The emergence of e-patient has motivated society to be more active and concerned in health education and health care systems. E-patient refers to consumer (a person or team consisting of patients, families, caregivers, and other individuals who care about health) who are actively using the Internet and other digital facilities for information needs and health services. A number of e-patient activities are seeking health information about diseases, healthy lifestyles, drugs, and pharmaceuticals, and health service providers through a search engine system; consult with doctors and specialists by online; seeking information on public health services through the official website of the government and other trusted health institutions; and participate in the consumer health informatics system through online forums and social media.
Behind the ease of accessing information and health services through digital systems, there are concerns about the accuracy and quality of health information circulating on the Internet. One reason is the anonymity feature in Internet services, and anyone can write articles about health, act as a professional medical staff, and provide opinions or health diagnoses. Therefore, it is needed counseling and education for Internet users about choosing correct health information from reliable sources and interpreting health information correctly. One reliable source of information about public health services is the government’s e-government website, Health Office of Surabaya
The e-government site is developed to fulfill one function of the health office, namely fostering health promotion, empowering public health, Community Health Insurance Scheme (Jaminan Pemeliharaan Kesehatan Masyarakat(JPKM) and public communication. Presentation of correct and reliable health information depends not only on the substance of the information but also on the way or method and visualization of the presentation of the information displayed through the system interface.
The appropriate and user-friendly information presentation affects the understanding of the substance. It is important because misunderstanding in interpreting health information can be fatal for individual health. Presentation of health information on public health sites can adapt the user-centered design (UCD) method and the principles of usability. UCD method aims to develop a system that is understandable and usable by exploring the needs and interests of users. The application of the UCD method in the development of systems and the appearance of the e-government site interface of the Health Office of Surabaya starts from identifying the user and usage context, evaluating the appearance of the current site interface, compiling user needs, designing interface solutions based on user needs, and evaluating the results of the design.
Site users consist of employees from the Health Office and Health Center, the government, and society. Each user has specific needs and goals in terms of site usage. Furthermore, an evaluation of the interface appearance is currently carried out by user representatives, consisting of two information systems analysts, two public health practitioners, two visual communication designers, and two psychology students, with heuristic evaluation methods. Evaluation results show that the appearance of the site currently has weaknesses in terms of system status visibility, design consistency, help and documentation features, and overall interaction design.
The design of solutions for site improvement starts with the preparation of user requirements specifications. There are fourteen specifications of user needs consisting of six needs for health service employees and primary healthcare, three needs for the Kota Surabaya government, and five needs for the community. Some examples of these needs are providing accurate and reliable public health information, managing and displaying the data and public health reports of Kota Surabaya, monitoring the activities of the health department, and seeking public health information. The next activity is designing an interface design based on user needs. A number of important features in the proposed solution are visualization using one theme and a combination of blue (hex code: # 0088cc), white (hex code: #ffffff), and black (hex code: # 383f48) to accommodate the needs of the people of Surabaya with color blindness; font selection Helvetica, Arial, and Verdana, which have high readability values to facilitate users with dyslexia; the reorganization of the site navigation structure into five main groups, namely the identity of the site manager, public services, public information, public health data and documents, and the public health corner.
The proposed design detailed in the form of a storyboard (a simulation scenario for the use of the system by each user) and a mock-up (prototype system with an interface display according to the proposed design). The last activity is the evaluation of proposed designs by user representatives. The evaluation results show an increase in scores in all aspects of heuristics and improvements to the site’s current weaknesses. Based on the results and findings in this study, the UCD method can be recommended for designing interface views on public health sites. The UCD method ensures that the floating system is based on user needs as a whole so that it can help the public to interpret health information appropriately.
Author: Ira Puspitasari
Title of article Scopus: A User-centered Design for Redesigning E-Government Website in the Public Health Sector Link article: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/8549726/
