An asthma action plan created by physician, educator and patient online collaboration with usability and visual design optimization.

Background: Asthma action plans (AAPs), which decrease hospitalizations and improve symptom control, are recommended in guidelines, but are seldom delivered to patients. Existing AAPs have been developed by experts, without the inclusion of all stakeholders (such as patients with asthma) and without specifically addressing usability and visual design.

Objective: Our objective was to develop a more usable AAP by involving all stakeholders and considering design preferences.

WikiBuild: a new online collaboration process for multistakeholder tool development and consensus building.

Background: Production of media such as patient education tools requires methods that can integrate multiple stakeholder perspectives. Existing consensus techniques are poorly suited to design of visual media, can be expensive and logistically demanding, and are subject to caveats arising from group dynamics such as participant hierarchies.

Objective: Our objective was to develop a method that enables multistakeholder tool building while averting these difficulties.