Improving Interactive Systems Usability Using Formal Description Techniques: Application To Healthcare

In this paper we argue that the formal analysis of an interactive medical system can improve their usability evaluation such that potential erroneous interactions are identified and improvements can be recommended. Typically usability evaluations are carried out on the interface part of a system by human-computer interaction/ergonomic experts with or without end users. Here we suggest that formal specification of the behavior of the system supported by mathematical analysis and reasoning techniques can improve usability evaluations by proving usability properties. We present our approach highlighting that formal description techniques can support in a consistent way usability evaluation, contextual help and incident and accident analysis. This approach is presented on a wireless patient monitoring system for which adverse event (including fatalities) reports are publicly available from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Manufacturer and User Facility Device Experience (MAUDE) database.