概念導向式健康照顧系統介面設計與應用

In the recent years, the interface design of healthcare software has been a hot topic of discussion in various national and international forums because it plays a vital role in the success, as well as failure of healthcare Information and Communication Technology (ICT) systems. Clinicians play a vital role in capturing data accurately; however, they have often reported a loss of productivity and frustration due to non-friendly interfaces of healthcare software. The lack of concrete approach for designing an interface is the key reason behind the poor quality of the healthcare software interface. In fact, interface design approaches for ICT systems are still maturing, and researchers are trying hard to find a concrete approach for it. However, to date, the success is not that much encouraging, and there is a need for further research. Therefore, in this study, a novel approach for interface design has been conceptualized and demonstrated by designing a prototype interface.

Concepts and techniques from various disciplines were used to conceptualize an interface design approach named MORTARS (Map Original Rhetorical To Adapted Rhetorical Situation). The concepts and techniques included in this approach are (1) rhetorical situation – a concept of philosophy provided by Lloyd Bitzer (1968); (2) move analysis – an applied linguistic technique provided by Swales and Bhatia (1990); (3) interface design guidelines – a cognitive and computer science concept provided by Johnson (2010); (4) usability evaluation instrument – an interface evaluation questionnaire provided by Lund (2001); (5) user modeling via stereotyping – a cognitive and computer science concept provided by Elaine Rich (1979). A prototype interface for outpatient clinic software was designed to present the underlying concepts of MORTARS. The prototype interface was evaluated by thirty-two medical informaticians.

Medical informaticians found the designed prototype interface to be useful (73.3%), easy to use (71.9%), easy to learn (93.1%), and satisfactory (53.2%). MORTARS approach has been found to be effective in designing the prototype user interface for the outpatient clinic software. This approach might be further used to design interfaces for various software pertaining to healthcare and other domains.