April 29 - Monday at Mulago

Today was Day 1 of our usability study! We had an early start, quick breakfast, and headed to the Mulago Hospital pathology lab with our equipment and documents. Dr. Kalungi and Matovu helped set a room in the pathology department aside for us and called our first participants in. These were three cytotechnologists who brought a great energy to start the morning. We started with a didactic as planned but realized that we needed more copies of documents than what we had. Dan was able to quickly get them printed from a nearby print shop and we were back on track. After getting our participants enrolled, our team of three (Dan, Kim Hwang, and I) each rotated on filling the different roles for the study: pre- and post- survey administration, hands-on equipment and app overview, and observation entry. We noted a few changes to make to our workflow as a team to make the consecutive study days run smoothly.

By the end of the day, we were able to have 6 participants use our app with the intended workflow and they provided a lot of useful feedback. We also ended the day with a good understanding of how the three of us could make the following days of the usability study more efficient.

The team after day 1

We had skipped lunch so at around 6PM when we left the hospital, we headed straight to an Indian tiffin spot (my favorite!) for an evening meal. It was Dan's first time eating dosa!

Looking forward to more testing tomorrow!