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Usability Issues in Mental Health Applications

Published:06 June 2019Publication History

ABSTRACT

User reviews of apps are critically important in open mobile application markets, including the App Store and Google Play. Analyzing app reviews helps reveal any usability issues faced, desired improvements, and could also provide insights to guide future app designs. As a result, there is a growing demand for analysis of app reviews to enhance app usability, user experience, and hence improve overall app adoption. This is particularly true for apps targeting sensitive issues such as those promoting mental health. In this paper, we present the results of an analysis of 106 mental health app reviews from the App Store and Google Play. We mined and analyzed 1236 distinct reviews to identify usability issues. We classified app usability issues into six categories: bugs, poor user interface design, data loss, battery and memory usage issue, lack of guidance and explanation, and internet connectivity issue. The results could guide app designers on how to design apps especially those tailored to mental health to improve their usability.

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      cover image ACM Conferences
      UMAP'19 Adjunct: Adjunct Publication of the 27th Conference on User Modeling, Adaptation and Personalization
      June 2019
      455 pages
      ISBN:9781450367110
      DOI:10.1145/3314183

      Copyright © 2019 ACM

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      New York, NY, United States

      Publication History

      • Published: 6 June 2019

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      UMAP'19 Adjunct Paper Acceptance Rate30of122submissions,25%Overall Acceptance Rate162of633submissions,26%

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