Eye tracking-based evaluation of user engagement with standard and personalised digital education for diabetic patients

Abstract

Health education is a fundamental process in strategies to inform and involve patients with effective health management. Nevertheless, challenges exist in motivating patients to engage with health information. This paper describes a study which evaluated user engagement with generic and tailored digital formats of interactive health education for diabetic patients. We recruited 18 participants, nine of whom viewed a diabetic education booklet, and the remaining subjects viewed electronic personalised education. Eye tracking was used to measure visual engagement with the artefacts, and the users provided feedback regarding the aesthetics and usability of the education. The findings indicated that for both artefacts the participants attended predominantly to the text content. Moreover, for the personalised education, it was found that images that had been personalised in accordance with user characteristics received a greater amount of attention than non-tailored images.