Reviewing the User-Centered Design Process for a Comprehensive Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) App.

Area of Science:

• Digital Health
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Gastroenterology

Background:

• Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) management can be challenging for patients.
• Existing mobile health (mHealth) applications may lack user-centered design principles.
• A need exists for effective, usable mHealth tools for GERD patients.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design a user-centered mHealth application for individuals with GERD.
• To evaluate the design features and effectiveness of the developed GERD mHealth app.
• To provide a reference for future mHealth application development.

Main Methods:

• User-centered design approach including persona creation, competitor analysis, and heuristic evaluation.
• Iterative prototyping with multiple rounds of user testing (surveys, think-alouds, interviews).
• Expert evaluation involving user experience professionals and GERD medical specialists.

Main Results:

• The final GERD app incorporates features for symptom/trigger tracking, analytics, data export, and community information.
• The application emphasizes individualization, accessibility, and usability.
• Positive feedback was received from end-users and human factors experts regarding the app's design and functionality.

Conclusions:

• The user-centered design strategy resulted in a well-received mHealth application for GERD.
• The documented design process can guide future medical app developers.
• Limitations in resources were noted, with suggestions for future design process enhancements.