A user experience and ehealth literacy inspection of a lab test interpretation mobile app for citizens

Abstract

People are increasingly able to access their laboratory (lab) results using patient-facing portals. However, lab reports for citizens are often identical to those for clinicians; without specialized training they can be near impossible to interpret. In this study, we inspected a mobile health application (app) that converts traditional lab results into a citizen-centred format. We used the Health Literacy Online (HLO) checklist to inspect the app. Our inspection revealed that most of the app's strengths were related to its Organization of Content and Simple Navigation and most of its weaknesses were related to Engage Users. We also identified several usability and user experience (UX) issues that were beyond the purview of the HLO checklist. Although this app represents an important step towards making lab results universally accessible, we identified several opportunities for improvements that could increase its value to citizens. © 2021 European Federation for Medical Informatics (EFMI) and IOS Press.