How do patients experience semAPP? A user experience exploration of a new 360° media-based application for memory assessment
ABSTRACT
Background:
Technology is already a part of our daily lives, and its influence is growing rapidly. This evolution has not spared the healthcare field. Nowadays, a crucial challenge is considering aspects such as design, development, and implementation highlighting their functionality, ease of use, compatibility, performance, and safety when a new technological tool is developed. As noted in many works, the abandonment rate is usually higher when a user has a terrible experience with these instruments. It would be appropriate to incorporate the final users—whether they are patients, healthcare professionals, or both—in the stages of instrument design to understand their needs and preferences. Since most apps in which end users and health professionals did not participate in development have been seen to fail, their involvement at all stages of app development may increase their commitment and improve integration, self-management, and health outcomes.
Objective:
We developed semAPP, a 360°-based tool to assess memory in aging by simulating a real-life situation. We tested the usability of the app and the connected experience in an end-user population.
Methods:
34 older adults participated in the study, 16 healthy subjects and 18 Mild Cognitive Impaired patients. They played semAPP and completed qualitative and quantitative measures. The app includes two parts: object recognition and spatial memory tasks. During the first task, users have to navigate in an apartment freely, and visit rooms, and then they must recognize the right map of the house. In the second task, users are immersed in a living room, and they have to encode and then recall some target objects, simulating a relocation. We deployed this application on an iPad of 11.2in and we tested its usability and the experience of users interacting with the app. We conducted descriptive analyses for both the entire sample and each subgroup, parametric and correlation analyses to compare groups, and to examine the relationship between the execution of the task and the virtual experience, as well as the acceptance of technology.
Results:
Both groups judged the application as an easy-to-use tool, and they were willing to use it. Moreover, results match the idea that usability might be influenced by different factors depending on instrument and personal features, such as presentation, functionality, system performance, interactive behavior, attitudes, skills, and personality.
Conclusions:
Our findings support the possibility of using semAPP in aged patients, as well as the importance of designing and evaluating new technological tools considering not only the general population but also the specific target ones.
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