## 3 Conclusions  
On the whole, the informants regarded the portal as helpful and as facilitating daily life. They expressed a sense of its usefulness in everyday life with diabetes that was associated with things such as getting new inspiration, a good spirit and that it evoked curiosity. Patients and their parents valued being able to search for specific information when needed, which can be well understood and verified from a clinical perspective [21, 23, 25]. This, as well as earlier studies, suggests that enhanced online access to information might contribute to improvements in coping with the disease and being more in control [3, 8, 10, 12]. Thus, questions arise as to what the key elements might be that generate this sense of usefulness. Empowering processes identified among adult users of online support groups include exchanging information, encountering emotional support, finding recognition, sharing experiences, helping others, and amusement [8, 31]. Based on the present study, a totality of functions easy to use and resources for all involved seems important. Many comments indicated a perception of friendliness and/or helpfulness derived from a variety of aspects in the functions and design. Some users said it was easy to find their way around, easy to understand the site, easy to read and to understand its contents. Some mentioned they had not experienced any failures in using the site, and some were satisfied that reported errors had been corrected promptly. Many indicated positive personal experiences of finding helpful information or from an exchange of experiences. If a sense of helping and facilitating is achieved, an online resource presumably will be more likely to attract returning visitors [32]. Health care professionals and system developers should be alert to this advantage and make use of it in designing such resources as close as possible to users' needs in order to decrease attrition [33, 34]. Some online medical information services were found to be hampered by issues such as information being too general to be useful, too limited to be useful, or advice being insufficiently tailored to personal needs [14]. In addition, design issues, such as an unclear navigation structure, an unclear or unattractive layout, and the lack of a search engine or clear search options may interfere with users' needs. In our experience, the technical issues _per se_ do not seem to set the limits for quality; what does so are successful design and trustworthy contents that help and support in everyday life [34]. This study also highlights the importance to users of having questions answered when needed [35]. In a recent study of question and answer services in primary care, the ability to make contact regardless of time and place, and the possibility of formulating questions in an undisturbed manner were important to patients. Their motivation for use strongly depended on getting a quick response and that the response came from a medical specialist [13]. Patients with long-term health issues may also consider other people's experiences, provided through personal stories, question and answer forums, or chat room facilities, as particularly good sources of practical information [3, 5, 31, 34]. Regarding life with diabetes, there are many issues that cannot be solved from only a medical perspective but that demand practical experience, preferably that of a number of people. In this study, users regarded being enabled to connect to peers as advantageous, e.g., for getting answers, advice and hints, and for helping others and learning from those who were more experienced. Both young users and parents highlighted finding age-matched peers, as it was often difficult to find peers with a particular long-term disease in their physical neighborhood. Some mentioned that it was of value that the portal targets needs and perspectives of different groups, such as younger children, adolescents of different ages, young adults with diabetes, as well as parents, school professionals, health professionals and significant others.