An Enhanced Usability Model for Mobile Health Application

Abstract

Mobile health applications (mHealth apps) which are currently used for improving human body fitness and overall quality of life are becoming available. Designing and assessing the usability of these tools are major issues as evaluating them normally demands an already finished product that would have been in use for a long period of time. Moreover, evaluating the usability attributes of these apps require substantial efforts from a wide range of knowledge domains and prospective users. Existing usability models possess limited attributes that can be adequately used to assess these apps, hence, the main objective of this work was to design a usability model specifically for mHealth apps assessment. Current evaluation of mHealth apps models based on usability were examined. A model that fully captured usability attributes of mHealth apps was developed based on the Integrated Measurement Model (IMM) and People at the Center of Mobile Application Development (PACMAD) model. Identified attributes which included efficiency, effectiveness, satisfaction, learnability, operability, user interface aesthetics and universality were all broken down into 23 corresponding sub-factors and all these were integrated into the developed model. The applicability of the model was tested using GoogleFit and MyFitnessPal mHealth apps. In conclusion, the usability model presented in this work could help mHealth apps developers make efficient, reliable and valid decisions when it comes to designing and assessing highly usable apps. It is recommended that the study could be extended further by increasing the number of usability attributes in the model and for such attributes to be ranked effectively using adequate mathematical techniques.