The document summarizes research into how users associate diseases with medical categories and findings from usability testing of a diseases and conditions section of a healthcare website. Key findings include that for several diseases, such as cyclic vomiting syndrome, head lice, and insomnia in children, users associated them with different categories than clinical definitions. The research recommends providing category definitions and expanding categories based on user feedback to improve findability for diseases by 88% of users.

1. Conditions & Diseases Findability
- improving findability for up to 88% users
Kaitlan Chu
Information Architect
Digital Marketing
January 2012
UX | Digital Marketing | Cleveland Clinic Confidential 1

2. Objectives
• How do users associate diseases with categories?
• Are they in line with the clinical definitions?
• E.g. by clinical definition, “Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome” belongs in the
category “Neurological Conditions”. Do users know to look there?
• Competitive Analysis shows there is no consistent
medical categories among competitors
• A mix of qualitative & quantitative data
UX | Digital Marketing | Cleveland Clinic Confidential 2

3. Methodology: Closed-card Sort
Card sorting is a technique in user experience design where subjects are guided to
generate a category tree
In a closed-card sort:
Participants are provided with
a predetermined set of
medical category
names.*
i.e. Neurological
Conditions
They then place the disease
cards to these
categories.
i.e. Pink eye
UX | Digital Marketing | Cleveland Clinic Confidential 3

4. Web interface – Diseases & Conditions
UX | Digital Marketing | Cleveland Clinic Confidential 4

5. Findings – qualitative study
• Recommend – Provide definitions to Categories:
 Rheumatology is the category least participants are familiar with (8/10).
 Followed by Endocrinology, Orthopedics, and Pulmonary
 Recommend - Adding Categories:
 Most wished-for: "Sleep Disorders"
 “Urology” (in lieu of, split between Kidney and Infectious Diseases)
 “Therapy”
 “Gastroenterology” (in lieu of, Digestive Diseases was chosen)
UX | Digital Marketing | Cleveland Clinic Confidential 5

6. Findings – qualitative study
 Diseases - difficult to place, require further attention
• Stuttering
• Most participants struggled with this card
• SID
• Split between Birth Defects and Pulmonary
• Sleep Disorders, Narcolepsy, Insomnia:
• Some stated they wished there is a "sleep disorders" category. In
lieu of, they're split among Neurological, Common Childhood
Illnesses, and Emotions & Behaviors*
 Diseases - no further study necessary
• Anemia: 100% agreement in placement of "Blood Disorders"
• Hearing Impairment: 89% agreement in Ear, Nose, Throat
* In line with quantitative results
UX | Digital Marketing | Cleveland Clinic Confidential 6

7. Study Fielding – quantitative study
• Study invitation appears on Children’s Hospital website
• Study invitation appears once per IP address
• There was no multiple entry (per email address)
• A total of 371 responses:
• 124 Children’s Hospital Web Users (Dec. 1 - 19, 2011)
• 247 CC Patient Panelists (Dec. 7 – 19, 2011)
UX | Digital Marketing | Cleveland Clinic Confidential 7

8. Participants’ Expectations Differ* from Clinically Correct Categories
Disease Category
Participant-chosen %* Clinically Correct
Croup Common Childhood Illnesses 64.9% pulmonary
Pulmonary 24.5%
Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome Digestive Disorders 78.4% Neuro
Head Lice Common Childhood Illnesses 48.4% infectious disease
Dermatology 40.9%
Infectious Diseases 10.8%
Hydrocele Birth Defects 56.5% Urology
Common Childhood Illnesses 17.4%
Insomnia in Children Common Childhood Illnesses 38.8% Neuro
*Statistically significant, Emotions & Behavior 37.6%
95% confidence level
Neurological Conditions 17.6%
Lead Poisoning Neurological Conditions 40.2% blood disorder
Blood Disorders 33.0%
Pink eye Eye Care 70.5% infectious disease
Infectious Diseases 12.8%
Common Childhood Illnesses 11.5%
Spine Tumors Cancer 42.0% Neuro
Orthopaedics 30.9%
Neurological Conditions 18.5%
Stuttering Emotions & Behavior 64.0% neuro
Ear, Nose & Throat 15.1%
Neurological Conditions 10.5%
Common Childhood Digital Marketing |9.3%
UX | Illnesses Cleveland Clinic Confidential 8

9. Summary
• Each disease should reside in the clinical home, but links (in accordions) from
its participant-chosen significant categories.*
• The category accordions should include definitions of each category
• “Lungs, Breathing, & Allergies” to define “Pulmonary”
• 60% of web users are medical professionals on Children’s Hospital site
80.00% Have you worked in the medical field?
70.00%
60.00%
50.00%
Pa
40.00%
We
30.00%
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
No – I do
physician
Yes, as a
Yes, in
Yes, as a
Yes, as a
Yes, in a
not work
some
medical
other
clinical
student
in the
nurse
non-
* See complete list UX | Digital Marketing | Cleveland Clinic Confidential 9

10. Diseases & Conditions Accordions
78.5% traffic coming from
Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome
Diseases-conditions /neurological/cyclic-vomiting-syndrome.aspx
Clinically correct
UX | Digital Marketing | Cleveland Clinic Confidential 10

11. Thank you
Please contact Kaitlan Chu if you have
any question regarding this study
chuk@ccf.org
216-448-1015
Special thanks to Sunny Lu, Zhijie Li
(Market Research)
UX | Digital Marketing | Cleveland Clinic Confidential 11

12. Participants’ Expectations Differ from Clinically Correct Categories
Disease Category
*Statistically significant.
95% confidence level Clinically-correct Participant-chosen Failure Rate
Croup Pulmonary Common Childhood Illnesses 64.9%
Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome Neurological Conditions 78.4%
Digestive Disorders
Head Lice Infectious disease Common Childhood Illnesses 89.0%
Dermatology
Hydrocele Urology Birth Defects 74.0%
Common Childhood Illnesses
Insomnia in Children Neurological Conditions Common Childhood Illnesses 76.0%
Emotions & Behavior
Lead Poisoning Blood disorder Neurological Conditions 40.2%
Pink eye Infectious disease Eye Care 82.0%
Common Childhood Illnesses
Spine Tumors Neurological Conditions Cancer 71.0%
Orthopaedics
Stuttering Neurological Conditions Emotions & Behavior 88.0%
Ear, Nose & Throat
Common Childhood Illnesses
UX | Digital Marketing | Cleveland Clinic Confidential 12