A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal

Investigating usability of mobile health applications in Bangladesh



Authors: Islam MN, Karim MM, Inan TT, Islam AKMN

Publisher: BMC

Publication year: 2020

Journal: BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making

Journal name in source: BMC MEDICAL INFORMATICS AND DECISION MAKING

Journal acronym: BMC MED INFORM DECIS

Article number: ARTN 19

Volume: 20

Issue: 1

Number of pages: 13

eISSN: 1472-6947

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-020-1033-3

Web address : https://bmcmedinformdecismak.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12911-020-1033-3

Self-archived copy’s web address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/46470123


Abstract
Background Lack of usability can be a major barrier for the rapid adoption of mobile services. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the usability of Mobile Health applications in Bangladesh. Method We followed a 3-stage approach in our research. First, we conducted a keyword-based application search in the popular app stores. We followed the affinity diagram approach and clustered the found applications into nine groups. Second, we randomly selected four apps from each group (36 apps in total) and conducted a heuristic evaluation. Finally, we selected the highest downloaded app from each group and conducted user studies with 30 participants. Results We found 61% usability problems are catastrophe or major in nature from heuristic inspection. The most (21%) violated heuristic is aesthetic and minimalist design. The user studies revealed low System Usability Scale (SUS) scores for those apps that had a high number of usability problems based on the heuristic evaluation. Thus, the results of heuristic evaluation and user studies complement each other. Conclusion Overall, the findings suggest that the usability of the mobile health apps in Bangladesh is not satisfactory in general and could be a potential barrier for wider adoption of mobile health services.

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Last updated on 2024-26-11 at 19:56