Usability Evaluation of Two National COVID-19 Registration Systems: A Heuristic Evaluation

Abstract

Background: Data related to COVID-19 are increasing daily; the data analysis of the COVID-19 registry can provide critical information to policymakers and researchers for planning. The poor user interface design of these systems leads to problems in interacting with them. The present study aimed to evaluate the usability of two national systems to record daily data related to COVID-19 patients throughout hospitals in Iran called the "Medical Care Monitoring Center" (MCMC) and the "Electronic System for Syndromic Surveillance of Infectious Diseases" (ISSS). Methods: The interface of the aforementioned systems was assessed using a heuristic evaluation (HE) method in this descriptive, cross-sectional study. Using Nielsen’s 10 usability principles, three trained evaluators identified problems and determined each system’s severity rates independently. Results: This evaluation identified 164 usability problems, including 59 issues in the "ISSS" system and 105 violations in the "MCMC" system. The highest number of ISSS system problems was related to "Consistency and standard" and "Flexibility and efficiency of use". The average severity of problems in this system varied from 2 concerning "Consistency and standards", "Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors", and "Help and documentation" to 3.6 concerning "Visibility of system status". The highest number of MCMC system problems was associated with "Help and documentation" and "Consistency and standards". The average severity of problems in this system varied from 2 to 3.28 regarding "Help and documentation" and "Recognition rather than recall", respectively. Conclusion: Errors may be decreased, data quality can be raised, and interactions can be enhanced by taking into account standards and guidelines for user interface design, such as the HE utilized in this work.