Journal of Technical Writing and Communication Apr 2023

Identifying Digital Rhetoric in the Telemedicine User Interface

Jessica Lynn Campbell University of Central Florida

Abstract

Telemedicine is an alternative healthcare delivery system whereby patients access digital technology to consult with a physician virtually. Patients first interact with telemedicine via a consumer-facing website. Telemedicine promises numerous benefits to patients, such as increased access to healthcare, yet poor usability of the telemedicine user interface (UI) may hinder patient acceptance and adoption of the service. The telemedicine UI moderates patients’ ability to utilize telemedicine, and therefore it must be usable, but it must also be rhetorical to motivate patients to perform certain actions. Digital rhetoric refers to UI elements that influence user actions and knowledge and is tied to usability because of these same human–computer interaction (HCI) factors. This study examined the usability of three telemedicine provider UIs and by identifying usability problems, reveals digital rhetoric that is significant to telemedicine UIs. The article concludes by offering heuristics of digital rhetoric that lead to optimal usability.

Journal
Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
Published
2023-04-01
DOI
10.1177/00472816221125184
CompPile
Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access
Closed
Topics
rhetorical criticism technical communication digital rhetoric
Export
BibTeX RIS

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (2)

  1. Johnson (2026)
    What Video Games Can Tell Us About Interactive Technical Communication
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  2. Caravella et al. (2026)
    Accessibility in virtual reality: A multimodal user experience framework for co…
    Computers and Composition

References (50) · 9 in this index

  1. Albers (2003)
    Multidimensional Audience Analysis for Dynamic Information
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  2. 10.1377/hlthaff.2016.1130
     ↗
  3. Bashshur R. L. (1995)
    10.1089/tmj.1.1995.1.19
    Telemedicine Journal and e-Health  ↗
  4. Bashshur R. L. (2014)
    10.1089/tmj.2014.9996
    Telemedicine Journal and e-Health: The Official Journal of the American Telemedicine Association  ↗
  5. 10.1146/annurev.publhealth.21.1.613
     ↗
Show all 50 →
  1. Bizzell P. (1990)
    The rhetorical tradition: Readings from classical times to the present
  2. 10.12927/hcq..17673
     ↗
  3. 10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
     ↗
  4. Brooke J. (1986)
    SUS - A quick and dirty usability scale
  5. Burke K. (1950)
    A rhetoric of motives
  6. 10.1145/3380851.3416755
     ↗
  7. 10.3233/SHTI210311
     ↗
  8. Cline S. (2018, September 18). “World’s first physician focused virtual care platform ‘Carie Health’ is makin…
  9. Ericsson K. A. (1984)
    Protocol analysis: Verbal reports as data
  10. Eyman D. (2015)
    Digital rhetoric: Theory, method, practice
  11. 10.1089/tmj.2014.0037
     ↗
  12. 10.1207/s15327051hci1303_2
     ↗
  13. 10.2196/13117
     ↗
  14. Inc E. O. P. (2021, January 19). Carie health announces joint venture with Swys Inc., combining health tech a…
  15. International Organization for Standardization (2018). Ergonomics of human-system inter…
  16. 10.1089/pop.2020.0186
     ↗
  17. Jain T. (2020)
    JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association
  18. 10.1001/jama.2019.9889
     ↗
  19. Johnson R. R. (1998)
    User-centered technology: A rhetorical theory for computers and other mundane artifacts
  20. Jones (2015)
    Information Graphics and Intuition: Heuristics as a Techne for Visualization
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  21. KADAN Institute (n.d.). KADAN Institute [Instagram profile]. Inst…
  22. 10.1136/qshc.2004.010322
     ↗
  23. Kostelnick (1996)
    Supra-Textual Design: The Visual Rhetoric of Whole Documents
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  24. Kostelnick C. (2016)
    Technical Communication
  25. Kushniruk A. W. (1997)
    Proceedings of Conference of the American Medical Informatics Association: AMIA Fall Symposium
  26. Kushniruk A., Borycki E., Kitson N., Kannry J. (2019). Development of a video coding scheme focused on socio-…
  27. Li L. (2022)
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  28. Miller C. R. (1989)
    Technical writing: Theory and practice
  29. 10.1016/B978-0-08-052029-2.50007-3
     ↗
  30. 10.1145/97243.97281
     ↗
  31. Norman D. (1988)
    The psychology of everyday things
  32. 10.5195/ijt.2016.6196
     ↗
  33. 10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2006.06.003
     ↗
  34. QSR International Ply Ltd. NVivo 12 qualitative data analysis software. Release 1.4.1. …
  35. Redish (2010)
    Technical Communication and Usability: Intertwined Strands and Mutual Influences
    IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
  36. Rosenbaum S. (1998)
    Technical Communication
  37. Rude (2009)
    Mapping the Research Questions in Technical Communication
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  38. Sauro J. (2011, February 2). Measuring usability with the System Usability Scale (SUS).…
  39. Schneider (2005)
    Usable Pedagogies: Usability, Rhetoric, and Sociocultural Pedagogy in the Techn…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  40. Schoenfeld A. J. (2016)
    JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association
  41. SLACK et al. (1993)
    The Technical Communicator as Author: Meaning, Power, Authority
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  42. Spinuzzi (2001)
    Grappling with Distributed Usability: A Cultural-Historical Examination of Docu…
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  43. 10.7551/mitpress/6875.001.0001
     ↗
  44. Amant (2017)
    The cultural context of care in international communication design: a heuristic…
    Communication Design Quarterly
  45. Yen P. Y. (2011)
    JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association
CrossRef global citation count: 4 View in citation network → Build reading path →

Related Articles

  1. Communication Design Quarterly Sep 2025
    Review of "Queer Techné: Bodies, Rhetoric, and Desire in the History of Computing by Patricia Fancher," Fancher P. (2024). Queer techné: Bodies, rhetoric, and desire in the history of computing. National Council of Teachers of English. ↗
    Thomas Gurinskas
    rhetorical criticism technical communication professional writing archival research digital rhetoric gender and writing book reviews
  2. Pedagogy Apr 2025
    Contributors ↗
    modern rhetorical theory rhetorical criticism african american rhetorics cultural rhetorics first-year composition writing pedagogy basic writing graduate education two-year college teacher development writing centers technical communication professional writing labor and working conditions digital rhetoric multimodality social media literacy studies race and writing gender and writing community literacy literary studies editorial matter
  3. Technical Communication Quarterly Oct 2024
    Editors’ Use of Comprehensive Style Guides: The Case of Singular They ↗
    Jo Mackiewicz; Shaya Kraut; Allison Durazzi
    rhetorical criticism discourse analysis first-year composition writing pedagogy graduate education teacher development writing centers technical communication professional writing digital rhetoric multilingual writers grammar and mechanics literacy studies race and writing public rhetoric editorial matter
  4. Technical Communication Quarterly Oct 2023
    Agentive assemblages in online patient spaces ↗
    Shanna Cameron
    rhetorical criticism technical communication digital rhetoric gender and writing editorial matter
  5. Technical Communication Quarterly Apr 2023
    Embodying empathy: using game design as a maker pedagogy to teach design thinking ↗
    Rebekah Shultz Colby
    rhetorical criticism writing pedagogy teacher development technical communication digital rhetoric multimodality race and writing editorial matter