P26 - Evaluating Usability of Health-Related Websites by Filipino-American Adults and Nursing Informatics Experts

Filipino-Americans are an understudied minority group with high prevalence and mortality from chronic conditions, such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Facing barriers to care and lack of culturally appropriate health resources, they frequently use the internet to obtain health information. It is unknown whether they perceive health-related websites to be useful or easy to use because there are no published usability studies involving this population. Using the technology acceptance model as a theoretical framework, this study investigated the difference between website design ratings by experts and the perceptions of Filipino-American users to determine if usability guidelines influenced the perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of health-related websites. A comprehensive usability assessment was obtained by usability experts through heuristic evaluation and a sample of the Filipino-American population through an online survey. By conducting research on a Filipino-American sample, this study adds to the scarce body of Filipino-American research and is a key step towards improving their online health resources. The study aligned with the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion’s Healthy People 2020 Health Communication/Health Information Technology (HC/HIT) 8.2 objective to increase the proportion of quality, health-related websites that follow established usability principles. This study highlighted the discrepancy between the experts’ and participants’ views of website usability. The findings should serve as an impetus for examining and refreshing usability guidelines with the involvement of communities of interest.