Evaluation of an Educational Health Website on Infections and Antibiotics in England: Mixed Methods, User-Centered Approach

BACKGROUND: e-Bug, an educational health website for teachers and students, aims to help control antibiotic resistance by educating young people about microbes, hygiene, and antibiotic resistance, reducing the incidence of infection and, therefore, the need for antibiotics. The teachers’ section of the e-Bug website has not been evaluated since it was launched in 2009, and worldwide page views have been steadily decreasing since 2013. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to apply GoodWeb, a comprehensive framework utilizing methodologies and attributes that are relevant to the digital era, to evaluate and suggest improvements to the e-Bug website. METHODS: Electronic questionnaires and face-to-face completion of task scenarios were used to assess content, ease of use, interactivity, technical adequacy, appearance, effectiveness, efficiency, and learnability of the teachers’ section of the e-Bug website. RESULTS: A total of 106 teachers evaluated the e-Bug website; 97.1% (103/106) of them reported that they would use e-Bug, and 98.1% (104/106) of them reported that they would recommend it to others. Participants thought that there was a niche for e-Bug because of the way the resources fit into the national curriculum. Suggestions for improvements included changing the menu indication by highlighting the current page or deactivating links, improving home page indication, and providing a preview of resources when hovering the mouse over hyperlinks. Additional features requested by users included a search function and access to training opportunities. CONCLUSIONS: This paper reports that the GoodWeb framework was successfully applied to evaluate the e-Bug website, and therefore, it could be used to guide future website evaluations in other fields. Results from this study will be used to appraise the current quality and inform any future changes, modifications, and additions to e-Bug.