How we present our findings

UK Prostate Link uses a concept of "intelligent signposts" to direct users to relevant information.  These signposts should provide enough information about the source for users to decide whether it is of interest to them.  They are "intelligent" in that the user can see what is available from different sources on their topic of interest, and easily refine their query to more specific topics.

For example, if you are interested in Treatment, clicking on this topic will list all of the overview material available about the range of treatment options.  The sub-topics within treatment (e.g. Watchful Waiting, Surgery, Radiotherapy) allow you to narrow down your search to individual treatments or treatment combinations.

From our literature review and consultations, we identified the following principles to guide our design approach:

  • Users must be able to assess the information in under 15 seconds; [1-3]
  • People with cancer want to know about the source, authorship, design and relevance of information on the internet; [4]
  • We know from usability research that if people know what to expect before they link to a page, they make fewer mistakes and find what they want more quickly. [5]

We use short and long versions of the signposts. When you search or browse a topic heading, you get a list of “hits” using the short template. These will be ordered by relevance first, and then by quality.  You can filter these hits using other characteristics (target audience, information type, source).

The long template allows you to see a summary of the information and a full "scorecard" showing how we derived its quality rating.

We also include links to:

  • Background information about the Source
  • What the usability and reliability scores mean
  • Glossary of terms (e.g. allocation concealment, systematic review)
  • Other web pages (e.g. Clinical Evidence summaries) which reference this source

We piloted this way of displaying information with the User Group, who commented

  • An “even shorter” display would be useful
  • "Target audience" is an important aspect of information which our users would like to know.

References:

  1. Levi, MD and Conrad, FG. Usability Testing of World Wide Web Sites.  2002.  US Department of Labor:  Bureau of Labor Statistics. http://www.bls.gov/ore/htm_papers/st960150.htm
  2. Zeng X,.Parmanto B. Evaluation of web accessibility of consumer health information websites. AMIA.Annual Symposium
  3. Bailey, R. W. Koyani S. and Nall J. Usability testing of several health information Web sites.  2000. National Cancer Institute Technical Report.
  4. Eysenbach G, Koehler C. How do consumers search for and appraise health information on the World Wide Web? Qualitative study using focus groups, usability tests, and in-depth interviews. BMJ 2002;324:573-7.
  5. Nielsen J.  Ten Good Deeds in Web Design.  Alertbox, 3rd October 1999. http://www.useit.com/alertbox/991003.html