Mapping contexts of care

Abstract

Healthcare today increasingly involves patients using various devices to engage in different care activities and often doing so without the aid of trained healthcare professionals. This situation means patients must often use health and medical information (i.e., content) in various contexts with different dynamics. As a result, usability – or how effectively individuals can use items – becomes central to effective medical communication. Usability expectations affecting such communication dynamics are often guided by psychological processes reflecting prior healthcare experiences. Meeting these expectations involves identifying the cognitive factors influencing how individuals use materials. This conceptual paper examines how the psychological concept of ‘cognitive scripts’ can help address such situations. The paper also presents an approach for identifying the cognitive scripts affecting usability expectations and applying this information to create usable communication materials for healthcare contexts.