Abstract
The Hospital for Sick Children developed a web based referral process to replace their current paper based referral system for the acceptance and management of referrals from community pediatricians and other health care professionals. Partnered usability testing, involving an external usability consultant and an internal project manager (i.e., a nurse at the hospital), familiar with the referral process as well as the prototype functionality was used to assess the prototype before completing the final development stage. The partnered usability sessions were a unique way to deal with the usability test of a very complex application that must accommodate multiple user groups as well as multiple and interlinked workflows. This approach was very successful in identifying ways in which the application did not capture some of the more fine grained details of work flow. The detection of some of the subtleties related to workflow would not have been possible without the participation of the internal project manager who was familiar with the minutia of the paper referral process in addition to the detailed functions of the prototype and its “missing” functionality. Details of the roles and steps involved in partnered usability testing are discussed as well as keys to successful implementation.
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