The Veterans Hospital Administration developed an internal knowledge management computer system to provide employees with resources to support continuous improvement efforts including education, forms, and lessons learned. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the system for usability, user satisfaction, and user expectations. Hands-on task analysis, surveys, and user feedback were used to evaluate the website's organizational structure, content, and appearance. Face-to-face and virtual usability studies were performed to measure the number of clicks, time requirement, accuracy, and user satisfaction. The studies found varying logic paths were followed by the users and the completion times varied significantly based on experience and expectations. This paper presents the details on the usability studies and specific findings. Based on the findings several recommendations are also presented for developing and evaluating continuous improvement systems to improve performance and user satisfaction during development and initial release.
- Continuous improvement,
- Healthcare,
- Lean systems,
- Usability testing
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/susan-murray/47/