A book chapter about our work in Knowing COVID-19, published by Manchester University Press, is available for open access.
Following the roll-out of regular home and workplace testing for COVID-19 during the pandemic, an initial dramatic scale-up of centralised testing was followed by widely publicised mass-testing. To accompany the tests, different kinds of instructions explained to people how to carry out a lateral flow test (LFT). Instructions for these tests range from booklets that accompany NHS and government testing kits, to videos, animations and posters produced by people of all ages from many different backgrounds and with different experiences. During the pandemic, many people learned how to carry out a test – and became proficient and confident about carrying it out accurately.
This chapter follows our study of the design and usability of instructions for point-of-use COVID-19 lateral flow rapid tests. The chapter outlines unresolved tensions between the needs of final users and the constraints posed by needing to meet regulations within timeframes. At its heart is an argument that such tests don’t simply need better instructions, but that we need a richer, more nuanced account of what is meant by ‘good instructions’ in the first place.
Read it here
Walker, S., Bravo, J., & Edwards, A. (2024). “Testing, testing: What about the instructions?”. In Knowing COVID- 19. Manchester, England: Manchester University Press. https://doi.org/10.7765/9781526178657.00009