The importance of usability testing in the development of an internet-based smoking cessation treatment resource

It has been cogently argued that Web-based interventions hold substantial promise to deliver effective cessation to a wide audience. However, the potential effectiveness of a site is constrained by fundamental issues such as ease of navigation and structure of information, which impact a visitor...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nicotine & tobacco research 2006-12, Vol.8 (1), p.S87-S93
Main Authors: Stoddard, Jacqueline L., Augustson, Erik M., Mabry, Patricia L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Consumer Behavior - statistics & numerical data
Female
Health Education - statistics & numerical data
Humans
Information Dissemination
Information Services - statistics & numerical data
Information Storage and Retrieval - statistics & numerical data
Internet - organization & administration
Internet - statistics & numerical data
Male
Middle Aged
Program Evaluation
Quality Control
Reproducibility of Results
Smoking Cessation - methods
Smoking Prevention
Tobacco Use Disorder - rehabilitation
United States - epidemiology
User-Computer Interface
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Summary:It has been cogently argued that Web-based interventions hold substantial promise to deliver effective cessation to a wide audience. However, the potential effectiveness of a site is constrained by fundamental issues such as ease of navigation and structure of information, which impact a visitor's ability to find relevant information. Use of content and Web-design experts to assist in the development of cessation sites is a common approach. This approach, although highly useful, may fail to adequately identify problems that a more typical, target user would experience when visiting the site. Formal usability testing provides a user-centric approach to assessing a site's functionality. In this paper, we provide an example of this approach used in the development of a cessation Web site.
ISSN:1462-2203
1469-994X
DOI:10.1080/14622200601048189