Overview

This section describes the indicators that measure the usefulness of various KM outputs. “Usefulness” relates to how practical, applicable, and beneficial a KM output is for users. The usefulness of an output is determined by quality metrics such as the users’ perception of and satisfaction with that output. Usefulness indicators help gauge the user’s specific and overall experiences with the KM output. This type of measurement can help with designing KM outputs that respond to the interests of users and meet their expectations. Outputs that are “useful” facilitate the use of information and knowledge, thus improving the application of content to professional practice, particularly decision making, and policy.Usefulness is determined by two factors:

• User satisfaction measures how well, in the opinions of users, a KM output provides needed information and knowledge. The indicators in this section can measure both general and specific user experience. They also help give a sense of the intended users’ perceptions and relevance of content as well as their preferences for the presentation and format of the output.
• Quality relates to the user’s perception of the quality characteristics of KM outputs in terms of accuracy, authority, objectivity, currency, and coverage (Beck, 2009). Good information quality in KM products is defined as “consistently meeting knowledge worker and end-user expectations” in terms of both content and format (English, 1999). This section also includes external quality measurements specific to web analytics and scientific publications.

Subcategories

Indicators that measure outputs (usefulness) are grouped into two subcategories: 1) user satisfaction and 2) quality. Altogether, 10 indicators are mapped to these subcategories (indicators 24 to 33).Subcategory (Area)DescriptionUser satisfactionReflects the user’s evaluation of relevance, not only of content, but also of presentation and delivery mechanism.QualityRefers to whether KM activities are accurate, authoritative, objective, current, and covering the intended scope (Beck, 2009).