Title
Tree testing of hierarchical menu structures for health applications.
Abstract
To address the need for greater evidence-based evaluation of Health Information Technology (HIT) systems we introduce a method of usability testing termed tree testing. In a tree test, participants are presented with an abstract hierarchical tree of the system taxonomy and asked to navigate through the tree in completing representative tasks. We apply tree testing to a commercially available health application, demonstrating a use case and providing a comparison with more traditional in-person usability testing methods. Online tree tests (N=54) and in-person usability tests (N=15) were conducted from August to September 2013. Tree testing provided a method to quantitatively evaluate the information structure of a system using various navigational metrics including completion time, task accuracy, and path length. The results of the analyses compared favorably to the results seen from the traditional usability test. Tree testing provides a flexible, evidence-based approach for researchers to evaluate the information structure of HITs. In addition, remote tree testing provides a quick, flexible, and high volume method of acquiring feedback in a structured format that allows for quantitative comparisons. With the diverse nature and often large quantities of health information available, addressing issues of terminology and concept classifications during the early development process of a health information system will improve navigation through the system and save future resources. Tree testing is a usability method that can be used to quickly and easily assess information hierarchy of health information systems.
Year
DOI
Venue
2014
10.1016/j.jbi.2014.02.011
Journal of Biomedical Informatics
Keywords
Field
DocType
information system evaluation,usability methods,user–computer interface
Data mining,Classification Tree Method,Computer science,Tree testing,Artificial intelligence,Cognitive walkthrough,Usability inspection,Information retrieval,Heuristic evaluation,Usability,Usability lab,Usability goals,Machine learning
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
49
C
1532-0480
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
2
0.38
8
Authors
5
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Thai Le1195.12
Shomir Chaudhuri2233.18
Jane Chung341.80
Hilaire Thompson4384.51
George Demiris513130.82