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Comment by Peter Jones on February 8, 2011 at 10:00am

A few quick comments, but not professorial! ;) The special focus websites are very well conceived and have a clear cut purpose. If they were discovered in searches, they would attract the attention of people facing those health questions.

Thinking about the concepts from a user sensemaking perspective. How will people really locate these kinds of resources in the near future? Websites get lost in the search results. The Healthy Fish is a good concept that would probably make sense as an embedded application that could reach more decision points. The nicely presented columns of Good-Green | Maybe-Yellow - Avoid-Red could be more clearly delineated in visual design (contrast and scannability) But what would be really valuable is to take these core resources and create "info mobiles." If the fish selection aid could float across sites, or be embedded in HuffPost or a Mothering site, then you'd reach thousands.

The Narcolepsy project I'm not able to review right now as a paper, as that would compel my analysis just to get started. However, if I get stuck for a case study that would illustrate the design differences between various health websites, this one might be a good case. You could also encourage the students to join the site and add their work as blog posts. I guess I could do the same with my OCAD grad students come to think of it!

Comment by Lisa Neal Gualtieri on February 7, 2011 at 8:27am

I appreciate the feedback - and it would be great if you could comment on one or both papers since the students will appreciate your feedback! Good luck with your writing.

Comment by Peter Jones on January 28, 2011 at 7:13pm

Thanks for the post Lisa - I welcome the challenge, but I might be too warmed up from conducting an Experience Critique for a scientific website. And the critical points are flying fast & furious for that critique. I like what I see of the student projects, but more so, I appreicate the ground you are covering between the scholarly informatics analysis and addressing real world health issues.  As I look at your papers I'm seeing some great work around the consumer health seeking experience, which is one of the areas I have not personally worked in, and for which I am always looking for good references for the "consumer Hx" chapters. I may quote and attribute - and if you have a case study to share, there might be room for one more. (I am trying to finish soon though!)