Accepted for/Published in: JMIR mHealth and uHealth
Date Submitted: Jan 29, 2018
Open Peer Review Period: Jan 29, 2018 - Feb 18, 2018
Date Accepted: Aug 27, 2018
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Accessible mHealth Apps for Users With Dexterity Impairments
ABSTRACT
Background:
A mobile health (mHealth) system called iMHere (interactive mobile health and rehabilitation) was developed to support individuals with chronic conditions and disability in their self-management regimens. The initial design of iMHere, however, lacked sufficient accessibility for users with a myriad of dexterity impairments. The accessibility of self-management apps is essential in ensuring usability.
Objective:
This study aims to increase the usability of the iMHere system for users with dexterity impairments by increasing the app’s accessibility.
Methods:
We targeted the accessibility redesign by focusing on the physical presentation and the navigability of the iMHere apps. Six participants presenting with dexterity impairments were included in the usability study of the original and redesigned apps.
Results:
We observed a lower number of touches needed to complete tasks (P=.09) and time to complete individual tasks (P=.06) with the redesigned app than with the original app; a significantly lower time for users to complete all tasks (P=.006); and a significantly lower error rate (P=.01) with the redesigned app than with the original app. In fact, no errors occurred with use of the redesigned app. Participant-reported overall average usability of the redesigned app (P=.007) and usability of individual modules (P<.001) were significantly higher than that of the original app due mostly to better ease of use and learnability, interface quality, and reliability.
Conclusions:
Improved usability was achieved using a redesigned app. This study offers insight into the importance of personalization in enhancing the accessibility and also identifies strategies for improving usability in app development.
Citation
Per the author's request the PDF is not available.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.