Analysis of mobile health applications for a broad spectrum of consumers: a user experience approach

Mobile health (m-health) apps can bring health prevention and promotion to the general population. The main purpose of this article is to analyze different m-health apps for a broad spectrum of consumers by means of three different experiences. This goal was defined following the strategic documents generated by the main prospective observatories of Information and Communications Technology for health. After a general exploration of the app markets, we analyze the entries of three specific themes focused in this article: type 2 diabetes, obesity, and breast-feeding. The user experiences reported in this study mostly cover the segments of (1) chronically monitored consumers through a Web mobile app for predicting type 2 diabetes (Diab_Alert app), (2) information seekers through a mobile app for maternity (Lactation app) and partially (3) the motivated healthy consumers through a mobile app for a dietetic monitoring and assessment (SapoFit app). These apps were developed by the authors of this work.