BACKGROUND
Usability testing is valuable for assessing a new tool or system’s usefulness and ease-of-use. However, during clinical decision support (CDS) tool development, usability testing is often not done due to its time- and labor-intensiveness, cost, and the skills required to conduct the testing.
OBJECTIVE
Our objective was to develop a new method of usability testing that would enable efficient acquisition and dissemination of results among multiple institutions.
METHODS
We combined individual think aloud testing and focus groups into one session, and performed sessions serially across four institutions (Snowball Group Usability Testing) to assess the usability of two clinical decision support tools for use by nurses in the primary and urgent care settings.
RESULTS
The group testing and snowballing components of our new usability testing method proved to be highly beneficial. Study teams were more easily able to notice similarities in feedback among participants, and thus, to discuss and act upon suggestions efficiently, as feedback from multiple participants was obtained in a single session. Snowballing allowed study teams to incorporate feedback based on previous institutions’ sessions prior to conducting their own testing.
CONCLUSIONS
Snowball Group Usability Testing provides an efficient method of obtaining feedback on newly developed tools and systems, while addressing barriers typically associated with traditional usability testing methods. This method can be applied to test a wide variety of tools, including CDS tools, prior to launch so that they can be efficiently optimized, ultimately leading to higher adoption.
CLINICALTRIAL
NCT04255303