Development and Usability Testing of a Web-Based Research Guide for Health Solutions Grant Writing

Presentation Time: 04:15 PM - 04:30 PM

Abstract Keywords: Education and Training, Usability, Human-computer Interaction
Primary Track: Applications
Programmatic Theme: Academic Informatics / LIEAF

Young scientists, including postdocs and assistant professors, must have access to grant writing information and resources for training and proposal development. To assist faculty in developing health solutions, we developed a web-based research guide that provides centralized access to curated tools throughout the research funding process- finding funding, preparing proposals, managing awards, etc.
We applied usability principles from consumer informatics to enhance the effectiveness of the research grant repository. The lessons learned are generalizable to other academic institutions that aim to improve their faculty’s grantsmanship.
Six faculty completed nine tasks to explore ten sections of the guide during the usability study. Participants found the research guide highly usable, reflected by an excellent (89.2) System Usability Scale (SUS) Score. Suggestions for improvement included enhancing navigation for better usability and streamlining content organization, and education on the institution’s specific award management processes (e.g., how to buy equipment). Most liked features included a chronological approach to organizing information, samples from successfully awarded grants from faculty with similar expertise, pre-populated templates maintained by the institution, and mechanisms for faculty to provide ongoing feedback.

Speaker(s):
Adela Grando, PhD
Arizona State University

Author(s):
Maheswari Eluru; Aishwarya Potturu, Bachelors - Arizona State University; Matthew Scotch, PhD, MPH - Arizona State University; Lisa Allen, M.Ed. - Arizona State University; Nancy Osgood, MBA - Arizona State University; Ana Tello, JD - Arizona State University; Adela Grando, PhD - Arizona State University;