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The operational management system within the Saga Homecare information system is getting a facelift, making it more visually aligned with the rest of the Mediconsult Saga® client and patient information system, while its functionalities are being developed to better serve the user.
The home care operational management system is used for planning, implementing, and monitoring home care services. It helps allocate visits for caregivers, and the map function shows the location, the employee's daily route, mode of travel, and travel time. The system also compiles necessary data for home care statistics, billing, and reporting. Our developed Saga Homecare information system will be implemented in the coming years in the welbeing counties of Northern Ostrobothnia and Kainuu. Currently, the system is in use in the Helsinki and Uusimaa hospital district, integrated with Apotti. We always aim to involve end-users in the development of our systems. This time, the chosen usability research method was user interviews, with eight users from the Northern Ostrobothnia welbeing county and the city of Kangasala participating.
Prototype for user evaluation
By presenting the prototype we built, we were able to hear the interviewees' opinions on the system's appearance and functionalities: where functions are located, what opens from where, and whether the system's functions form a clear entity. The goal of the interviews was to get feedback on how the system is perceived as a whole. We wanted to know if the system seems clear and if it raises questions like "Why is this like this?" or "Could this be different?". Feedback from usability testing is usually of this type, but due to the chosen research method, participants' questions were not so much about individual functionalities, but more about how the system works as a whole and what kind of operational logics are designed into it. We received the following feedback on functionalities:
- The event panel looks good.
- It looks good when transition times are clearly visible. Necessary information is visible in events.
- The display of working hours is distinct enough.
Participants were interested in how to assign skills (e.g., blood sampling) or restrictions (e.g., pet allergies) to a specific caregiver. This background information directly affects which employee can visit which client. Testers were eager and interested in how different aspects were considered.
The questions asked during the sessions repeated very similar themes, indicating their importance and desirability. The questions also helped us understand how users are accustomed to operating in other systems.
"A fundamentally comprehensible system"
We would have gladly received more feedback on the user interface, but it was positive that none of the participants found the prototype confusing or non-functional. Some of the interviewed users had used Saga Homecare before, which influenced their experiences. For them, even the renewed system likely felt more familiar. Although the system was stylistically different from what some users were accustomed to, it was considered fundamentally comprehensible, and users believed they would learn to use the system. Transitioning to a new system always involves a learning curve, no matter how intuitive the system is.
Some of the feedback received concerned aspects we had already planned for further development but had not yet drawn into the prototype. The prototype presented in the interviews did not include all the features we had defined, or some functions might have been presented more narrowly. However, this did not prevent us from gathering participants' opinions and comments on how they would like a certain aspect to function in the system.
The presentation of visit information and its detailed examination were considered clear. Additionally, users liked the way optimization was presented, even though it was different from what they might be used to.
In usability testing, attention is usually drawn to things like icons, buttons, and texts, as well as their placement. These are easy to change, but aspects affecting operational logic require more redesign and evaluation of alternative methods. It is also necessary to consider whether the system can adapt to desired changes and how critical the raised observations are for the system's usability. If a change is deemed critical but the system cannot adapt to the proposed method, alternative solutions must be considered.
