8 tips to make your health website easier to use

Improving Health Literacy through Effective Communication

Xanthi Scrimgeour, MHEd, CHESStacy Robison, MPH, CHES

8 TIPS to make your health website easier to use

Ana Tellez, MA

CommunicateHealth

Agenda

+ Overview: Online health information seeking+ Usability + health literacy+ User-centered design+ The 8 tips+ Website check-up

+ 80% of adults – 83% White– 71% Black, Non-Hispanic– 71% Hispanic (English- and Spanish-speaking)

+ 93% of teenagers– 94% White– 87% Black– 95% Hispanic

+ 62% of adults have high-speed broadband connection in their home

We are online

…looking for health information

+8 in 10 Internet users (roughly 60% of adults)– Slightly behind using a search engine, email, driving directions, and weather– More than news, online shopping, watching videos, social networking, banking

+6 in 10 say their most recent search had an impact on their health or the way they care for someone else– 60%: affected a decision about how to treat an illness or condition – 56%: changed their overall approach to maintaining their health – 53%: led them to ask a doctor new questions

We struggle with complex health information.

+ As many as 9 out of 10 American adults have limited health literacy skills.

+ The number of older adults using the Internet continues to grow. They are affected by age-related changes in vision, hearing, and cognition.

Usability + Health Literacy

Users with limited literacy skills are…

+Willing to use the Web to access health information

+Able to accomplish tasks when websites are designed well

More often than not, it’s poorly designed Web sites – more than limited literacy skills – that contribute to users’ challenges online.

Usability:

How well users can learn and use a website to achieve their goals and how satisfied they are with that process.

(function/properties of a website)

Usefulness:

How well the basic services, features, and functions match user needs and goals.

(rational response to information on a website)

Appeal:

User’s subjective, spontaneous feelings about the website.

(emotional response to a website)

User-Centered Design

The 10 Tips…

① Involve your users.

Neighbor Nudge

1. Identify your users: Who are they?

• Literacy skills• Health status• Experience with the Internet

2. Understand their motivations: Why are they here?

• Looking for themselves or someone else• How did they get here?

User Testing Methods to Try

+Individual interviews+Focus groups+Personas and scenarios

Focus Groups

+ Small group (5-8 people)

+ React to designs and ideas

+ Group process (react to others’ opinions)

+ Good for quick gauge of users’ feelings and opinions

+ (Not good for testing a final product or website)

The practice of planning for the creation, delivery, and maintenance of useful, usable content.

② Develop a content strategy.

your awesome content

+ First, create quality health content.+ Then take care of it!

Do you know?

Existing content:1. Who created it?

2. What does it say?

3. Is it useful?

4. How is it maintained?

New Content:5. Who will create it?

6. Who will approve it?

7. Who will put it on the website?

8. Who will update it?

③ Write clearly.

Neighbor Nudge

Change is hard.Some changes are harder than others.

Why are changes/decisions about health so difficult?

Create quality health content

+Get to the point. Use plain language. – Use active voice– Avoid jargon; use the language of your audience

Plain language is not enough!

+Make it actionable.– Include specific action steps– Give users tools (directions, maps, calculators, printable

checklists)– Be positive and motivating

Actions at a Glance

1. Put the most important info first.

2. Describe the health behavior. Just the basics.

3. Provide specific action steps.

4. Write in plain language.

5. Check content for accuracy.

Writing for Action

Which page would be most helpful if your child had asthma?

① “About asthma”

② “Asthma symptoms”

③ “Prevent asthma attacks at home”

Prioritize the Behavior

Asthma makes breathing difficult for more than 34 million Americans.

Asthma in children is on the rise, but with proper treatment for symptoms of asthma, kids and adults can live well.

If someone in your family has asthma, start by getting rid of these common causes of attacks:

– Mold or dampness– Cockroaches– Secondhand smoke

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User Testing Methods to Try

+ Use card sorting to find out how users rank content by most useful/least useful or most likely to do/least likely to do.

+ Build a paper prototype to find out what content users are most likely to “click” on.

+ Test user comprehension using content in a paper prototype.

④ De-clutter your site.

Web users want to quickly and easily:

1. Understand the health problem or behavior

2. Find out how to take action

27 seconds

Typical F pattern

Nielson Norman Group

Design for Scanning

+Create a visual hierarchy – Prominent (BIGGER) = important

+Use web conventions– Example: Search in the upper right

+Minimize noise– Clean and readable

Users with limited literacy skills are easily overwhelmed

Even content written in plain language can be overwhelming too much text is together in one paragraph or there is not enough white space on the page.

Bulleted lists minimize the amount of text on the screen. White space makes text easy to read.

Users with limited literacy skills skip instead of scan

+ Skip over entire chunks of dense text– > 3 lines of text triggered skipping– Numbers, %, big words triggered skipping

+ Start clicking on links instead of reading the content

Whenever possible, use bulleted lists and short sentences. Limit text to 3 lines.

Actions at a Glance

1. Limit paragraph size. Use headers, bullets, lists.2. Use familiar font in at least 12 points. 3. Use white space and avoid clutter.4. Use images to facilitate learning.5. Use bold colors with contrast. 6. Use bold face instead of CAPITALS and italics.

+ Keep content in the center of the screen and above the fold.

Font Style

+This is Verdana, a sans-serif font

+This is Georgia, a serif font

Consider sans-serif fonts

Line Length

9-12 words per line✓

20-24 words per line✗

⑤ Start with the Home page.

The Home page

+ Show your name and logo prominently (upper left corner).

+ Consider including a tagline that summarizes what you do.

+ Emphasize the highest priority tasks so that users have a clear starting point. (Hint: think back to your 3 main tasks)

+ Use consumer-focused language.

+ Use visuals and examples to reveal the site’s content, rather than just describing it.

+ Don’t over-design. Leave plenty of white space.

⑥ Simplify your navigation.

Site ID (and tagline) Search

Primary Navigation

Print, email, share

Breadcrumbs‘you are here’

Secondary navigation

Page Name

Easy access to home and menu pages

Make sure the “Back” button works

+ Site ID+ Page Name+ Primary navigation (sections)+ Secondary Navigation+ Search+ You are Here

The Trunk Test

Users with limited literacy skills have difficulty searching

+ Avoid searching.

+ Prefer to browse topics using an alphabetical or topic list (even if the list is long).

Include both a search function and other ways to browse content (topic or A-Z list).

Be sure to compensate for misspellings in the search box and limit the number of results.

Simple Search and Browse

⑦ Organize and label your

content.

Content Organization: the Basics

+ Information architecture is the way information is categorized on a Web site.

+ It typically involves a category structure (taxonomy) and labels.

+Good content organization enables users to find information quickly.

Tip: Use labels that reflect the language of your users.

Using Labels

Which link will have info on asthma triggers?

① Air Pollution & Respiratory Health

② Indoor Air Quality

③ Asthma and Allergies

Labeling Links

4 rules to follow when using links:

1. Make links obvious (underline them)

2. Make links long enough to “grab” easily

3. Use descriptive link labels

4. Limit the number of links on the page

If you are HIV-positive, click here for information on how to protect your partner(s) so that you don’t pass the virus on to them. If you are pregnant or thinking about getting pregnant, you can help prevent passing HIV to your baby. Learn more.

Website Check-up

⑩ Test and tweak often.

Nielson Norman Group

Forum One

Paper Prototype Testing

If you are building a new feature, start with a paper prototype test.

Usability Testing

What is usability testing?

+Conducted 1 on 1+Watch someone use your website

– Ask them to figure out what the site is– Have them use the site to do a typical task

+Have them ‘think aloud’+Note where they get stuck

Wisdom of Steve Krug

You are not trying to prove or disprove anything (e.g., label A is better than label B). You are trying to improve your website.

http://www.health.gov/healthliteracyonline/

15 studies750+ usersRecruited adults w/ limited literacy skills

Best practices in:• Web design• usability• accessibility

Thank You!!

Contact Information:

+Ana Tellez

ana@communicatehealth.com