The Time aspect in Usability: Case of DHIS2 Program Rule Variable Generator

Time efficiency and design consistency are key measures in evaluating software usability. Literature suggests that usability influences software acceptance. This paper focuses on efforts to improve efficiency and consistency of a configurable software platform that provides functionality for users to define software interface skip-logic. The study was conducted using the District Information Software version 2 (DHIS2), a configurable software platform. In DHIS2, skip-logic is implemented using program rule variables and program rule expressions. In particular, the paper focuses on the development of a custom app for defining program variables, in place of an inbuilt DHIS2 app, whose design was found to be inconsistent with other DHIS2 apps and less time efficient. The inbuilt DHIS2 app restricts users to the creation of one program rule variable at a time. The custom app was evaluated by 11 users to check its efficiency. Users were able to batch-create program rule variables, when using the custom app, reducing development time. An average of 9 minutes 24 seconds was taken to create five program rules variables using the DHIS2 inbuilt app. The same task took an average of 2 minutes and 3 seconds when using our custom app.