Edison Gunawan, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia Nasriah Zakaria*, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Wahidah Husain, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia Nik Mohd Asrol Alias, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Penang, Malaysia Track: Research Presentation Topic: Usability and human factors on the web Presentation Type: Poster presentation Submission Type: Single Presentation Last modified: 2013-09-25

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Background:
Studies have shown that various forms of online cancer support exist on the internet, but there are disadvantages for patients or health consumers in attaining information and opinions from health providers through these medium. Now, with the advance of mobile technologies, cancer patients and their families could use mobile platforms to access support services, provided that usability framework such as efficiency, effectiveness, satisfaction and accessibility are addressed.

Objective:
Usability has become an established field of study in software development, including web applications. However, there are a number of recognized usability models in the literature which employ different measurements. Our literature review of the empirical work on mobile usability studies indicates that the recurring constructs for the measurement of mobile usability happen to be efficiency, effectiveness and satisfaction. We also found that the accessibility construct appears to be least used in the literature, but we are convinced that, in the case of mobile technology and online cancer support, this construct can successfully contribute to the usability framework. Therefore, we are interested in studying how cancer patients can utilize an online cancer support portal via mobile devices, by applying a suitable mobile usability framework.

Methods:
Based on this new proposed usability framework, we will conduct usability testing to evaluate user satisfaction of the online cancer support system accessed via mobile devices. After identifying the research questions, a sample of cancer patients will be selected as participants and user studies will be done to determine the important factors for usability framework. An existing online cancer portal prototype will serve as the venue for usability testing. Android-based mobile devices will be the agent used to access the portal. We will measure the usability framework of mobile-device cancer support group access using the four constructs of efficiency, effectiveness, satisfaction and accessibility. Data collection and analysis will be performed after the usability tests; instruments for data collection will include cognitive walkthrough, user observation and questionnaire.

Conclusion:
Usability is a huge field, one branch of which is usability for mobile technologies. Examining mobile technology usability in the context of cancer support alone could provide a wealth of new information for users and developers involved in health care. Initiatives that examine mobile usability are needed since it is still a young research area and proposed usability framework are still in the early stages, indicating that measures for each of the constructs are as yet immature and can be enhanced.