SERCEA PROJECT - Clinical Trial System

Technical Observations

Subject System

URL: Gateway - SERCEA

Login Page

Overview: The page is well structure with 2 columns with 2 dominant colors making it neat and simple for the user.

Proposed Areas for Improvement

First Column (Left Section) : 

   

1. 1. Stakeholders Logos: Should have title (text appearing on hovering upon the logo - full name or the organization) and alt text (text that appears incase the image fails to load, typically a meaningful name like the organizations name). This is for accessibility.
   2. Forms:
      1. Login Form
         • UX: add autocomplete property on both the form and fields. This is to ensure no auto population of credentials and speaks to security and privacy controls.
         • UX: Use of hints / Placeholders : Despite the labels use placeholders to easily direct the user what data to input.
      2. Register User /  User Onboarding: 
         
         1. same UX controls as login form
         2. UX: Add a password confirmation field.
         3. Non-Functional: Ensure users activate their accounts first before accessing the system. This can be done via a link sent to the onboarding e-mail accounts, upon clicking the link , the system can validate ownership of their e-mail account and activate their accounts. This filters a lot of spam accounts.
         4. Proper validation / error messages should be displayed accordingly.

Second Column (Right Section)

Pictorial: You have Prev and Next buttons, this means you should have a carousel / image slider. Therefore add more images and activate those navigation buttons.

Header Component

Existence of Inactive Links

The system has several inactive links on the clinical trials page that a user lands after successful login, they include:

1. Notification Icon (Bell icon on the header - top right navigation bar)
2. Profile link from the user dropdown - top right on the navigation bar
3. Settings link from the user dropdown top left on the navigation bar

Recommendations / Suggestions

Profile Link: should have a page that allows a researcher to input their bio sketch - rich text format.

Settings Link: Should have a page with facilities to include setup of data options like randomization methods.

Footer Component

This was non-existent at the time of this evaluation: A footer section shows completeness of a web page and is useful in scenarios where:

1. You need to show the application time lines : when the app went into production up until current time.
2. You wish to display copyright data.
3. You need to show compliance information like: 
   1. Terms of use.
   2. Privacy notices
4. Any other critical non-system function information.

Clinical Trials : List / Index Page

Overview: Well done.

Concern: How can a user view other researchers trials  -  Assuming a scientist has given consent for general access to their work?

If that is the case then there should be a toggle / Switch  for : own clinical trials entries and that of other scientist's clinical trials - filtered by consent for access.

Create Clinical Trial Page

Overview: Long form, properly structured in accordions / collapsible cards.

Section 1; Clinical Trial

Concern : Could not add data on the first section / accordion until I navigated to the list and back to the clinical trials form.

UX: No meaningful validation error messages are given

Security:

• Access token and user name are visible on the browser developer console. This is a significant security flaw.
• The access token seems to expire and refresh without login out the user. Very unsecure API design.

Verdict: This renders the system very difficult to use.

Error given: Unable to validate request data.

 

Section 2: Study Purpose and Design

 

UX: Multiple sentence text inputs such as :

• Study objective
• Study Objective

should be preferably be input via text area and where possible WYSIWYG rich text editors.

 

Study Population

 

Concerns:

1. Lack of meaningful validation errors
2. Are there optional fields? e.g what if a researcher does not have a Final participant number yet.
3. Rich text editors for descriptive text

Study Timeline & Location

 

Concerns:

1. Typo: Form Legend - Study Timeline "&" Location.
2. UX: Long drop downs e.g country list should be searchable. 
3. Regions: should correlate to  country e.g Cities or states of a country to avoid unclean data, therefore consider dependant dropdowns such that the regions are relevant to the chosen country.
4. Date validation: where you have timelines , a start date and duration , should validate the end date, or both dates should validate the duration, you cannot have the user enter all those 3 variables ,this again is for data hygiene.

 

Contact Investigator

Concerns:

1. UX: Long drop downs e.g country list should be searchable. 
2. Validation: Country - City dependency.
3. UX: Meaning full field level validations not a general error: "Failed to add contact investigator"
4. Button visibility as per proper state, e.g save should appear when the form seems valid.
5. failed to save the form.
6. UX: Make use of inline editing and input on a table rather than a form for such related multiple entity data. It's more neater and effortless for the user.

 

 

Ethical Regulatory Approval

 

Concerns: 

1. The concerned Ethical Review Board should get a notification and a link to this record. this could be for awareness or validation or courtesy.
2. Validation : Save button continues to save when pressed subsequent times even without an attachment.

 

Funding Sponsorship

Concerns:

1. Validation : Save button continues to save when pressed subsequent times.
2. UX: Make Long dropdowns searchable.

 

Study Description

Concerns:

1. Validation : Save button continues to save when pressed subsequent times.

Study Interventions and Outcome

 Concerns:

1. Validation : Save button continues to save when pressed subsequent times.