Usability Evaluation of Home-Use Glucose Meters for Senior Users

Abstract

Self-monitoring of blood glucose technique provides diabetic mellitus patients a simple and real-time method to monitor their blood sugar at home. In order to understand the interface design problems in home-use glucose meters, the aim of this study was to realize if senior users were able to easily and effectively operate glucose meters via usability evaluation. Five senior users of above 65 years old who never use home-use glucose meters before were recruited to operate typical tasks: a. changing lancet, b. inserting a strip to turn on the meter, c. lancing, d. waiting for the result and e. discarding lancet. The experiment process was recorded for further interview. The results demonstrated that the key factors that caused operation errors were found on lancing device and test strip instead of the glucose meter. Especially for seniors that had memory degradations, they needed side by side assistance to finish the tasks. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014.