Guide: Fast & simple user testing for healthcare

Easy to use health software is more likely to be used by health workers and will get you better data for driving program improvements. This practical guide teaches you to conduct user tests to collect unbiased feedback from users and make easy-to-use health software.

Who this guide is for

This user testing guide was made for anyone involved in making or implementing digital health software, not just designers or user researchers.

Why conduct user tests?

• Software that’s easier to train. Our team has reduced training time on Hypertension management software from 1 day to under 2 hours.

• Easy for staff to transfer knowledge. Healthcare worker turnover is high in hospitals and clinics. If the software is easy to use, existing staff can train new staff on-the-job without formal training sessions.

• Gather accurate data. Difficult-to-use software is irregularly used. Or, even worse, inaccurate data is entered into it.

• Reduce stress for busy hospital staff. Complicated software adds to the stress of overburdened health staff.

• More on the benefits of simple user-centered software in this playbook published by our team.

Guide

Useful templates and examples

These are templates that we use for conducting user tests and now you can use them too. Please modify the templates for your own needs.

Preparing to conduct a user test

• To-do list (Template)

• User Testing plan (Template with examples)

Prototyping

• Hypertension visit prototype (Example of a prototype)

Conducting interviews with healthcare workers

• Interview script (Template with examples)

• Consent form (Template)

• Note-taking template (Template with examples)

Reporting your learnings

• Short user test summary example (Template with examples)

• Detailed user test report example (Template with examples)

More resources

Quick and dirty user research by Michael Margolis (Video and worksheet)
(Michael’s work at Google Ventures was a major inspiration for this user testing guide)

7 minute user interview sample (Video)

How to help users think out loud (Video)