Viitanen Johanna
Strategic Usability Research Group, Aalto University, Finland.
Stud Health Technol Inform. 2011;169:965-9.
Little can be found in the literature about the applicability of field study methods, particularly contextual inquiry, in the health informatics field. This paper aims to inform and promote the use of contextual inquiry for user-oriented design of clinical information technology (IT) systems. The paper describes how the method was applied in two empirical studies to gather data about end-users' needs, as well as the use and usability of dictation solutions and electronic nursing documentation systems from the viewpoint of their end-users' in real working surroundings. Experience indicates that, compared to typical usability evaluation methods, contextual inquiry may provide valuable support for user-centred design activities: the method is suitable for increasing researchers' understanding of clinical practices, contexts of work, and end-users' interaction with numerous IT systems. However, in clinical settings there are special challenges related to recording and privacy issues, a wide variety of clinical practices and contexts of technology usage, as well as the hectic nature of clinical work.
关于实地研究方法，特别是情境调查法在健康信息学领域的适用性，文献中几乎没有相关内容。本文旨在介绍并推广情境调查法在以用户为导向的临床信息技术（IT）系统设计中的应用。本文描述了该方法如何应用于两项实证研究，以收集终端用户需求的数据，以及从终端用户在实际工作环境中的角度了解听写解决方案和电子护理文档系统的使用情况及可用性。经验表明，与典型的可用性评估方法相比，情境调查法可为以用户为中心的设计活动提供有价值的支持：该方法适用于增强研究人员对临床实践、工作环境以及终端用户与众多IT系统交互的理解。然而，在临床环境中，与记录和隐私问题、各种各样的临床实践和技术使用环境以及临床工作的繁忙性质相关，存在特殊挑战。
