User research for healthcare e-learning

A well-designed user experience also supports the spread of online learning platforms in healthcare, but to design a better user experience (UX) you need to understand people through user experience research.

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User experience research is a fundamental part of designing the user experience. We cannot design a satisfying and fluid experience for an e-learning platform if we do not know the people who will use it, and user experience research helps us precisely in this essential part of a project’s success.

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What user experience research is and why it matters

User experience research is a methodological approach that aims to understand people’s needs, expectations, values and behaviours in relation to a product or service, with the goal of collecting data and providing insights and strategic guidance that are useful for the design of the user experience.

Through research, it is possible to identify people’s preferences, the difficulties they encounter when using an interface, and potential areas for improvement. This information makes it possible to create user-centred projects, which respond to their expectations and help them reach their goals.

Although, in an iterative view of the design process, carrying out research activities is useful throughout the project, it is especially in the initial phase that this kind of activity is concentrated. In fact, knowing the people we are designing for must always be the starting point of every user experience project and must form the basis on which to build the design.

The methods used for research are many, and it is up to the researchers to choose the mix of methods to use in each individual project, depending on whether the investigation needs are more exploratory or evaluative, on the type of project and on the context in which they will operate.

The specialists at our UX agency, for example, choose to observe people’s behaviours and attitudes with both qualitative and quantitative methods, with tools for online analysis and laboratory tests; ranging from digital analytics, to A/B testing, expert analysis and usability tests, as well as co-design methodologies and in-depth interviews.

User experience research is of fundamental importance because it makes it possible to identify critical issues and opportunities for improvement for a product or service, and to design the experience starting from the evidence that results from the analysis of the data collected.

For organisations this means being able to create solutions that truly meet people’s needs and guarantee excellent usability of the product, with a consequent higher return on the investment in user experience work.

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The importance of a user-centred and data-based approach

When a human-centred design (HCD) approach is adopted, as it is also defined by the ISO 9241-210:2019 standard, design aims at the creation of products and services that are useful and usable, keeping the focus on the people who will use them, responding to their needs and expectations, and applying principles of ergonomics and usability.

But what does it mean to focus on the people who use a product?

Taking up our in-depth article on human-centred design, we can say that design puts people at the centre when it respects a few fundamental principles:

• the design is based on the understanding of users, that is of their goals and of their everyday context;
• people are involved in every phase of the process (co-design or participatory design);
• the design takes people’s feedback into account;
• the design process is iterative;
• the design offers a good user experience: satisfying and accessible for people.

User experience research makes it possible to know users on the basis of objective evidence. The result of the data analysis is strategic guidance and insights, which allow user experience designers to create solutions that respond to the real needs and expectations of the people the product or service is for.

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User research techniques for designing healthcare e-learning platforms

In the healthcare field, training is a topic of particular importance. Healthcare professionals need specialist and continuous training throughout their working career.

When it comes to specialist training, the healthcare industry also confirms the global tendency to improve and validate online educational pathways more and more, through e-learning platforms (learning management systems, LMS).

Often, in the design of e-learning platforms, there is a tendency to concentrate more on the quality of the content offered and on how it is presented; however, an equally important element for the success of learning is the experience that the learners themselves will have when using the platform.

If the user experience of the e-learning platform is designed for the people who will use it, then the learning process will also be more successful, with an increase in both the engagement and the satisfaction of the learners.

Understanding who the people using the platform are therefore becomes fundamental in this case as well, and user experience research will have precisely the purpose of collecting the data that are useful for this understanding.

In the specific context of designing e-learning platforms, there are several user research techniques that can be used to obtain a thorough analysis of people’s needs.

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Data analysis

Through this technique, all the information collected on the use of the platform is analysed, by means of analytics tools and web traffic tracking. We can monitor the quality of the experience with the interface, so as to know, for example, where people click when they arrive on the page, or at which points in the flow they get stuck, without completing the conversion.

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Expert analysis

This type of analysis looks at the interface of the e-learning platform, carrying out a complete check-up in search of any critical points that hinder or prevent the person from reaching their goal.

This type of analysis is also associated with a heuristic analysis, through which the usability of the digital interface is assessed on the basis of shared heuristics and standards.

The aim is not only to identify the critical issues, but above all to investigate the reasons that lead a person not to manage to complete certain actions, or not to interact with certain functions.

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In-depth interviews

This technique allows researchers to go deeper into some of the points that emerged during the expert analysis, involving the people who use the e-learning platform. During the interviews (user interviews), it will be possible to reconstruct the complete picture of the user experience, investigating people’s perspectives, experiences and expectations. We will not only listen to people’s words, but also take their non-verbal communication into account.

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Ethnographic analysis

This type of analysis is particularly useful when we have to design a new e-learning platform from scratch. Potential customers will be studied — in this case healthcare professionals — in order to understand their everyday experience, their expectations and needs in relation to the practice of their profession, and to the topics of continuing education and medical specialisation.

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Focus groups

This technique involves the recruitment of a number of people who are representative of the chosen target, with whom it is possible to carry out an evaluation of the experience on the e-learning platform, investigating various aspects under the guidance of an experienced researcher, who is responsible for running the session.

A focus group can be very useful for assessing the judgement of the end user at various stages of development: in front of a concept, a prototype or the actual product.

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Usability tests

Under this heading we group all the techniques that make it possible to assess the usability and accessibility of the user interface. These are techniques that involve people and show us how they interact with the interface.

We are talking, for example, of:

• task analysis: the person, placed in front of a prototype or the complete digital product, is asked to complete certain tasks. This makes it possible to check the effectiveness and efficiency of the interface — that is, how many people complete the task, in how much time, with what ease, and the errors made — as well as the person’s satisfaction at the end of the task.
• tree testing: this tests whether the information architecture of the e-learning platform, existing or in prototype, is effective, by asking the people taking part in the test to find a specific element inside the system. In this case the graphical interface is excluded, and the focus is on the mere organisation of the content.

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Case study – Luzán 5: a user research project

At Conflux, we recently worked on the case of Luzán 5 and its Health Learning Center, which aims to improve the professional development of the social and healthcare sector with its health e-commerce for courses and events, operating on the Spanish and Latin American market.

The objective of the project was a complete restyling of the platform, with an approach that put at the centre the people who would use it, that is students, teachers and healthcare professionals. As we have already said, this approach presupposes an understanding of the user based on objective evidence that emerged from user experience research activities.

For this project, the research team chose to combine a phase of expert analysis and of heuristic evaluation, and a phase of data assessment, with the aim of identifying and analysing all the useful information about people’s experience of using the interface and about any critical issues.

Afterwards, the results of the research were shared with the team of user experience designers, who were able to design a new interface for Luzán 5’s training school, starting from the evidence that emerged in the research phase and taking into account the strategic guidance useful for improving the user experience of the healthcare e-learning platform.

The result was the design of a user experience rethought in a way that is genuinely accessible for every type of person using the platform. In addition, for the design of the graphical interface the team followed a mobile-first logic, which would guarantee the correct functioning of the website from every type of device.

The synergy between user experience research and user experience design in the project was fundamental in improving the experience of the e-learning platform, responding to the real needs and expectations of all the people who use it.

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Conclusions

In conclusion, user experience research is fundamental in the design of e-learning platforms in order to create engaging and effective experiences for people, and also to improve their learning process.

Research techniques such as interviews, the analysis of usage metrics, focus groups and usability tests provide valuable information to improve existing solutions and to guide the development of new online learning experiences.

Investing in user experience research allows healthcare organisations to create new products and services of specialist health training that truly respond to the needs of healthcare professionals, guaranteeing a competitive advantage for the organisation that offers them and at the same time improving the overall satisfaction of the people who use them.

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