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Month: February 2025

STAC-T Usability Testing Results

STAC-T Usability Testing Results

A research team from Boise State University and Klein Buendel have published a paper in JMIR Human Factors entitled, “Usability Testing of a Bystander Bullying Intervention App (STAC-T) for Rural Middle Schools: A Mixed-Methods Study.” The paper reports on the conduct and outcomes of the usability testing of a bystander bullying intervention app for rural middle school students.

Students who are targets of bullying are at high risk for negative mental health outcomes including depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation. Implementing school-based bullying prevention programs reduces bullying. Bullying prevention programs are particularly important in rural schools, as bullying is more prevalent in rural schools compared to urban schools. Comprehensive, school-wide bullying prevention programs, however, require resources that create significant barriers to implementation for rural schools. Because technology-based programs can reduce some of these implementation barriers, the development of a technology-based program to address bullying increases access to bullying prevention for students in rural settings.

This study assessed the usability and acceptability of the STAC-T app and differences in usability between school personnel and students. Qualitative feedback related to usability, program features, and feasibility was also obtained and analyzed. A sample of 21 participants (10 school personnel and 11 students) recruited from two middle schools in rural, low-income communities in two states completed usability testing followed by a qualitative interview. We used descriptive statistics and independent sample t-tests to assess usability and program satisfaction. We used consensual qualitative research (CQR) as a framework to extract themes related to usefulness, relevance, needs, barriers, and feedback for intervention development.

Usability testing indicated the app was easy to use, acceptable, and feasible. Both school personnel and students rated the app well above the standard cutoff score for above-average usability (68.0) and both school personnel and students gave the app high user-friendliness ratings (0-7 scale, with 7 high user-friendliness). Overall ratings also suggested school personnel and students were satisfied with the program. Among school personnel, 100% said they would recommend the program to others and 10%, 50%, and 40% rated the program as 3, 4, and 5 stars, respectively. Among students, 90.9% said they would recommend the program to others and 27.3% and 72.7% rated the program as 4 stars and 5 stars, respectively. There were no statistically significant differences in ratings between school personnel and students.

Qualitative data revealed that both school personnel and students found the STAC-T app useful, relevant, and appropriate, while providing feedback related to the importance of narration of the text and the need for teacher and parent trainings to accompany the student program. Data also showed school personnel and students would find a tracker useful, in which students could report the different types of bullying they witnessed and strategies they used to intervene. Data from school personnel also indicated the program was perceived as practical and very likely to be adopted by schools, with time, cost, and accessibility being noted as potential barriers for schools in rural communities. The results demonstrate high usability and acceptability of the STAC-T app and provide support for implementing a full-scale randomized controlled trial to test the efficacy of STAC-T.

This research is funded by an STTR Phase II grant to Klein Buendel from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities at the National Institutes of Health (MD014943; Dr. Aida Midgett, Principal Investigator, Boise State University). Co-authors include Dr. Diana Doumas, Dr. Claudia Peralta, and Dr. Blaine Reilly from Boise State University; Dr. Matthew Peck from the University of Arkansas; and Ms. Mary Buller from Klein Buendel. The STAC-T modules were graphically designed and programmed by Klein Buendel’s Creative Team.

Designing Characters for a Middle School Anti-Bullying Program

Designing Characters for a Middle School Anti-Bullying Program

The use of avatars in video games and apps is creative and popular. “As both a visual representation of the gamer as well as a means of facilitating manipulation of a virtual world, an avatar can be seen as a means through which an individual is able to project their physical world self into a game world” (1). Avatars can help draw the user into the scenario (or virtual world) by making it seem more personal, relatable, and engaging.

Klein Buendel investigators, collaborators, and designers are employing human-depicted avatars in the development of STAC-T. STAC-T is a brief, web-based bystander anti-bullying intervention for middle school students. The training teaches students four distinct behavioral strategies: “Stealing the Show,” “Turning it Over,” “Accompanying Others,” and “Coaching Compassion.”   

The design of 72 characters for anti-bullying scenarios by Klein Buendel developer and illustrator, Peter Fu, was guided by a matrix to provide multiple choices for middle school students representing light, medium, and dark skin tones, races, and ethnicities. In addition, the characters depict varied hair styles in short, medium, and long lengths for student self-identification, and yet similar clothing to de-emphasize comparison, peer pressure, and stigmatization.  

© 2024 Klein Buendel

STAC-T was developed and assessed by a research team from Boise State University, the University of Arkansas, and Klein Buendel. The STAC-T project is funded by an STTR grant to Klein Buendel from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities at the National Institutes of Health (MD014943; Dr. Aida Midgett, Principal Investigator from Boise State University). Mary Buller from Klein Buendel is a Co-Investigator on the project. STAC-T programming, graphic design, and illustration were done by Klein Buendel’s Creative Team.

References

  1. Ducheneaut, N., Wen, M. H., Yee, N., & Wadley, G. (2009). Body and mind: A study of avatar personalization in three virtual worlds. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems (pp. 1151–1160). New York, NY: ACM Press. https://doi.org/10.1145/1518701.1518877