Usability test of an interactive dietary recording

Dietary intake methods are used to collect one’s diet habit which is essential in nutrition assessment. Food diary, food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) and 24-hour recalls are the most common dietary intake methods. However, they are not welcomed by most clients. Digital handheld devices are now readily available, and the cost of digital transmission is low. eDietary Intake Portal (the Portal) is a new developed interactive web-based system for recording dietary intake. In addition, the Portal also evaluates energy balance and nutrient balance on individual basis. Nutrition assessment could then be reported online and this serves an education tool for promoting nutrition information.. Clients could adjust their food intake gradually and learn from the assessment reports to eat in a more healthy way. Usability test was carried out to evaluate user acceptance of the Portal. A convenience sample of twenty participants was recruited. Seven male and thirteen female with mean (S.D.) age 33.43 (8.01) were asked to evaluate the Portal in 3 domains: system usability, information quality and interface quality. Average scores for the three domains ranged 2.60-3.05. The overall usability was 2.5. The Portal demonstrated a high usability, thus encouraged continuous dietary recording and facilitated nutrition education through Internet. Copyright © 2006 HEDIR.