Educational requirements for mobile applications in nursing: applying the user-task-context matrix to identify user classes and contexts of use

Mobile applications are increasingly being deployed in healthcare and nurses are expected to use them during their education, practice and during training of patients. In this paper we describe how an approach to modelling user needs known as the user-task-context matrix has been applied to help guide in developing requirements for new mobile applications as well as for selecting applications to be used in different aspects of nursing and patient education. The approach involves first brainstorming the different classes of users of an application and then specifying possible tasks the application can be used for. In addition, different contexts of use of the application are then specified. Application of the method is described for improving understanding of user needs in both design and procurement of healthcare apps related to nursing education.