"User Experiences of Spanish-Speaking Latinos with the Frontier Behavioral Health Website"

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About the Author

Raquel L. Dean holds a B.A. in Psychology and a M.A. in English with an emphasis in Rhetoric and Technical Communication from Eastern Washington University. She currently works for Kalispell Regional Healthcare as a School-based Mental Health Worker and plans to obtain her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology in the near future. Her research interests lie in both psychology and technical communication, with topics including: minority mental health, child psychopathology (childhood trauma and anxiety disorders) and evaluating barriers among minorities when accessing and receiving mental health care, by facilitating usability tests to examine information design and observe the users' experience.

Contents

Introduction

Literature Review

Methodology

Test Goals and Objectives

Participants

Scenario and Test Tasks

Metrics

Results

Findings and Discussion

Conclusion

Limitations of Study

Recommendations for Future Research

References

Appendix A: Pre-Test Survey

Appendix B: Recruitment Email

Appendix C: Post-Test Interview

Conclusion

Among technical communicators, it is a well-known fact that the organization and design of content requires careful attention and detail. Redish (1997), among many technical communicators, have supported Shriver’s claim that “many documents fail because they are so ugly that no one will read them or so confusing that no one can understand them” (432). Research continues to support that users blame themselves when they encounter a problem when using a product. When Shriver asked users who or what they blame, 63% stated that they blame themselves. This is a major problem, which my study continues to support.

This is a crucial problem that must be addressed with more in-depth research, especially among organizations like mental health care facilities, who design websites that have a purpose of educating and informing. Another problem that must be addressed is the false assumption that individuals from different cultural backgrounds, like Spanish-speaking Latinos, are not influenced in some way by these differences when interacting with a website, in order to access valuable information. There is a need for technical communicators to conduct further research that will bring awareness among mental health organizations, which will push them to pay closer attention to the design process, in order to ensure their site is barrier-free for their diverse users.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate how Spanish-speaking Latinos interacted with the Frontier Behavioral Health website. Through the data collected, I am able to conclude that the majority of these users struggled to complete these tasks in an efficient and effective way, due to barriers of design that the website poses. It is important to note that the users are not at fault—in fact, the way the information was designed and presented was what posed barriers to these users. My research suggests that if these users were unable to find information efficiently, they became frustrated and gave up. Further, when individuals were unable to locate the full menu, they were unable to navigate the website fully and comfortably. This resulted in many users blaming themselves for not taking notice and one user even felt “stupid.” These findings show that the difficulty in accessibility and usability of the website was due to its design, not a reflection of users' abilities.

This is an issue because if the users blame themselves when they struggle to learn the system in a quick manner or are unable to locate information by searching for keywords in a language they are familiar with, they will leave the site due to confusion and/or frustration. Issues like these are what designers must be able to find through usability testing to begin addressing these design-related issues that are causing unsatisfying and negative user experiences.

Moreover, most of these users experienced frustration and confusion, which led to either giving up and failing to complete the task or were able to complete the task but with difficulty. This study supports how usability testing can collect data that helps improve websites, in order to deliver a positive experience to users, while delivering information in an efficient and effective way. This resonates with Nielsen's (2012) statement: “If a website is difficult to use, people leave. If the homepage fails to clearly state what a company offers and what users can do on the site, people leave. If the users get lost on the website, they leave. If a website’s information is hard to read or doesn’t answer user’s key questions, they leave” (1). This was proven to be true as I observed users become frustrated and confused while trying to navigate through the Frontier Behavioral Health website.

Usability testing is crucial when designing a website, particularly a website that has a purpose of delivering important mental health information to a diverse population of individuals. A part of Frontier Behavioral Health’s mission is to strive to “provide clinically and culturally appropriate behavioral healthcare and related services to people of all ages…” as well as make their “behavioral healthcare services timely, accessible, and barrier free…” Their website's lack of usability contradicted this message. These users reflect an underrepresented population in mental health care. Research has continued to show existing disparities among ethnic minorities when it comes to accessing and receiving mental health services. By continuing this research, technical communicators can educate mental health organizations on filling this gap, by ensuring that diverse communities are able to access information on websites with ease. In the sections that follow, I will review the limitations of this study and then end with recommendations for future research.