Category: We Heart Health Literacy

Today, we’re digging a little deeper into a topic near and dear to our ❤︎s: user testing! Diehard We ❤︎ Health Literacy fans have read our tips and musings on user testing techniques like focus groups, usability testing, and tree testing. One question we get a lot is: “Where do I actually do the testing?”

Never fear, dear readers, you have options! You can do user testing either in person or remotely. Here are pros and cons of both options.

In-person testing
You can do in-person testing any number of places, from a fancy observation lab to a public library or community center. Choose a space that’s comfortable and conducive to a friendly chat.

Pros:

• It’s easier to build rapport with people when you’re face to face.
• You can see participants’ body language and facial expressions, which can be telling — especially for sensitive topics.
• It’s easier to do certain activities, like collaging, in person.

Cons:

• Renting out a research facility can be expensive, especially if you need an observation room.
• Traveling to the testing location may be a barrier for some participants.

Remote testing
There are lots of free or inexpensive tools available to help you do user testing from anywhere. For example, you can conduct interviews over the phone or lead focus groups via video chat.

Pros:

• It’s generally less expensive than renting a facility.
• Some participants, like busy professionals, may find it logistically easier to volunteer for remote testing.
• For testing methods where you need a larger number of participants to get valid results, like card sorting, remote testing can be more convenient.
• It’s easier to get geographic diversity in your mix of participants.

Cons:

• Using technology can be a barrier for some folks, including those who are likely to struggle with health literacy.
• You’ll miss out on participants’ body language and non-verbal cues.
• There’s always the risk of a technical glitch or outage.

The bottom line: When it comes to user testing, both in-person and remote testing have pros and cons. Pick the approach that’s best for your project!

In our last social media installment, we talked about Facebook, ruler of the social media kingdom. Today we’re moving on to another key player in the social media game — Facebook’s little brother, if you will: Instagram.

Instagram is the biggest photo-sharing app. What does this mean for you, dear readers? New and exciting opportunities to share relevant and meaningful content with your audience! It’s a great way to start a conversation about health — and you know we ❤︎ that.

Let’s dive in. Here are just a few of the things you can do with Instagram:

• Model healthy behaviors. Every day, Instagram is flooded with workout tips, healthy recipes, and inspirational messages to help people live happy and healthy lives. This makes it a great place to share your health messages.
• Get real. A picture is worth a thousand words — and when it shares a story from someone directly impacted by the work you do, it’s worth even more. Instagram is the perfect place to get up close and personal so users feel connected with your brand and inspired to engage.
• Dress up your data. Grab your audience’s attention and spread awareness about the importance of your work by sharing facts in a way that’s visually appealing, like with an infographic or interactive video.
• Promote content for a wider reach. If it’s in your budget, paid promotion is a great way to make sure your target audience sees your content. Plus you can run ads on both Facebook and Instagram using Facebook’s Ad Manager platform to maximize your potential reach.

The bottom line: Use Instagram to share real, relevant, and visually engaging health information with your audience.

It’s probably not news to you that the United States has high rates of obesity, and that the public health community has identified the issue as a top priority. Obesity is something that health communicators often need to write about — and it can be a tough subject to tackle.

There’s strong evidence that overweight and obesity are correlated with a host of health conditions, including high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, depression, and arthritis. But the fact is that improving health outcomes isn’t as simple as telling people to lose weight. People with obesity have likely been told to lose weight throughout their lives, and many have already experienced cycles of weight loss and regain.

So how can you write about weight in a way that’s actionable, compassionate, and effective? We’ve shared general advice for writing about sensitive topics before, but today we’re adding a few weight-specific tips:

• Watch your words. Use person-first language and avoid stigmatizing terms like “morbidly obese.” Remember, no one is their disease. Consider writing about people who have overweight or obesity rather than people who are overweight.
• Skip the value judgments. Avoid language that places moral value on food, like talking about “good” and “bad” foods or “guilt-free” substitutions.
• Acknowledge barriers that people may face, like issues with access to healthy foods and limited opportunities for safe, affordable physical activity.
• Use images your audience can relate to. Choose realistic images with people of all sizes engaging in healthy behaviors.
• Focus on specific steps people can take — like trying new vegetables or getting more physical activity — that can improve health regardless of whether they result in weight loss.

And keep in mind, dear readers, that these tips aren’t just for consumer materials. Doctors often have their own biases about weight, and that can translate to worse health outcomes for people who have overweight or obesity — even if their health concerns aren’t related to weight at all.

By writing in a positive, non-judgmental way, health communicators can model respect and help make sure biases don’t get in the way of good health care. And we really ❤︎ that.

The bottom line: When writing about weight, there’s a lot you can do to create respectful, empowering health messages.

Here at We ❤︎ Health Literacy Headquarters, we just love an outrageous outbreak flick. The feverish stars! The frantic lab tests! The unrealistic but highly entertaining science-y dialogue!

The genre may play fast and loose with the facts, but there’s one outbreak movie from 2011 that (mostly) sticks to the realm of the possible: Contagion. When a viral pandemic infects a billion people, public health professionals come to the rescue and race to find a vaccine.

If there’s one thing we learned from watching this movie, it’s that public health messages sure are memorable when delivered by Kate Winslet and Laurence Fishburne. Here are some pandemic survival messages that Contagion gets right:

• Keep clean. Simple steps like handwashing and keeping your hands away from your mouth and eyes can be the best defense. As the movie puts it, “Stop touching your face.”
• Practice social distancing. Contagion sums up the best plan for when a virus is spreading like a wildfire: “Don’t talk to anyone, don’t touch anyone, stay away from other people.”
• Beware the wonder drug. The internet is full of too-good-to-be-true miracle cures. In real life, as in the movies, it’s best to get your medicine from the experts — not from Jude Law.
• Try not to panic. Some of the scariest scenes in Contagion have nothing to do with germs. It’s when people start to riot and fight over resources that things get really hairy.

Those steps are a good start, but what about our very favorite topic? That’s right, dear readers, clear communication is also super important when attempting to survive a pandemic. Kate Winslet’s character, who works for CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service, models these tips for communicating in a crisis:

• Stick to your key message. In an emergency, people need clear information and a bit of comfort. She keeps a cool head and reminds the public, “We’re isolating the sick and quarantining those we believe were exposed.”
• If you can’t translate a word into plain language, give examples. When her use of the word “fomites” gets blank stares, she rattles off a handy list of surfaces that spread disease: “Doorknobs, water fountains, elevator buttons, and each other.”
• Be honest about the risks. A colleague asks if his wife is crazy to make him bleach all his clothes and bathe in the garage before coming in the house. “Not really,” she replies.
• Work with your partners even when it’s difficult. It may be hard to cooperate with local officials who are more worried about bad press than they are about the rising death toll. But take a lesson from Kate: keep communicating. After all, public health is a team effort — especially in an emergency.

The bottom line: Watch Contagion to learn how to survive a pandemic — and how public health professionals can help save the day.

This year’s hurricane season has been pretty brutal so far. Parts of the United States and the Caribbean are just beginning their recovery from the devastation of Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Harvey. And that leaves many of us wondering how we can take action, either personally or professionally.

As health communicators, we have a unique responsibility in an emergency since it’s our job to make information easy for everyone to understand. This is especially important during natural disasters or other public health crises.

From sharing tips for making an emergency supply kit to spreading the word about how to clean up after a flood, it’s on us to make sure important safety messages are clear to consumers — before, during, and after an emergency.

So what do we need to keep in mind when we’re communicating in an emergency?

• Write in plain language. Use short, bulleted lists with actionable headers to communicate easy-to-understand steps for staying safe in a disaster. Check out this example from healthfinder.gov.
• Be specific in your word choices. Vague terms like “respond” and “hazardous” are never helpful, but an emergency is an especially bad time to keep people guessing about what you mean.
• Make your messages accessible to everyone. Think about using icon-driven emergency communication, which can help you reach people with limited English skills and people who have cognitive delays.
• Be honest — but avoid creating unnecessary panic. Be clear about what you know and don’t know. Put risk in context and point out what isn’t dangerous about a situation, too.
• Remember that clear visual communication matters. Infographics can be an effective strategy for communicating weather safety tips — just make sure they’re accurate and well designed.

And if you’d like to donate to help current recovery efforts, check out these guides from The New York Times:

• How to Help Hurricane Irma Victims
• Where to Donate to Harvey Victims

The bottom line: Making health messages easier for everyone to understand is always important — but it’s even more critical in an emergency.

For our latest installment on testing techniques, we’re talking about in-depth interviews, or IDIs. We ❤︎ interviewing because it’s an effective, versatile, and affordable way to get great feedback on health materials, messages, or tools.

What is an in-depth interview? It’s simply a one-on-one conversation between a moderator and a participant. Interviews usually take an hour or less — and they can be done via phone, video chat, or in person.

Some interviews are very structured and follow a formal moderator’s guide. Others are more open ended, allowing the conversation to flow naturally. Here at We ❤︎ Health Literacy Headquarters, we like to strike a nice balance between the 2 approaches.

Here are some specifics about why we ❤︎ interviews:

• They’re effective. You can get a lot of information from an hour-long chat with a participant. Unlike a focus group, where you’re talking to several participants at once, you can dive deep into a topic with a single participant. And usually, you don’t need to interview a ton of people to get valuable insights.
• They’re versatile. Interviews can be helpful at just about any stage of the product development process. For example, you can interview people to find out what they already know about a topic, or you can show folks draft materials to get their feedback.
• They’re affordable. Of all the testing techniques we recommend, interviewing is one of the most low tech — and you can do them just about anywhere.

The bottom line: Try in-depth interviews for an effective, versatile, and affordable way to get audience feedback.

As you know, dear readers, we’re full of nerd love for stuff like public health books, board games, and (duh) Hamilton. But what do we ❤ the most? Health materials designed with the target audience in mind, of course. They make us weak in the knees, put stars in our eyes… and apparently even inspire us to use clichés.

That’s why we were thrilled that the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) wanted to team up to create user-centered educational handouts about tuberculosis (TB) infection — and why we want to share those materials with you.

TB infection (technically known as latent TB infection or LTBI) is a critical health problem that’s often misunderstood. If it’s not treated, TB infection can turn into TB disease, which can be serious — and even deadly. So it’s super important that people at higher risk for TB infection (like refugees and immigrants) get tested for it and, if they’re diagnosed, take medicine to treat it.

Enter MDPH. Their materials take on the challenge of communicating clearly about TB infection while showcasing health literacy best practices. Here are some key takeaways from these stellar materials.

Focus on simple key messages. For example:

• You can have a type of TB and still feel healthy. This is called TB infection.
• It’s important to take medicine for TB infection.

Use pictures and icons. Refugees and immigrants with limited English proficiency may struggle to understand text-heavy English-language materials. The MDPH handouts include illustrations that convey key messages about TB infection.

Give people tailored information. Patients who decide to get treatment for TB infection have to follow a specific treatment and medical care process. That’s why MDPH created:

• A user-friendly TB infection treatment guide that patients can fill in with their doctors
• An information sheet that helps patients choose strategies to remember to take their TB medicine

Leverage research. The MDPH materials reflect target audiences’ input collected through focus groups and message and icon testing.

Address language needs. MDPH translated all messages into 17 different languages. And because refugees and immigrants with limited English proficiency reported a desire to learn English, MDPH created bilingual materials for each language.

The bottom line: Check out the MDPH TB infection educational handouts to see health literacy best practices in action!

We’ve talked before about how measurements are confusing — often, just giving your readers an estimate is enough. But when it comes to measuring medicine, precision is key. So it’s too bad that current packaging and dosing tools, especially for medicines meant for children, aren’t always up to the task of clear communication.

Take a teaspoon, for example. People who bake know that’s a specific unit of measurement, but to plenty of other folks it’s just the smaller spoon in their silverware drawer. And if the medicine cup in the package is marked with both teaspoons and milliliters? Well, that’s a recipe for confusion.

Wouldn’t it be better if — instead of figuring out exactly which teaspoon or cup to use for your child’s medicine — you had a tool that was clearly marked, easy to use, and made specifically for giving liquid medicine to children?

Last year, a study published in Pediatrics concluded that parents are more likely to give the correct dose of liquid medicine with an oral syringe. The authors of the study make a compelling argument for a “comprehensive pediatric labeling and dosing strategy to reduce medication errors.” Hear, hear!

But until that happens, dear readers, we suggest sharing the following when communicating about giving medicine to kids:

• Use the cup, syringe, spoon, or dropper that comes with the medicine. Don’t use a regular kitchen spoon.
• Ask the pharmacist for an oral syringe to use instead of a cup or spoon.
• If you’re using a measuring cup, mark your child’s dose on the cup with a permanent marker.
• Follow these other safe dosing tips from the FDA.

The bottom line: Communicating about giving medicines to kids? Help prevent mistakes by describing the best tools for the job.

In the last installment of our social media series, we shared tips to make your content stand out on Twitter. Today, we’re going to talk about the most popular social media platform in the United States — the one most of us are aimlessly scrolling through while on the subway, in the waiting room at the dentist, or even in bed before drifting off to sleep.

That’s right. We’re going to talk about Facebook.

Want to hear something wild? In the United States, 68% of all adults use Facebook — which works out to 8 in 10 internet users. And 76% of people on Facebook use it every single day.

What’s so neat about Facebook? Why is everyone and their mother (no, really — moms ❤︎ Facebook) using it? And how can you use it to effectively communicate about health? Have a seat, dear readers, while we share our take on why Facebook has become so universal.

This most prominent of social media platforms can help you:

• Connect with people — lots of them. With so many daily active users, Facebook lets you access a wide network of people (more than any other social media platform). This helps you get your messages out to the masses.
• Say more. With no character limit, Facebook gives you some breathing room to make sure your content is easy to understand.
• Cozy up with your audience. Facebook lets you engage directly with your audience. With comments, replies, and reactions, it’s never been easier for your audience to interact with your content — and for you to respond accordingly. Who doesn’t ❤︎ a little 2-way engagement?
• Be trendy. Facebook keeps track of the topics that people are talking about so you can get in on the hot-button conversations.
• Easily share visual content. It’s no secret that visuals help users understand and remember your content. And they keep users engaged, too! Whether you’re sharing an infographic or shooting a live interview from your phone, it’s easy to upload, view, and share visual content on Facebook.

There you have it, dear readers. With such perks, it’s no wonder why everyone is on the ’book!

The bottom line: Facebook is a great way to share content with the masses and have engaging conversations with your audience.

In health writing, we often have a lot to say. That makes sense — because as you’re well aware, dear readers, health information is complicated! But when you try to fit too much into a single sentence, you can end up with looooooong sentences that are hard to follow.

Consider this sentence:

On weekdays, appointments are offered from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at our health clinic at 8457 Main Street in Springfield, MO for minor injuries, vaccinations (shots), and prescription refills; there is no need to make an appointment in advance.

Did you get all of that? Exactly. And your readers — especially those who struggle with working memory — will probably have a hard time with it, too.

But don’t despair! Here are some of our go-to strategies for keeping lengthy sentences in check:

• Break up sentences so they’re 2 lines or less (pro tip: look out for sentences with a lot of punctuation or prepositional phrases)
• Turn passive voice into active voice (with a little help from zombies)
• Ditch the semicolons

We used those strategies to rehab our ailing example sentence:

Our health clinic offers walk-in appointments for minor injuries, vaccinations (shots), and prescription refills. We’re open on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 8457 Main Street, Springfield, MO.

Much better, right? As we were revising, we also made sure to put context first — covering the basics (that the clinic offers walk-in appointments) before moving on to the details about hours of operation and street address.

Want to go one step further? Think about whether you can ditch the sentence format entirely. Does your content lend itself to a bulleted list or step-by-step instructions? For example:

Springfield Walk-In Clinic

• Services: Vaccinations (shots), prescription refills, and treatment for minor injuries
• Location: 8457 Main Street, Springfield, MO
• Hours: Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The bottom line: Having a lot to say is no excuse for never-ending sentences. Do your readers a favor and break them up!