Childhood obesity is a serious public health challenge in the United States, especially among black and Latino adolescents. The pervasive use of technology and new media among this population creates a unique opportunity for a targeted health intervention through these avenues.
With this in mind, CUNY SPH doctoral students Sandra Verdaguer and Katrina F. Mateo and Associate Professor May May Leung of Hunter College led a study of black and Latino children in East Harlem on the usability of prototypes of an interactive, tablet-optimized manga-style comic tailored to promote increased intake of fruits and vegetables or water. The results were published in JMIR Formative Research.
The researchers recruited English-speaking Latino and black children ages 9 to 13 to participate in two rounds of usability testing to provide feedback and identify problems to help inform final development of the web-based tool. The study found the overall experience with the tool to be positive, especially related to storyline, sound effects, and color schemes. Feedback from the participants resulted in a navigation guide being added, clickable icons being made more visible, graphic designs improved and programming errors corrected.
“Future usability testing of web-based tools with youth should consider using dyad sessions since the interaction between participants while they both use the tool can lead to richer feedback,” says Verdaguer.
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