Exploring how can usability taxonomy inform download popularity of socially focused wellness smartphone applications.

摘要

The research explored the way in which usability taxonomy can informuddownload popularity of socially focused wellness smartphone applications, in particularudweight loss and diet apps. The aim was to investigate the Australian smartphone storesud(iTunes and Google Play) in order to examine the efficacy of most popular wellnessudapps.udReviewing the literature revealed that the rates of overweight and obesity haveudbeen increasing in Australia in the last two decades (ABS 2013; and National Healthudand Medical Research Council 2014). One of the most important strategies to manageudthis issue is self-monitoring. Some of the traditional widely used self-monitoringudtechniques include food diaries and regular self-weighing (Yeager et al. 2014).udNowadays, wellness smartphone applications play a significant role in monitoring andudmanaging individuals’ weights (Connelly 2006). According to Choi and Stvilia (2014),udalthough smartphone applications markets (iTunes, and Google Play) list thousands ofudhealth smartphone applications, it is not always clear whether those applications areudsupported in credible sources. Likewise, Azar et al. (2013) points out that despite theudprevailing use of smartphone apps to aid with weight management, the usability featuresudof these applications are not well characterised. Thus, this field needs ongoing researchudto give users reliable information on the efficacy of the most popular apps for managingudweight. Furthermore, given the fast development of technologies and applications, suchudstudies are always valuable.udThe methodology for this research utilised a subjective ontology, interpretiveudepistemology supported a qualitative method. The design of this research included threeudmain stages: stage one - Identifying Apps; stage two - Development of Weight Loss andudDiet Evaluation Framework; and stage three - Application of The EvaluationudFramework. Each stage included specific tools and techniques: the first stage involved audselective review of the Australian iTunes and Google Play apps based on specificudinclusion criteria; in the second stage, a content analysis assisted in utilising the existingudtheories of evaluation frameworks to develop the suitable weight loss and dietudsmartphone apps evaluation framework; and the third stage included practicaludapplication of the evaluation framework on the identified apps.udThe data of this study was analysed by a qualitative content analysis, which wasudapplied to the data of stage two - Development of Weight Loss and Diet EvaluationudFramework. Descriptive statistics were utilised to analyse the data resulted from stageudthree- Application of the Evaluation Framework. Deductive thematic analysis was alsoudused to analyse the apps users reviews.udThis research has resulted in one main outcome, which was the development of audjustified weight loss and diet smartphone apps evaluation framework. In addition, it hasudresulted in three key findings:ud• KF 1: Applying the evaluation framework to the identified apps has shown that theudmost downloaded iTunes and Google Play apps are not necessarily the most usableudand effective apps.ud• KF 2: The search algorithms for the iTunes and Google Play is biased towards appsudtitle keywords that do not accurately define the real functionality of the app.ud• KF 3: Analysing the apps user reviews has supported the identified evaluationudelements of the developed evaluation framework. In addition, it has shown thatudEase of Use, Reminder, Bar Code Scanning, Motivation, Usable for All, andudSynchronisation are significant attributes that should be included in weight loss anduddiet smartphone apps and thus in the potential weight loss and diet evaluationudframeworks.udThe research has contributed at the substantive level as it allowed showing theudoutcomes of evaluating the most popular weight loss and diet apps. At theudmethodological level, it combined different methodologies that formed an innovativeudmethod. At the theoretical level, it has identified the two main styles available in theudliterature to evaluate wellness smartphone apps and it has identified a literature basedudweight loss and diet evaluation elements.udThis research has suggested several future research possibilities. Upcoming useudof the evaluation framework would benefit from more than one single application. Itudsuggested that the framework should be applied by more than one evaluator/iteration.udThe research has focused merely on evaluating iTunes’ and Google Play’s most popularudapps. However, there is an opportunity for research to evaluate the most popular andudunpopular apps to compare their results.