Abstract
There are more than 350,000 digital health apps in the app stores today. There is an average of around 250 digital health apps being added daily to the app stores. This indicates a public appetite to consume digital health apps, and a potential to decrease the pressure on healthcare providers by promoting digital technology. However, for this to be a viable option, digital health apps must be effective and safe to use. The quality, defined as “compliance with best practice standards”, of such apps must be of the highest standard for these to be recommended by healthcare professionals. One crucially important aspect of the quality of an app is user experience (UX). The UX of digital health apps is important to assure that the technology is being used safely and as intended. The objective of this study was to describe common practices related to the UX for digital health app design. This study analysed a sample of 2,053 digital health apps with a focus on the UX practices in the digital health app design. The data included in this study was collected using the Organisation for the Review of Care and Health Applications (ORCHA) assessment tool. ORCHA is a United Kingdom (UK) based digital health compliance company that specialises in assessing the quality of digital health apps, which includes UX. The ORCHA UX assessment consists of 15 polar questions (Yes/No) and 3 multiple selection questions. A score of 65 is considered a ‘threshold score’ and a starting point, based on answers this score will increase, decrease, or stay the same.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Design, User Experience, and Usability - 12th International Conference, DUXU 2023, Held as Part of the 25th HCI International Conference, HCII 2023, Proceedings |
| Subtitle of host publication | HCII 2023 |
| Editors | Aaron Marcus, Elizabeth Rosenzweig, Marcelo M. Soares |
| Publisher | Springer Cham |
| Pages | 335-343 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 978-3-031-35705-3 |
| ISBN (Print) | 978-3-031-35704-6 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published (in print/issue) - 2023 |
| Event | HCI International 2023 - Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark Duration: 23 Jul 2023 → 28 Jul 2023 https://2023.hci.international/ |
Publication series
| Name | Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics) |
|---|---|
| Volume | 14034 LNCS |
| ISSN (Print) | 0302-9743 |
| ISSN (Electronic) | 1611-3349 |
Conference
| Conference | HCI International 2023 |
|---|---|
| Abbreviated title | HCI 2023 |
| Country/Territory | Denmark |
| City | Copenhagen |
| Period | 23/07/23 → 28/07/23 |
| Internet address |
Bibliographical note
https://support.springer.com/en/support/solutions/articles/6000081233-electronic-offprint-sharingPaper was a result of the following accepted abstract (paper title was changed from the original abstract submission):
User Experience Practices in Digital Health App Design
There are more than 350,000 digital health apps in the app stores today. With an average of around 250 digital health apps being added daily to the app stores (Kern et al., 2021), in 2020 digital health apps saw 25% increase in downloads of different categories of health apps (ORCHA, 2020). This indicates a public appetite to consume digital health apps, and a potential to decrease the pressure on healthcare providers by promoting digital technology. However, for this to be a viable option, digital health apps must be effective and safe to use. Meaning quality, defined as “compliance with best practice standards”, of such apps must be of the highest standards for it to be recommended by health professionals. One crucially important aspect of apps’ quality is user experience (UX). UX of digital health apps is important to assure that the technology is being used safely and as intended. The objective of this study was to describe common practices related to UX for digital health app design.
This study analysed a sample of over 2000 digital health apps with focus on UX practices in digital health app design. The data included in this study was collected using the Organisation for the Review of Care and Health Applications (ORCHA) assessment tool. ORCHA is a United Kingdom (UK) based digital health compliance company that specialises in the assessment of quality of digital health apps, that includes UX. Each assessment has been carried out by at least 2 trained reviewers, where in the case of a dispute, a third reviewer would resolve it. All reviewers have undergone the same training to use the assessment tool. The assessments were carried out between 18th January 2021 and 6th January 2022. This study used descriptive statistics to analyse the findings and get an overview of common UX practices for digital health apps and find areas where improvements can be made.
The UX assessment consists of 15 Yes/No questions and 3 multiple selection questions. The score of 65 is considered a ‘threshold score’ and a starting point, based on answers this score will increase, decrease, or stay the same. The median and interquartile range of the ORCHA UX assessment results was 75.21±8.42 out of a 100.
75% of digital health apps clearly explained any medical terms used in the app. Only 3% of apps stated compliance with any of the app design standards. Among those that stated compliance with design standards, the most common was Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA (1%). The most common method to give support to users was Email (78%). 32% of digital health apps included a statement about user feedback during design/development and 57% provided some evidence of user involvement in testing. 92% of the apps provided a statement about how to report issues with the app. 98% of the apps in the sample provided support for users with hearing impairment and 99% with poor sight.
Overall, digital health apps appear to be scoring well on the ORCHA UX assessment. However, there is a place for improvement in terms of compliance with app design standards, statements of user involvement in design/development stage of app, evidence of user involvement in testing and medical terms explanations. The results of this study are significant as it uncovers the state of UX practices among digital health apps and suggests what improvements can be done to the design practices and UX assessment of digital health apps.
References
ORCHA. (2020). COVID-19: Digital Health Trends Report - ORCHA. https://orchahealth.com/covid19-digital-health-trends-report/
Kern, J., Skye, A., Krupnick, M., Pawley, S., Pedersen, A., Preciado, K., Shawl, B., & AITKEN Executive Director, M. (2021). written consent of IQVIA and the IQVIA Institute. Digital Health Trends.
Funding Information:
This research is done in partnership with ORCHA, a UK-based digital health compliance company. This work is supported by a Northern Ireland DfE CAST award / PhD scholarship. We would like to acknowledge the contribution of the many digital health app reviewers and developers who worked with ORCHA that allowed for the review of digital health apps and consented for their data to be used for the purposes of research. Without their contribution and consent this research would not have been possible.. Conflicts of Interest. This study is funded by a DfE Cast award and ORCHA. Simon Leigh and Robert Daly are employees at ORCHA.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
Keywords
- digital health
- apps
- quality assurance
- UX
- HCI
- mHealth
- Digital health
- User experience
