Cognitive Walkthrough

1. Task Description:

Karen is a flight nurse on a perinatal transport team and wishes to practice her skills
interpreting x-ray images while on shift. Karen will use the web portal to navigate to and access
the x-ray interpretation practice tool and generate a neonatal chest x-ray to practice with.

2. Task Steps with Extended Cognitive Walkthrough Notes:

Task Step 1: From the education portal home page Karen will navigate to the training portion of
the website.
● 1.1. Yes, Karen is looking for x-ray interpretation practice, she easily sees the menu link
that says training and practicing a skill like x-ray interpretation falls under training for her.
● 1.2 Yes, The training link in the is menu easily visible
● 1.3. Yes, Karen is familiar with computers, navigation bars and clicking links
 ● 1.4 Yes, the web page will change bringing up a list of training options
● 1.5 Yes, Karen will understand by the options listed that they are training modules
● 1.6 Yes, Karen was able to navigate to the training section in one click

Task Step 2: From the list of training options Karen will utilize the search bar to locate the web
app.
● 2.1 Yes, Karen sees that she is presented with an alphabetized list and a search bar.
She thinks that searching for the app may be the easiest
● 2.2 Yes, the search bar is prominently displayed at the top of page
● 2.3 Yes, the search bar prompts Karen to search for training
● 2.4 Yes, Karen will type xray into the search bar and hit enter changing the list with
narrowed results
● 2.5 Yes, there will be new results displayed in the training menu
● 2.6 Yes, the search bar was a fast method of narrowing training options
Task Step 3: From the narrowed list of training options Karen will select the x-ray web app.
● 3.1 Yes, upon searching for the x-ray in the search bar Karen sees a search result with
x-ray web app in the description
● 3.2 Yes, the title of the tool she needs “x-ray web app” is displayed in the search results
● 3.3 Yes, there is a clickable link in the description for the app to launch the tool
● 3.4 Yes, clicking the “Launch App” will allow the app to start and appear on the screen
● 3.5 Yes, the launched app will populate the screen appearing over the main site
● 3.5 Probably yes, launching the app was achievable once the link view was expanded

Task Step 4: With the x-ray web app open Karen needs to generate an image to analyze.
● 4.1 Probably Yes, once the app is opened there are 2 drop down menus on the left hand
side of the screen with labels for “Patient Type” and “Film Type” Karen would probably
understand that these fields need to be filled in prior to generating an image
● 4.2 Yes, Karen will see the drop down menus for defining the patient and film types
● 4.3 Yes, The arrows on the menu are generally ubiquitous in denoting that there is a
drop down menu
● 4.4 Yes, by clicking in the dropdown menu, Karen will see the options she needs to
define the values for the image
● 4.5 Yes, The menu options are simple for both patient type and film type and are in a
language that Karen understands so that making a selection is straightforward and easy
● 4.6 Probably yes, Karen understands that when interpreting x-rays it is important to have
context. Defining the patient and what type of film she wants to look at are inline with
this.
Task Step 5: Karen has defined the type of patient and film she wants to practice with and now
she needs to generate the image.
 ● 5.1 Probably Yes, after defining the patient and the film type an image doesn’t yet
appear Karen will look for a way to do that
● 5.2 Yes, Karen will see a button below the menus she used to define the patient and film
called “Generate Image”
● 5.3 Yes, Karen will see that this is a button and from using computers she knows she will
need to click on it
● 5.4 Yes, Upon clicking on “Generate Image” an x-ray image will appear in the image
window
● 5.5 Yes, generating an image was the goal of this task and she has accomplished that
● 5.6 Probably yes, after defining the patient and film, it would probably make sense to
have an action that created the image

3. Summary of Design Issues and Redesign Priorities:

Up until step 4, Karen had no trouble navigating the website. The first instance where Karen
might feel lost, is defining the patient and film type variables before generating the image. To
address this a prompt could be put in the image window to tell Karen to define the variables
before generating the image. The second instance where Karen may have mild confusion is in
generating the image. This cognitive walkthrough was performed prior to recording the low
fidelity video. We made an improvement for the video to decrease confusion at this point by
having the “generate image” button turn green when the patient and film variable were filled in.
While Karen figured out what to do without this change, it gives Karen better visual feedback
about what to do next. It also may be noted that upon looking at the design of the list of training
items one might observe the lack of a vertical scroll bar or page count with clickable page #s,
this is a design flaw that will definitely go into the final design. Karen may after all decide to
scroll to the bottom of the list or click on the last page to get to the x-ray app instead of using the
search bar. Karen may also not like that once she has found the x-ray app she can’t launch it
without expanding it. The app should be able to be launched in the non-expanded form too.
User testing will probably make further flaws in the design more salient.