Usability Assessment Of Wowbot: A Chatbot Platform For Healthcare Applications
Abstract
Objective: Chatbots have emerged as valuable tools in healthcare; however, existing platforms’ features are not designed to support user engagement and data collection for healthcare research. This study aimed to assess the usability issues of Wowbot, a chatbot platform developed as a plugin to the Botnoi platform, through usability testing with chatbot developers.
Material and Methods: Usability testing was conducted with five chatbot developers, who were recruited to perform six tasks using platform functions: dialogue creation, push messages, application programming interfaces (APIs) in creating photo frames and score comparisons, data export, agent-mode chat, and natural language processing (NLP) for parameter recognition. One expert user served as a control. The think-aloud method, semi-structured questionnaires, and exit interviews were used to collect data. Effectiveness was assessed using performance scores, task completion time, and incomplete task incidence, while efficiency was evaluated by comparing task completion time with the expert.
Results: Four out of five participants completed all tasks. The overall task completion rate within two attempts was 74.5%, with lower rates in photo frame creation (20%), score comparison (40%), and message pushing (40%). Participants required more time to complete tasks than the expert (188 vs. 130 minutes). Nevertheless, users reported high satisfaction (mean 4.2/5) and acknowledged the platform’s potential to enhance engagement in healthcare applications.
Conclusion: The Wowbot platform showed potential usefulness for healthcare applications, with new features that may enhance user engagement. However, task completion challenges highlight the need for further refinement, particularly in API design and documentation, to optimize user experience and platform adoption.
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