Development of and Experiences With an Informational Website on Early Labor: Qualitative User Involvement Study

Enid Leren Myhre; Lisa Garnweidner-Holme; Bente Dahl; Marte Myhre Reigstad; Mirjam Lukasse

doi:10.2196/28698

Development of and Experiences With an Informational Website on Early Labor: Qualitative User Involvement Study

JMIR Form Res. 2021 Sep 27;5(9):e28698. doi: 10.2196/28698.

Authors

Enid Leren Myhre¹, Lisa Garnweidner-Holme², Bente Dahl¹, Marte Myhre Reigstad³, Mirjam Lukasse¹

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Women's, Family and Child Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of South-Eastern Norway, Kongsberg, Norway.
² Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Nursing and Health Promotion, Oslo Metropolitan University, Oslo, Norway.
³ Norwegian Research Centre for Women's Health, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway.

PMID: 34569940
PMCID: PMC8506263
DOI: 10.2196/28698

Abstract

Background: The period of regular contractions before 4 cm of cervical dilatation is often referred to as the latent phase or early labor. Women find it challenging to prepare for and cope with this phase of labor, and easily accessed web-based information from reliable sources may be useful in this preparation.

Objective: The aim of this study is to describe the development of a Norwegian website, Latens.no, for people seeking information on early labor and to explore users' experiences with the website to increase its user-friendliness.

Methods: We developed a website using an iterative process involving a multidisciplinary research team, health personnel, users, a graphic designer, and an expert in software development. We explored the website's user-friendliness using semistructured individual interviews and the think-aloud method. All interviews were audio recorded and transcribed. We then analyzed the participants' feedback on the website.

Results: Participants included women who had recently given birth to their first baby (n=2), women who were pregnant with their first baby (n=4), and their partners (n=2). Results from participants' experiences completing tasks included positive feedback related to the content of Latens.no, positive feedback related to the website's design, and suggestions for improvement. Participants wanted to find information on early labor on the internet. Moreover, they found the information on the website relevant, trustworthy, and easy to read, and the design was attractive and easy to use. Overall, the participants performed the tasks easily, with few clicks and minimal effort.

Conclusions: The think-aloud method, while performing tasks, allowed for detailed feedback. The participants confirmed the user-friendliness of the website but at the same time provided information enabling improvement. We expect that changes made based on this user-centered design study will further increase the usability and acceptability of Latens.no.

Keywords: eHealth; early labor; labor; latent phase; pregnancy; think aloud; usability; user satisfaction; user-friendliness; website.

©Enid Leren Myhre, Lisa Garnweidner-Holme, Bente Dahl, Marte Myhre Reigstad, Mirjam Lukasse. Originally published in JMIR Formative Research (https://formative.jmir.org), 27.09.2021.