Interactive Health Communication Project

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The main menu for Diabetes and You, providing access to information about diabetes for low-literate individuals.
Diabetes and You

OVERVIEW

Millions of Americans regularly use online resources to obtain health information.  Harris polling data projected that as of March 2002, almost 110 million Americans were using the Internet to seek health information.  A project conducted around the same time by Pew Internet projected that 73 million Americans had used the Internet to find health information, with about six million Americans seeking health information on an average day. Barriers relating to health literacy have been identified.  As our population’s dependence on web-based health information increases, it is crucial that those with fundamental literacy problems do not get left behind.

Although illiteracy is a barrier to PC use and low-literacy individuals may be less likely to own and use computers, a current lack of computer use is not an insurmountable barrier to future use.  Since health information is one of the top reasons for internet use in the general population, it seems reasonable that development of accessible, useful health-related materials for low-literacy populations would be a way to begin to eliminate the “digital divide” between more affluent populations who are computer users and less affluent populations who are not.

In this project we are developing a prototype interactive, health education web site for low-literacy individuals in the areas of diabetes, called “Diabetes and You”.  The development of the initial prototype was based on previous research in the area of low-literate health education and our own design experience. We are currently testing the web site with the target audience.

SCHOLARLY MERIT

Peer Reviewed Published Abstracts:

  • Whitten, P., Mackert, M., Love, B., and Winn, B. Internet Generation by Disparities: Ensuring Low-Literate Adult Access to Online Health Information. International and Interdisciplinary Conference of the Association of Internet Researchers, 2005. Abstract in Proceedings.

Peer Reviewed Conference Papers and Posters:

  • Whitten, P., Winn, B., Nakagawa, A., Mackert, M., and Love, B. Diabetes and You: Designing a Website to Deliver Diabetes Information to Low-Literate Adults. Presented at the 2005 National Communication Association National Convention in Boston, MA, November, 2005.
  • Whitten, P., Winn, B., Nakagawa, A., Mackert, M., and Love, B. (2005) Low-Literate Adult Access to Internet Health Content: A Research Design. Presented at Michigan’s Premier Public Health Conference in Grand Rapids, MI, October, 2005.
  • Whitten, P., Mackert, M., Love, B. & Winn, B.  (2005). Internet Generation by Disparities: Ensuring Low-Literate Adult Access to Online Health Information. Presented at the Association of Internet Researchers in Chicago, October, October 5-9, 2005.
  • Whitten, P., Winn, B., Chen, H., Nakagawa, A., Mackert, M., Love, B. Diabetes and You: Designing a Website to Deliver Diabetes Information to Low-Literate Adults. Usability and Accessibility Conference, East Lansing, MI. Poster presentation on October 26, 2004.

Invited Conference Presentations:

  • Winn, B., Whitten, P. Techniques for Designing User-Friendly and Informative Websites. Presented at the Breast Cancer and the Environment Research Center Conference in East Lansing, MI, November, 8, 2005.

FUNDING

  • September 2003. Health Literacy: Electronic Communications. Pam Whitten (PI), Brian Winn (Michigan Department of Community Health), $143,000. Research/Creative Proposal. Funded Oct 1, 2003-Sept 30, 2004.
  • May 2003. Ensuring Low-Literate Adult Access to Online Health Information: Development of a Research Design. Pam Whitten (PI), $99,857. Research Proposal. Not funded.
  • December 2002. Ensuring Low Literate Adult Access to Online Health Information. Pam Whitten (PI), Brian Winn (Michigan Department of Community Health), $50,000. Research/Creative Proposal. Funded Jan 1, 2003-Sept 30, 2003.

ROLE

My role on this project was as lead designer. In this capacity, I led a team of student artists and designers on producing the “Diabetes and You” web site, including coordinating the content research, script writing, and audio and visual production. In this capacity, I worked closely with Pam Whitten, the principal investigator. I also working with Pam on the usability and accessibility testing of the prototype.

VIEW THE PROJECT

The Diabetes and You web site is available online. NOTE: Flash plug-in required.