School of Nursing and Healthcare Leadership, University of Washington Tacoma, 1900 Commerce Street, Box 358421, Tacoma, WA 98402-3100, USA; Department of Child, Family, and Population Health Nursing, University of Washington School of Nursing, 1959 NE Pacific Street, Box 357263, Seattle, WA 98195, USA; Department of Biomedical Informatics and Medical Education, University of Washington School of Medicine, 850 Republican Street, Building C, Box 358047, Seattle, WA 98109-4714, USA.
Department of Child, Family, and Population Health Nursing, University of Washington School of Nursing, 1959 NE Pacific Street, Box 357263, Seattle, WA 98195, USA; Health Systems and Population Health, University of Washington, School of Public Health, 1959 NE Pacific Street, Box 357660, Seattle, WA 98195, USA; Sungkyunkwan University, Natural Sciences Campus, 2066 Seobu-ro, Jangan-gu, Suwon, Gyeonggi-do 16419, Republic of Korea.
J Biomed Inform. 2022 May;129:104051. doi: 10.1016/j.jbi.2022.104051. Epub 2022 Mar 19.
Rural local health departments (LHDs) lack adequate capacity and funding to effectively make data-driven decisions to support their communities that face greater health disparities compared to urban counterparts. The need, therefore, exists for informatics solutions to support rural LHDs.
We describe the user-centered design (UCD) of SHARE-NW: Solutions in Health Analytics for Rural Equity across the Northwest, a website (sharenw.nwcphp.org) with data visualization dashboards for rural LHD practitioners in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington to help them identify health disparities in their jurisdictions.
In this UCD study guided by Munzner's Nested Model for Visualization Design and Validation, we (1) completed a needs assessment, (2) created and evaluated mockups, and (3) conducted usability testing of a functional alpha testing website. Potential end-users (rural LHD practitioners) and Equity Advisory Committee members (public health experts from state, rural local, and tribal public health agencies) across our four-state catchment area were engaged throughout the website development and testing. We adapted traditional in-person UCD methods to be remote to reach participants across a large geographic area and in rural/frontier areas of Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington.
We recruited participants from all four states to engage in each stage of the project. Needs assessment findings informed the mockup development, and findings from the mockup evaluations informed the development of the functional website. Usability testing of the website overall was positive, with priority usability issues identified.
By applying Munzner's Nested Model and UCD, we could purposefully and intentionally design evidence-based solutions, specifically for rural LHD practitioners. Adaptations of traditional UCD methods were successful and allowed us to reach end-users across a large geographic area. Future work on SHARE-NW will involve the evaluation of the website. We provide insights on our lessons learned to support future public health informatics solution development.
农村地方卫生部门（LHDs）缺乏足够的能力和资金，无法有效地做出数据驱动的决策，以支持其社区，这些社区面临着比城市同行更大的健康差距。因此，需要信息学解决方案来支持农村 LHDs。
我们描述了 SHARE-NW 的用户为中心的设计（UCD）：西北农村公平的健康分析解决方案，这是一个网站（sharenw.nwcphp.org），具有数据可视化仪表板，为阿拉斯加、爱达荷州、俄勒冈州和华盛顿的农村 LHD 从业者提供帮助，帮助他们识别辖区内的健康差距。
在 Munzner 的嵌套可视化设计和验证模型的指导下，我们（1）完成了需求评估，（2）创建和评估了模型，（3）对功能 alpha 测试网站进行了可用性测试。潜在的最终用户（农村 LHD 从业者）和公平咨询委员会成员（来自州、农村地方和部落公共卫生机构的公共卫生专家）在我们的四个州集水区范围内参与了整个网站的开发和测试。我们对传统的面对面 UCD 方法进行了调整，使其成为远程方法，以覆盖整个大地理区域以及阿拉斯加、爱达荷州、俄勒冈州和华盛顿的农村/边疆地区的参与者。
我们从四个州招募参与者参与项目的各个阶段。需求评估结果为模型的开发提供了信息，模型评估结果为功能网站的开发提供了信息。网站的整体可用性测试结果为积极，确定了优先可用性问题。
通过应用 Munzner 的嵌套模型和 UCD，我们可以有目的地和有针对性地为农村 LHD 从业者设计基于证据的解决方案。传统 UCD 方法的调整是成功的，使我们能够覆盖整个大地理区域的最终用户。未来关于 SHARE-NW 的工作将涉及网站的评估。我们提供了有关我们经验教训的见解，以支持未来公共卫生信息学解决方案的开发。
