I only a response to a classmates discussion post. Requires 1 peer reviewed reference and at least 250 words
Classmates post:
There are many different ways you can test an application. After reading the different ways the book suggested testing, I would have to say that I personally agree with several for different reasons. First, I really like the surveys of potential or actual users. I like this one because it calls upon the people who will be using the application and might have a different insight than someone designing it. I see this often in my own hospital. Working in the emergency room we have had several “process changes” that do not make practical sense to the workers on the floor. I feel like if the people wanting to make changes had surveyed the nursing staff, they might would have made different decisions. What makes sense to a CEO might not make sense to someone doing work. This testing is recon before the application is developed.
Secondly, I like the idea behind the heuristic evaluation because it is more cost effective and detects potential problems early. However, this process again relies more on experts rather than practical users. Then again in this case “experts” would be the users mostly. With a medication dose calculator, I would like to see how easy it is to access and operate. There cannot be too many steps to achieve the answer or people will not use it. Simple is better.
Furthermore, I rather enjoyed reading about the FITT model incorporates many different aspects when trying to evaluate how humans and technology. In today’s world, everything is turning out to have some form of technological input. In the medical field, we rely heavily on technology. I believe taking a closer look at how we interact with technology to complete tasks would be beneficial.
There are several different applications already in use on the apple app store. Just by searching “medication dosage” I was able to find over 30 free applications. One of the applications is called “epocrates” which I currently use for clinicals. This application does have in-app purchases but offers a wealth of information for free. This application does have more information than just medication dosages, so this might be too much information for someone who just wants dosages. I did find another application called “Epidolex Dosing Calculator” which strictly focuses on medication. It even separates doses based on hepatic or renal impairment. It has titrations, daily dosage, interactions, indications, and prescribing information. This application appears to be more basic and user friendly.
If I oversaw a prototype of a medication dosage application, I would first and foremost rely on the target audience. I believe their input is most valuable. Yes, cost, and expert opinion matter but if the target audience can or will not use it then it is a failure. There are several different ways to test how technology and humans interact and I believe each of them have positives and negatives.