The User Experience of App Interface Design in Hospitals: An Empirical Study

Abstract

Amidst the pandemic's catalyzation, numerous hospitals rapidly invested in enhancing their mobile service systems. Medical appointment scheduling and outpatient information retrieval are fundamental functionalities of healthcare systems. Poor design in these basic functionalities can lead to negative user experiences, eventually resulting in user abandonment. This study employs a 2 (time selection) x 2 (information layout) factorial experimental design to investigate its impact on user performance, workload, and subjective perceptions. A between-subjects experimental design was utilized, and data were analyzed using a two-way ANOVA. Convenience sampling was used to recruit 32 participants for the experiment. The results revealed that: (1) Calendar date picker widgets are more suited for searching appointments further in the future. (2) Tabular information presentation enhances search efficiency but may require necessary learning and lead to higher cognitive load. (3) In more complex comparative tasks, there could be a transfer of information to the perceptual system, accelerating information absorption and retrieval.

Keywords: Medical appointment, mobile service systems, UI widgets, date-picker, Information layout

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1005438