Toward a new age of patient centricity? The application of eye-tracking to the development of connected self-injection systems

Abstract

Background: Increasing interest in digitally enhanced drug delivery tools urges both industry and academia to rethink current approaches to product usability testing. This article introduces mobile eyetracking, generating detailed contextual data about user engagement with connected self-injection systems as a new methodological approach to formative usability assessment. Methods: A longitudinal case study with a total of 35 injection-naïve participants was conducted. In three consecutive experiments, eye-tracking was applied to formative usability testing of a novel connected self-injection device. Three eye-tracking derived usability indicators were established to assess product effectiveness, efficiency, and ease of use. Results: Analysis of the data revealed events of user hesitation, process interruption and unintended action, and these occurrences could either be completely eliminated or significantly reduced throughout the process (product effectiveness). At the same time, the overall use duration decreased from 86.1 to 58.7 sec (product efficiency). Analysis revealed that product modifications successfully guided user attention to those interface elements most relevant during each task, thereby improving product easeof-use. Conclusions: The step-wise improvement in the usability indicators demonstrates that iteratively applying eye-tracking methods effectively supports the user-centered design of connected selfinjection systems. The results highlight how eye-tracking can be employed to gain an in-depth understanding of patient engagement with novel healthcare technologies. ARTICLE HISTORY

Value of Eye-Tracking Data for Classification of Information Processing–Intensive Handling Tasks: Quasi-Experimental Study on Cognition and User Interface Design

“…This makes it difficult to identify the root causes of usability problems and thus the necessary changes in UI design. In alignment with Lohmeyer et al [ 31 ] and Koester et al [ 30 ], this study showed that mobile eye tracking provides objective quantitative results based on physiological measurements related to individual UI features. These results can be used to evaluate usability in much more detail compared with traditional methods.…”

“…More complex subjects of the investigations include graphical UIs such as computer tomography interfaces [ 26 ] or spacecraft displays [ 27 , 28 ]. Further, there are single studies where eye tracking is used to evaluate highly interactive UIs of tangible products like smart TVs [ 29 ], smartwatches [ 12 , 21 ], or medical devices [ 30 , 31 ].…”

GazeVisual: A Practical Software Tool and Web Application for Performance Evaluation of Eye Tracking Systems

“…A range of works based on the use of gaze information for consumer platforms like automotive (for driver monitoring), augmented and virtual reality (for foveated rendering and immersive experiences), smartphones and TV (for gaze based menu selection and navigation) have been described in our review [4]. Recent works in this field include [7] where gaze duration and patterns are used to assess how easily users can navigate an interface of a connected selfinjection system. Gaze data is used as an indicator to study the usability, efficiency and ease of use of the drug delivery device.…”

Eye Tracking Supported Human Factors Testing Improving Patient Training

“…A useful tool to overcome this challenge is eye tracking, which enables to uncover common problems during the use of medical devices [15], provides valuable objective insights for user interface design [16] and allows to assess the effectiveness of trainings [17]. It proves as a successful skill and training assessment tool, [18] is applicable in medical education, [19] and allows for comparison between expert and novice surgeons [20][21][22].…”