The identification, treatment and management of pressure ulcers and moisture lesions present a huge challenge to health and social care, and the individuals who suffer from them. Despite some progress in reducing the incidence of pressure ulcers in recent years, many Scottish support workers giving direct care are not always aware of skin changes until the ulcers have become established. With many pressure ulcers being preventable, raising awareness of the causes and indicators of pressure ulcers amongst care and support workers is critical to enable early detection and improve the quality of life and outcomes for individuals being supported.
This chapter presents an innovative collaboration between the Glasgow School of Art’s School of Simulation and Visualisation and the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) to develop a mobile application which aims to address this learning need. A consultation with 7 individuals with relevant expertise helped to define the specific features, functions and content topics the application needed to include. The application was storyboarded and developed using Unity, building upon the requirements analysis outcomes which provided a unified description and depiction of the application’s functionalities.
The application, branded as “Learning About Skin Breakdown”, is compatible with iOS and Android mobile platforms. It adopts a simple, depurated and user-friendly design to provide relevant interactive information about risk factors, signs and symptoms, as well as skin breakdown management techniques. Using Augmented Reality, the application can be used as a learning tool to inform care and support workers about skin breakdown using both visual and text-based content overlaid onto the real world.
The application was tested in a single session with a cohort of 19 individuals with experience in care and/or care management. User testing aimed to explore several aspects of the application, including (1) the effectiveness to support knowledge development and acquisition; (2) the sense of engagement and motivation experienced by users; (3) the usability and user experience; and (4) the generated cognitive load. In order to provide a robust user evaluation and reliable outcomes, standardised and/or well-established methods of measurement were selected.
User testing outcomes reported a significant increase in users’ knowledge about skin ulcers after using the application, suggesting a high short-term learning effect. The different usability and motivation constructs were unanimously rated high, suggesting strong usefulness, ease of use, ease of learning, confidence, relevance of content and user’s satisfaction. Finally, low cognitive load measures outcomes suggested the application content and instructional design did not undermine the learning process.