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A formative user-based usability study for an advanced cognitive rehabilitation system

We present a formative usability study we conducted in order to evaluate the interface of MS-rehab, an advanced tablet-based web application for cognitive rehabilitation in multiple sclerosis. In our study, we adopted eGLU, a user-centered protocol including simplified usability tests, which is specific for finding critical issues in websites and web applications. Although the user interface had been carefully internally tested prior to our study, by involving just few users we were able to individuate a significant number of critical usability issues we had not previously identified. This indicates that formative user--based usability studies are an essential prerequisite for the realization of cognitive rehabilitation tools and, more in general, of interactive software medical devices, where it is fundamental that the clinical effectiveness of the system is not hampered by hidden usability issues.