Portfolio Assignment 2

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The full document can be downloaded here.

Requirements Gathering

User:

• Level of education has to be 5th grade or above
• Age ranges from 10 years onwards
• Main languages are limited to English, Spanish, French
• Can use a computer for web surfing and online purchases
• Has to be interested and willing to participate in this new system of health care
• There should be very minimal system requirements for the program to run properly.

Domain: (Areas where we need to gain exposure)

• Knowing the different databases that could be available for our system
• Procedures in the ER, ICU, out patient, and recovery
• Steps for and information needed for acquiring a prescriptions
• Doctors, nurses, PCPs schedules and availability for online interaction with patients
• Preparation steps for different medical procedures

Task:

• Online communication between user and doctor
• Symptoms diagnosis
• Making appointments with PCP and doctors
• Ordering and delivery of prescriptions
• Directions to the nearest doctors, pharmacies, and hospitals
• 911 capability
• Possibly remote surgeries

Environment:

• Suitable for home use – Since the main use will be personal, the user should feel comfortable performing any of the tasks inside of their home.
• Illumination should account for any possible lighting condition
• ER usable – The other end of the interface maybe used by doctors, nurses, or hospital staff within the hospital. The hospital is normally usually noisy and hectic so the interface should clear and precise to avoid any confusion

Emergency related tasks will have to be very easy to use and very fast and these will have high priority.

Symptom diagnosis and recommendations for prescriptions will probably be somewhat of lengthy task as it will involve the back and forth transfer of information. The ability to multitask is very important and it will be accounted for in the system.

Sites such as WebMD - http://www.webmd.com/default.htm , and Medline Plus - http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/easytoread/all_easytoread.html provide information on different symptoms, what causes them, and the recommended remedies.

Other sites:

Health finder - http://www.healthfinder.gov/
Merck Manual - http://www.merck.com/mmpe/index.html

Medem Medical Library - http://www.medem.com/medlb/medlib_entry.cfm

Mayo Clinic - http://www.mayoclinic.com/

In Class Group Discussion                                                                                 

Alphonce Tumuna – Hospital
Jessica Clark – Travel Agency
Michael Zhang – Post Office

Important user characteristics

Age – different age groups have different perceptions of how things should work and expectations

Handicap – the interface has to account for any physical disability

Language – the hospital has and serves people of many different backgrounds and accounting for the language differences will be very important for our task

IT Literacy – knowledge of using a computer will be most beneficial for the user as it will make it easier to utilize our interface. Although the actual design with attempt to follow the principle of affordance.

Motivation – whether the person is willing to be involved with this new technology will play a major role on whether or not the level of experience is good for many tasks. Some tasks though the user will be using our program out of desperation. This will play a virtal role in final design since the interface will need to be precise and straightforward.

Needs – people might use our interface for various reasons; prescriptions, appointments, symptom diagnosis, etc. We have to account for all possible situations.

Fear of technology – there are people who will not trust or believe in our interface and its many applications, making it important to make our system and interface reassuring as possible.

Gender – this affects the tests that could be applied to the user in the comfort of their home

Education level – this would determine the overall setup of our interface. Ideally we would like our interface to usable by people from all education levels. As mentioned above, a 5th grade education level should be the standard.

Previous Experience – very important as the interface would most like be geared towards patients and professionals who have an idea or know what they are doing.

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