App Designs and Interactive Features to Increase mHealth Adoption: User Expectation Survey and Experiment.

Area of Science:

• Human-Computer Interaction
• Digital Health
• Behavioral Science

Background:

• Smartphone ubiquity necessitates guidance for designing effective mobile health (mHealth) apps.
• Understanding user expectations for app features and design is crucial for increasing mHealth app adoption and impact.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate user expectations for specific mHealth app features and their placement.
• To examine how app design prototypicality influences user adoption, attention, and predicted use.

Main Methods:

• A web-based survey collected user expectations for 12 app features.
• Participants (n=462) evaluated high and low prototypicality health apps on usability, aesthetics, and intentions to use.
• Feature categorization based on attention and predicted use was performed.

Main Results:

• Users expect navigation and settings features in specific locations (92%) and summary/static features centrally (86%).
• Features were categorized into essential, flashy, functional, and mundane based on attention and predicted use.
• High prototypicality apps, similar to popular downloads, were preferred (75%) and rated higher for usability, aesthetics, and intentions to use (P<.001).

Conclusions:

• mHealth app designs must meet user expectations for features and placement to be perceived as usable and beneficial.
• Prioritizing essential, flashy, and functional features can enhance user engagement and adoption.
• Aligning app design with user expectations can improve evaluations and encourage use, positively impacting preventive health behaviors.