JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Opp and NettOpp are two mental health interventions delivered through mobile applications for adolescents aged 11 to 19 years. Opp is a universal mental-health promoting intervention and NettOpp is an intervention for adolescents who have experienced negative incidents online.

Objective:

The aim of the current paper is to investigate how adolescents evaluate the usability, quality and potential impact of Opp and NettOpp.

Methods:

A total of N = 45 adolescents tested either Opp (n = 30) or NettOpp (n = 15) for three weeks. After the trial period, the adolescents answered a questionnaire. The System Usability Scale (SUS) and items from the Mobile Application Rating Scale (MARS) were used to measure the usability, quality and perceived impact that Opp and NettOpp might have on adolescents’ knowledge, attitudes, intention to change behaviour and actual behaviour change.

Results:

The results indicated that, overall, the adolescents were satisfied with the two applications. Opp had an SUS score of M = 80.37 (SD = 9.27) and NettOpp’s SUS score was M = 80.33 (SD = 10.30). In the overall evaluation, Opp and NettOpp were given a score of M = 3.78 (SD = 0.42) and M = 4.20 (SD =0.56), respectively, on a five-point scale, where five was best.

Conclusions:

The user evaluation provided valuable knowledge about Opp and NettOpp’s usability and the target group’s assessments of the apps’ quality and potential to achieve their given objectives. However, more extensive effectiveness studies are necessary to measure the apps ’actual goal achievement.