Evaluation of the 'Gestação' application from the perspective of semiotics: pregnant women's views

Evaluating health-related applications is necessary for their adequacy and dissemination in society. The GestAção application was evaluated based on the opinion of 13 pregnant women followed up in prenatal care consultations at three public health services and at a private institution in Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil. Data emerged from an evaluation carried out from June to December 2017, including semi-structured interviews. Data were analyzed from content analysis in thematic and semiotic modality. Thus, the theme "meanings attributed to the application by pregnant women" emerged, which is associated with the following cores of meaning: provision of safe and diverse information; possibility of changing behavior and motivations for using the application. It is considered that semiotics allowed to understand the meanings attributed to the application from the interaction of pregnant women with the tool. The GestAção application was considered satisfactory, motivating to use, informative, safe and promoter of changes in the context of gestational health. Participants' views allow the evaluated technology to compose strategies aimed at promoting health care for pregnant women.