User-centred design proposal for clinical microbiology LIS - Usability study of Swedish laboratory information system

Abstract

Multiple hospitals around Sweden are currently taking steps to improve the digital systems used within their clinical laboratories. The laboratory information system is an important program which in many cases be decades old. When there is no suitable application purchasable on the market, the hospitals have to develop it themselves. The systems are required to be very efficient and the functionality and design have to accommodate this demand. The thesis examines how the user experience can be improved to amplify the effectiveness of a LIS. By performing user-centered design, the results are expected to be directly interlinked with the user’s needs, and the design well-founded. A threepronged user study series was conducted to reveal general guidelines to use when developing a user interface for a LIS. The series consisted of a semi-structured interview, a workshop, and an evaluation. Based on the study series, seven fundamental guidelines were derived and later applied to create an interactive design prototype. The guidelines are derived from a very specific set of users within a hospital in Sweden, where a large part of the user base has multiple years of experience using a LIS. Thus, the findings are tailored to this scenario, but the guidelines are presented as a useful starting point when analyzing the usability of another LIS. The guidelines are also expected to be helpful when creating a LIS where no digital environment exists.