The Usability of Healthcare Websites - How they were Assessed? A Systematic Literature Review on the Usability Evaluation

Background: The people demand for online services as they access hospital websites for health information and services before actually moving towards them due to the increased usage of Internet. Therefore, the health-related websites should be user-centered. Aims: This study systemically reviews the literature of usability evaluation of hospitals websites. It has been tried to highlight the preferred web usability evaluations methods applied by researchers to evaluate hospital’s websites since 2009. In addition, the vital parameters are also identified to evaluate hospital websites. Method: The standard systematic literature review method is adapted in the study and four digital libraries are searched for primary studies published during 2009 to 2014. The primary studies are thoroughly compared in accordance with the four categories described in 2012. Results: Twenty primary studies are collected and data extracted from these on the basis of research questions. It is observed that 50% of the researchers prefer questionnaire method for evaluation of hospital websites. Cross sectional method was the preference of another 15% researchers. In as many as 30% studies, researchers evaluated contents and usage of the hospital websites as basis for usability. Another 25% of the researchers evaluated on the basis of existing guidelines. 23% primary studies fell into physical presentation and information architecture categories. However, 33% research studies fell into contents category and 21% in interactivity. Conclusion: Increased usage of internet demand better online services by hospital on their websites. Researchers preferred questionnaire method and content and usage of websites was the basis for evaluation in most of the cases.