Managing obesity through mobile phone applications: a state-of-the-art review from a user-centred design perspective

Abstract

Hermawati, Setia and Lawson, Glyn (2014) Managing obesity through mobile phone applications: a state-ofthe-art review from a user-centred design perspective. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 18 (8). pp. 2003-2023. ISSN 1617 Access from the University of Nottingham repository: http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/34793/1/Managing%20obesity%20through%20mobile %20phone%20applications.pdf Copyright and reuse:The Nottingham ePrints service makes this work by researchers of the University of Nottingham available open access under the following conditions. This article is made available under the University of Nottingham End User licence and may be reused according to the conditions of the licence. For more details see: http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/end_user_agreement.pdf A note on versions:The version presented here may differ from the published version or from the version of record. If you wish to cite this item you are advised to consult the publisher's version. Please see the repository url above for details on accessing the published version and note that access may require a subscription. Evidence has shown that the trend of increasing obesity rates has continued in the last decade. Mobile phone applications, benefiting from their ubiquity, have been increasingly used to address this issue. In order to increase the applications' acceptance and success, a design and development process that focuses on users, such as User-Centred Design, is necessary. This paper reviews reported studies that concern the design and development of mobile phone applications to prevent obesity, and analyses them from a User-Centred Design perspective. Based on the review results, strengths and weaknesses of the existing studies were identified. Identified strengths included: evidence of the inclusion of multidisciplinary skills and perspectives; user involvement in studies; and the adoption of iterative design practices. Weaknesses included the lack of specificity in the selection of end-users and inconsistent evaluation protocols. The review was concluded by outlining issues and research areas that need to be addressed in the future, including: greater understanding of the effectiveness of sharing data between peers; privacy; and guidelines for designing for behavioural change through mobile phone applications. Keywords: obesity, user-centred design, mobile phone, ubiquitousRecent evidence shows that the worldwide obesity rate is increasing and has more than doubled since 1980 [1]. The latest data from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed that more than one third of US adults were obese, with adults aged 60 and over more likely to be obese than younger adults [2]. Similar trends have been reported in Europe, where between 30% and 80% of adults are obese with higher prevalence of obesity among men than women [3]. Obesity and being overweight have considerable effects on morbidity and mortality through various diseases such as type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and metabolic syndrome [3]. Obesity yields neg...

Characteristics of Smartphone Applications for Nutrition Improvement in Community Settings: A Scoping Review

“…This finding is consistent with findings from others (3,9,100). In their review, Hermawati and Lawson (9) suggest that when applications do not target a very specific user group this may result in a mismatch of potential user needs and application characteristics and therefore poor application engagement. They suggest application developers more specifically define their target groups and include these target users in all stages of application development to ensure full tailoring of application features and content.…”

“…However, our findings show that this was carried out in just over half of the trials and development projects. This finding was also identified in a systematic review of applications for obesity prevention that focuses on user-centered design (9). Bugs and application functionality problems (such as requiring an internet connection) that would undoubtedly have been illuminated in consumer testing reportedly needlessly influenced application engagement in a number of trials (39,42,51,57,60).…”

“…Reasons provided for not conducting user testing included practical timing and resource and funding constraints of studies (57); however, most reports provided no reasoning. Studies, especially costly randomized controlled trials incorporating Allocate resources to, conduct, and report on application usability and consumer satisfaction evaluation Utilize existing tools, such as those identified in this review, in usability and satisfaction evaluation Clearly define and evaluate health outcomes to be influenced by the application Design studies to identify the contribution of the application to outcomes in multicomponent-program trials Describe the application and its development in detail in publications, including pictures of the interface and application flow Utilize the technical terminology of the area (that used in this review) when writing reports made-to-order applications, must consider testing with target users before application deployment an essential intervention design step and allocate resources accordingly (9). Similarly, the use of a strategic approach for application design, whether it be an interactive user-centered approach or mapping features to behavioral change theory, is known to be a critical step toward ensuring application effectiveness, engagement (21,27), and quality (22).…”

“…Smartphones are now ubiquitous and increasingly intertwined with daily life (4,8), primarily owing to rapid advances in the capabilities of applications (8). Fostering sustained user engagement with applications, however, is a constant battle for application developers, and therefore in the context of applications for health behavior change improvements can be short-lived (3,4,9). Hingle and Patrick (4) propose that an appropriate benchmark for heath application success might not be frequency or consistency of use, but rather that the application characteristics (that is, application features and content) provide such an engaging user experience that users return to using the application when it is most needed during the iterative process of nutrition improvement.…”

“…Hingle and Patrick (4) propose that an appropriate benchmark for heath application success might not be frequency or consistency of use, but rather that the application characteristics (that is, application features and content) provide such an engaging user experience that users return to using the application when it is most needed during the iterative process of nutrition improvement. However, guidelines regarding how to achieve this are lacking (9).…”