Design Variations for Improved Usability of Mobile Data Capture in Rural Uganda

Abstract

Several form design alternatives were created as a starting point for a usability evaluation in a project dedicated to maternal and child care in the rural Northern Ugandan area. The project is concerned with ensuring that pregnant mothers deliver from the hospitals and that their babies receive the necessary care after delivery, despite the limited resources. Health care workers are collecting data to document current resources using their hand-held devices, mainly phones. The basic requirements are that the application design should be simple, easily understandable by a broad user group, and supported by Android mobile platforms. We have created four design alternatives, all simple, straightforward, and suitable for low cost Android mobile devices. The major differences are concerned with the overall layout and color usage. There are variations in the radio buttons, check boxes, date formatting, progress visualization, font, labeling, data input validation, tables, and navigation buttons. The software, Axure RP 8, was used for designing alternatives based on the currently used mobile electronic data capture form “SurvPlus_FirstVisit_4” which is made in ODK Collect and has many usability issues. By coming up with these four mid-fidelity prototypes we expect to address variations in design that the current software allows. Suggested designs are common for many other applications, the majority of which mobile device users are familiar with. User preference testing was carried out to explore user preferences regarding the holistic design and particular design features.