This position paper describes heuristic evaluation as it relates to visualization and visual analytics. We review heuristic evaluation in general, then comment on previous process-based, performance-based, and framework-based efforts to adapt the method to visualization-specific needs. We postulate that the framework-based approach holds the most promise for future progress in development of visualization-specific heuristics, and propose a specific framework as a starting point. We then recommend a method for community involvement and input into the further development of the heuristic framework and more detailed design and evaluation guidelines.
Background
In the era of precision medicine, it is critical for health communication efforts to prioritize personal health record (PHR) adoption.
Objective
The objective of this study was to describe the characteristics of patients with heart disease that choose to adopt a PHR.
Methods
A total of 79 patients with chronic cardiovascular disease participated in this study: 48 PHR users and 31 nonusers. They completed 5 surveys related to their choice to use or not use the PHR: demographics, patient activation, medication adherence, health literacy, and computer self-efficacy (CSE).
Results
There was a significant difference between users and nonusers in the sociodemographic measure education (P=.04). There was no significant difference between users and nonusers in other sociodemographic measures: age (P=.20), sex (P=.35), ethnicity (P=.43), race (P=.42), and employment (P=.63). There was a significant difference between PHR users and PHR nonusers in CSE (P=.006).
Conclusions
In this study, we demonstrate that sociodemographic characteristics were not an important factor in patients’ use of their PHR, except for education. This study had a small sample size and may not have been large enough to detect differences between groups. Our results did demonstrate that there is a difference between PHR users and nonusers related to their CSE. This work suggests that incorporating CSE into the design of PHRs is critical. The design of patient-facing tools must take into account patients’ preferences and abilities when developing effective user-friendly health information technologies.
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