much their feedback may or may not differ from feedback from health practitioners in Malawi. And that has led me to wanting to conduct an informal usability test in Malawi. 

I came back and compiled all of the feedback into a single document and went ahead and made the suggested changes to the UI. I’m hoping that the Rice interns in Malawi can conduct an informal usability test with the nurses, and maybe doctors, in Malawi. To prepare for that, I created materials that people would need to conduct a test in Malawi, which included a background information document, an “instructions/guidance” document, a powerpoint with the UI designs and scenarios, and a revised test script.

Alongside the UI usability tests, I’m preparing for the temperature probe accuracy testing in adults. We ordered a refurbished patient monitor online – that doesn’t come with any instructions – and a software that pairs with the patient monitor to automatically collect temperature data. After dealing with the patient monitor’s incessant beeping, I found out that the patient monitor doesn’t come with the temperature probe or the RS232/MIB card, which we need for the automated data collection. So, that’s on hold until we get those.