JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Adolescents require comprehensive sexual and reproductive health (SRH) education to successfully transition from puberty into adulthood. However, they often experience barriers and challenges while trying to promote their SRH or access SRH services. Such challenges are amplified among youth from migrant backgrounds, who may further be constrained by societal stigmas and cultural taboos regarding SRH. Mobile health interventions have the potential to provide culturally relevant, accessible, and evidence-based SRH educational resources, however, few SRH mobile apps in Canada are co-designed with immigrant youth or meaningfully integrate their voices and lived experiences.

Objective:

We aimed to co-design a culturally relevant and evidence based mobile app with immigrant adolescents to provide accurate SRH resources. In this paper, we present the findings of the usability testing of our SRH mobile application – MyPeer.

Methods:

Throughout our study, we used a community-based participatory research approach and implemented the principles of human centered design to co-design our mobile application. In the last stage of our study (usability testing), we recruited 25 adolescents and 17 interest holders to participate in moderated focused-group discussions (FGDs) and evaluate the app’s quality using a standardized tool (Mobile App Rating Scale) respectively. All FGDs were audio-recorded and later analyzed to implement changes in the app. The MARS scores and responses were analyzed descriptively to evaluate the app’s engagement, functionality, aesthetics, quality of information, and subjective app quality.

Results:

We analyzed the findings from the FGDs and categorized them into four categories: 1) Navigation and interface, 2) SRH information quality and learning, 3) technical performance, and 4) accessibility and multimedia usability. Adolescents found the app visually appealing and the interface easy to navigate. They appreciated interactive features, such as quizzes, and the presentation of information through various media (e.g., videos, infographics). However, they also identified technical issues, such as map glitches and navigation inconsistencies, and requested deeper content on SRH topics. Interest-holders rated the app highly on aesthetics and engagement and highlighted its strong functionality but identified a need to strengthen information component score.

Conclusions:

Our app – MyPeer – has promising usability and appeal for adolescents looking for SRH information. Incorporating feedback from youth and content experts helped identify both technical refinements and content requirements. Our findings support the app’s potential as a scalable, youth-centered SRH digital tool and emphasizes the value of participatory design in youth digital interventions.