Usability testing for therapist module on virtual environment for poststroke motor rehabilitation of upper limb
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32870/recibe.v12i1.252Keywords:
Stroke, Thinking aloud, Usability testing, Virtual reality.Abstract
This article describes the implementation of Thinking Aloud protocol in its Active Intervention modality as an evaluation phase of a virtual reality environment. It supports the therapist during rehabilitation sessions with patients who have lost mobility in the upper limb due to a stroke. This strategy is low cost, and the qualitative results allow us to understand the quality of the software in the first instance. The test was aimed at therapists specializing in physical therapy, who serve as the main users of the virtual environment and who will configure the therapies that their future patients will carry out. As a result of the test, it was possible to collect 19 usability problems classified by gravity and correction priority, considered two of High Priority, five of Medium Priority and twelve of Low Priority, the latter oriented to small modifications at the interface level. In this way, a first approach to the end user's expectations regarding the evaluated virtual environment was achieved, in order to obtain a new iteration of software development that allows reducing or canceling problems, which suggests, on the one hand, the mechanisms for immediate refinement of the software, and on the other, a background that allows the evaluation procedure to be adapted to other software intended for rehabilitation.References
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