Evaluating design concepts to support informal communication in hospitals through the development of a tool based on an iterative evaluation

Abstract

The evaluation of groupware systems is considered a complex activity, mainly due to the impact that this kind of tools could have in work practices, the multiples variables that influences the use and evaluation of them, as well as the expensive cost of time and resources required for an in situ evaluation. These reasons have complicated the generation of a generic guide for evaluating this type of tools. Some researchers in groupware evaluation have highlighted the need to evaluate groupware tools, according to the context and characteristics of those organizations in which these tools would be deployed. Thus, in this paper we present a process to evaluate a tool that supports informal collaboration in hospital. Due to nature of hospital work and the difficulty of performing an in situ evaluation, our proposal implies a multi-phase evaluation process through the development lifecycle of the tool. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.