Mining and Recommending Mobile App Features using Data-driven Analytics

(1) Introduction: The ubiquity of mobile phones suggests the potential of mobile health applications to reach patients with type 2 diabetes and engage them to improve self-care. This study aimed to explore personal goals, barriers to self-management and desired mobile health application features to improve self-care among multi-ethnic Asian patients with type 2 diabetes. (2) Methods: We conducted semi-structured interviews with patients with type 2 diabetes (n = 29). Patients were recruited from a multi-disciplinary center for diabetes and metabolism in Singapore, using a purposive sampling strategy. Various visual materials, collated from existing mobile health application features, were used to facilitate the discussion. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and thematically analyzed. (3) Results: A total of 29 patients participated in 11 focus group discussions or one-on-one interviews. Personal goals for self-management were centered around short-term outcome expectancy, such as better glucose control and a reduced number of medications. Self-management was hampered by competing priorities and limited healthy food options when at work, while a lack of tailored advice from healthcare providers further diminished competence. The desired mobile health app features to improve self-care behaviors included quantifiable goal-setting, personalized nudges based on tracked data, built-in resources from credible sources, in-app social support through virtual interaction with peers and healthcare providers, technology-driven novel data logging and user-defined nudges. (4) Conclusions: We identified a set of app features that may foster motivation to engage in lifestyle modification for patients with T2DM. The findings serve to inform the design of artificial intelligence-enabled mobile health application intervention aimed at improving diabetes self-care.

Black women in college are disproportionately affected by HIV diagnoses. Mobile apps can facilitate the innovative delivery of accurate HIV and sexual and reproductive health information. However, mobile health interventions are severely underused in this population. We aimed to quantitatively and qualitatively explore the perspectives of college-aged Black women on using a mobile health app for HIV prevention and sexual and reproductive health. The data obtained from Black women were used to design preliminary mobile app wireframes and features. This explanatory, sequential mixed methods study took place from 2019 to 2020 and targeted Black women who were enrolled in college or who had recently graduated from college. Convenience sampling was used during the quantitative phase, followed by purposive sampling in the qualitative phase. A cross-sectional web-based survey evaluating the willingness to use a mobile app for HIV prevention was conducted in the quantitative phase. Descriptive statistics were used for all variables. A separate focus group discussion was conducted with Black women in college to expand on the quantitative results. Focus group discussions explored their perceptions on HIV and health content delivered through a mobile app along with potential features that participants desired within the app. Using the data obtained, we selected the primary features for the app prototype. In total, we enrolled 34 participants in the survey, with 6 participating in focus group discussions. Over half of the respondents reported a willingness to use an app that contained pre-exposure prophylaxis content. Women who claimed recent sexual activity reported being more likely to use an app feature that would allow them to order an at-home HIV testing kit than their non-sexually active counterparts. The emerging themes from the focus group session were Black women's health concerns, HIV risk, sources of health information, and preferred app features. The content in our prototype included speaking with a specialist, HIV and pre-exposure prophylaxis information, holistic wellness, and features promoting engagement and retention. The results of our study guided the design of wireframes for an app prototype targeting HIV prevention in college-aged Black women. The rapid growth of mobile devices in Black communities, coupled with high rates of smartphone ownership among Black youth, makes mobile health interventions a promising strategy for addressing sexual and reproductive health disparities. Participants in our sample were willing to use a culturally appropriate and gender-considerate app for their sexual health needs. Our findings indicate that Black women in college may be excellent candidates for mobile app-based interventions.

Guiding hints and challenge can help scaffold learners to progress beyond what they would achieve independently. The interactive and adaptive capabilities of mobile devices allow educational applications (apps) to support learning through scaffolding designs. However, little research has tested the effects of scaffolding features in apps on young children’s learning. Using a 3 × 2 between‐subjects design, this study experimentally tests how three types of app feedback (nonverbal sounds, verbal encouragement, or scaffolded verbal hints) and two types of leveling (gradual vs. random‐ordered challenge) influence 4–5‐year‐old children’s learning of novel words (N = 240). Results showed that scaffolded feedback was especially useful when provided at the beginning of app play (p < .01), and scaffolded leveling through gradual increases in difficulty supported faster and more accurate responses than random order challenge (p < .001). Practitioner NotesWhat is already known about this topic Researchers have worked to apply what we know about traditional in‐person teaching with young learners and how that might translate to digital platforms. Parent and teacher scaffolding has been shown to successfully help young children learn. Guidance through increased difficulty and explanatory feedback can help learners gradually build their skills and reflect more deeply on the content they are learning. What this paper adds This study adds to the newly growing collection of experiments testing the design features of educational pre‐school apps. Findings show that scaffolding through educational app feedback and leveling can support young children learning. Results also show that the impact of scaffolding can depend on when the guidance is presented during app play – at the very beginning of play versus later on. Implications for practice and/or policy Findings can help educators and other consumers identify which types of apps are better for scaffolding young children’s learning. Suggestions are provided to support educational app developers in designing products that are truly effective. Findings suggest that combinations of app designs may differently impact young children’s learning, providing next step testing conditions for educational app designs.

BackgroundThe effectiveness of smartphone apps for weight loss is limited by the diversity of interventions that accompany such apps. This research extends the scope of previous systematic reviews by including 2 subgroup analyses based on nonmobile interventions that accompanied smartphone use and human-based versus passive behavioral interventions.ObjectiveThe primary objective of this study is to systematically review and perform a meta-analysis of studies that evaluated the effectiveness of smartphone apps on weight loss in the context of other interventions combined with app use. The secondary objective is to measure the impact of different mobile app features on weight loss and mobile app adherence.MethodsWe conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of relevant studies after an extensive search of the PubMed, MEDLINE, and EBSCO databases from inception to January 31, 2022. Gray literature, such as abstracts and conference proceedings, was included. Working independently, 2 investigators extracted the data from the articles, resolving disagreements by consensus. All randomized controlled trials that used smartphone apps in at least 1 arm for weight loss were included. The weight loss outcome was the change in weight from baseline to the 3- and 6-month periods for each arm. Net change estimates were pooled across the studies using random-effects models to compare the intervention group with the control group. The risk of bias was assessed independently by 2 authors using the Cochrane Collaboration tool for assessing the risk of bias in randomized trials.ResultsOverall, 34 studies were included that evaluated the use of a smartphone app in at least 1 arm. Compared with controls, the use of a smartphone app–based intervention showed a significant weight loss of –1.99 kg (95% CI –2.19 to –1.79 kg; I2=81%) at 3 months and –2.80 kg (95% CI –3.03 to –2.56 kg; I2=91%) at 6 months. In the subgroup analysis, based on the various intervention components that were added to the mobile app, the combination of the mobile app, tracker, and behavioral interventions showed a statistically significant weight loss of –2.09 kg (95% CI –2.32 to –1.86 kg; I2=91%) and –3.77 kg (95% CI –4.05 to –3.49 kg; I2=90%) at 3 and 6 months, respectively. When a behavioral intervention was present, only the combination of the mobile app with intensive behavior coaching or feedback by a human coach showed a statistically significant weight loss of –2.03 kg (95% CI –2.80 to –1.26 kg; I2=83%) and –2.63 kg (95% CI –2.97 to –2.29 kg; I2=91%) at 3 and 6 months, respectively. Neither the type nor the number of mobile app features was associated with weight loss.ConclusionsSmartphone apps have a role in weight loss management. Nevertheless, the human-based behavioral component remained key to higher weight loss results.

The present study analyzes various factors influencing the mobile application (app) usage amongst the youth of eastern Bhutan. App related parameters like mobile operating system, app type, app category, app features, and advertisements have been considered for the study. The correlation between the category (education, travel, sports, etc.) of mobile app and type of app (free, paid) has been analyzed using two-way ANOVA. The effect of advertisements on app usage has been interpreted using Likert scale. App features that are highly preferred by the user are inferred using statistical Mode. Finally the most popular mobile operating systems have been ranked using the Percentile rank. R programming language has been used to analyze the results of the study.

The smartphone penetration in India is growing rapidly and online buying through mobile apps for products and services is growing at a faster pace. Restaurants in brick and mortar format in order to increase their customer base are trying to get their feet wet in an online mode. Though India has attracted food tech companies due to majority of population being millennial consumers, not many studies have focused on consumer behavior towards online food delivery and ordering through mobile apps especially pertaining to students’ market. Hence this study in an initiative to study the effect of mobile app design features on decision making stages of consumers pertaining for online food ordering and delivery sector. The study adopted SEM analysis through Smart PLS-3 with sample being students studying in Manipal Academy of Higher Education campus from across the globe. The result of study reveals that design features of mobile apps has huge impact on the students’ behavior design, with features, namely, ‘‘Security towards the retention of personal information of students’’, ‘‘Secure and accessible payment gateways”, “Option of tracking real time order status of food and beverages ordered”, ‘‘Access to customer service to respond to customers query without any hindrances”, ‘‘Pop up of trending information of food and beverages”, “Easy navigation of app features”, ‘‘Search function to quickly access the information”, and ‘‘Delivery services which are flexible”. This study could be used as a base by organizations to enhance the design features of mobile apps in food ordering sector for engaging customers and enhancing their business.

BackgroundStress urinary incontinence (SUI) affects 10%-39% of women. Its first-line treatment consists of lifestyle interventions and pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT), which can be performed supervised or unsupervised. Health apps are increasing in number and can be used to improve adherence to treatments. We developed the Tät app, which provides a 3-month treatment program with a focus on PFMT for women with SUI. The app treatment was evaluated in a randomized controlled trial, which demonstrated efficacy for improving incontinence symptoms and quality of life. In this qualitative interview study, we investigated participant experiences of the app-based treatment.ObjectiveThis study aimed to explore women’s experiences of using an app-based treatment program for SUI.MethodsThis qualitative study is based on telephone interviews with 15 selected women, with a mean age of 47 years, who had used the app in the previous randomized controlled trial. A semistructured interview guide with open-ended questions was used, and the interviews were transcribed verbatim. Data were analyzed according to the grounded theory.ResultsThe results were grouped into three categories: “Something new!” “Keeping motivation up!” and “Good enough?” A core category, “Enabling my independence,” was identified. The participants appreciated having a new and modern way to access a treatment program for SUI. The use of new technology seemed to make incontinence treatment feel more prioritized and less embarrassing for the subjects. The closeness to their mobile phone and app features like reminders and visual graphs helped support and motivate the women to carry through the PFMT. The participants felt confident that they could perform the treatment program on their own, even though they expressed some uncertainty about whether they were doing the pelvic floor muscle contractions correctly. They felt that the app-based treatment increased their self-confidence and enabled them to take responsibility for their treatment.ConclusionsUse of the app-based treatment program for SUI empowered the women in this study and helped them self-manage their incontinence treatment. They appreciated the app as a new tool for supporting their motivation to carry through a slightly challenging PFMT program.Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT01848938; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01848938 (Archived by WebCite at https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01848938)

Mobile banking apps have begun to provide non‐core functions to users, for example, mobile shopping, identifying nearby activities, and purchasing tickets as an innovation. Nevertheless, few studies have explored the negative impacts of this change (e.g., information overload and unfamiliarity associated with these new services). By developing and testing a research model with 422 questionnaires collected in China, this study aimed to examine users' psychological and behavioral aspects regarding the non‐core features of mobile banking apps by considering two countervailing constructs: appreciation and fatigue. The results show that the non‐core features of mobile banking apps affect the appreciation emotion positively and affect the fatigue emotion negatively. The different effects of the two opposing constructs on the using behavior are also discussed. This study identifies the partial complementary mediation role of lifestyle fit and function fit with the non‐core features of mobile banking apps. By presenting the necessary condition analysis, this study contributes to identifying the necessary and sufficient effects of both lifestyle fit and function fit on users' using experience evaluation. The findings suggest that, in practice, non‐core features of mobile banking apps can be used as a business strategy to influence users' choice in the mobile context.

Smartphone apps support people to adopt healthy lifestyles. Therefore, it is useful to understand the persuasive design strategies involved in hybrid mobile applications that facilitate behavior changes. The aim of our research is to show the ease of use of hybrid mobile applications compared to Web and Native applications. Hybrid mobile apps combine the features of Web apps and Native mobile apps. Like web applications, they are implemented in portable, platform-independent languages such as HTML and JavaScript. They directly access local device resources such as native apps. Transition to hybrid applications has been increasing in recent years with the rapid progress of technology. Although it has performance disadvantages compared to native applications, it is more preferred by software developers due to its ease of use. From the results, it has been determined that the user interface for hybrid applications is simpler to develop with its dynamic structure and it uses mobile device features better in terms of performance when used in hybrid applications.

Responsive feeding is associated with a reduced risk of childhood obesity. The objective of this qualitative study was to determine parental preferences for mobile health (mHealth) app content and features designed to improve responsive feeding practices. Parents of 0–2-year-old children were interviewed individually. Interview questions were informed by the Technology Acceptance Model, and parents provided feedback on sample app content and features. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and coded by two researchers using thematic analysis; responses were compared by parent gender and income. Parents (n = 20 fathers, n = 20 mothers) were, on average, 33 years old, low-income (50%), identified as non-white (52.5%), and had a bachelor’s degree or higher (62%). Overall, parents were most interested in feeding tips and recipe content, and app features that allowed tracking child growth and setting feeding goals. Fathers were most interested in content about first foods, choking hazards, and nutrition information, while mothers preferred content on breastfeeding, picky eating, and portion sizes. Parents with lower incomes were interested in nutrition guidelines, breastfeeding, and introducing solids. Non-low-income parents preferred information related to food allergies, portion sizes, and picky eating. The findings of this study provide considerations when developing mHealth apps to improve responsive feeding practices in parents.

Mobile apps have revolutionized almost every aspect of our daily lives, shaping the way we shop, learn and work. The transformative and unprecedented impact they have made on our lifestyle and the convenience they have offered have increased their adoption in diverse domains. Therefore, it is of paramount importance to hear from the interested audience about their desires and requirements in mobile apps. This has stressed the need to employ crowdsourcing in requirements engineering (RE) activities to harness the scattered talent in the crowd. RE tasks require certain software domain knowledge, hence, selecting a suitable subset of the crowd is crucial to obtain high-quality contributions. For that, we propose a crowd selection approach for crowdsourcing mobile app requirements engineering tasks which leverages the untapped crowd available on the social network Twitter (recently changed to X). This article is an extension of our previous work, where we present the proposed social-network-based crowd selection approach design, continue to work on the remaining component of the approach and evaluate the approach through a controlled experiment. For evaluation, the approach was utilized to select a real crowd that were invited to contribute to crowdsourcing requirements elicitation tasks for a fitness mobile app. The quality of the crowdsourced requirements was assessed by experts and the results have provided encouraging and compelling insights about the effectiveness of the proposed approach. The obtained assessment scores for the five quality factors clarity, creativity, relatedness, feasibility and diversity were respectively 4.36, 4.01, 4.29, 4.45 and 4.43 out of 5. Overall, we believe that the proposed social-network-based crowd selection approach could help in eliciting mobile app requirements and features that could cater to the needs of a large audience.

BackgroundAlthough treatment for HIV infection is widely available and well tolerated, less than 30% of adolescents and young adults living with HIV infection achieve stable viral suppression. Mobile technology affords increased opportunities for young people living with HIV to engage with information, health management tools, and social connections that can support adherence to treatment recommendations and medication. Although mobile apps are increasingly prevalent, few are informed by the target population.ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to describe the “Positive Peers” app, a mobile app currently being evaluated in a public hospital in the Midwestern United States. Formative development, key development strategies, user recruitment, and lessons learned are discussed in this paper.Methods“Positive Peers” was developed in collaboration with a community advisory board (CAB) comprising in-care young adults living with HIV and a multidisciplinary project team. Mobile app functions and features were developed over iterative collaborative sessions that were tailored to the CAB members. In turn, the CAB built rapport with the project team and revealed unique information that was used in app development.ResultsThe study was funded on September 1, 2015; approved by the MetroHealth Institutional Review Board on August 31, 2016; and implemented from October 11, 2016, to May 31, 2019. The “Positive Peers” mobile app study has enrolled 128 users who reflect priority disparity population subgroups. The app administrator had frequent contact with users across app administration and study-related activities. Key lessons learned from the study include changing privacy concerns, data tracking reliability, and user barriers. Intermediate and outcome variable evaluation is expected in October 2019.ConclusionsSuccessful development of the “Positive Peers” mobile app was supported by multidisciplinary expertise, an enthusiastic CAB, and a multifaceted, proactive administrator.

BackgroundThere are disparities in the prevalence of physical activity (PA) with women engaging in less PA than men, a gap which widens during midlife. Walking is a generally accepted form of PA among women and should be encouraged. Motivations, barriers, and attitudes to engaging in walking change with age, but the influencing factors are not well understood nor are the features of mobile apps that facilitate daily walking.ObjectiveThis study explores the relationship between age and women’s self-reported motivations, barriers, attitudes, and beliefs toward daily walking. It further assesses attitudes toward features of a mobile app designed to sync with a wearable step tracker to increase and maintain levels of daily walking among women.MethodsA web-based anonymous survey was completed by 400 women, aged 21-75 years. The 31-item survey captured women’s perceived barriers and motivators toward daily walking and attitudes toward mobile apps to support and maintain daily walking. For analysis, responses to the survey were grouped into 2 categories of women: ages 21-49 years and ages 50-75 years. Bivariate analyses were conducted through SPSS (IBM Corp) for each of the survey questions using chi-square for dichotomous variables and 1-tailed t tests for scales and continuous variables to identify significant differences between the groups. One-tailed t tests were run for scaled variables to identify significant differences between the 10-year age increments.ResultsSignificant barriers to daily walking were observed in the 21-49–year group for personal and work responsibilities, motivational and psychosocial factors, and physical and environmental factors. Motivators to walk daily in the 21- 49–year group were significantly higher to reduce stress and anxiety, and motivators to walk daily in the 50-75–year group were significantly higher to help manage or lose weight and to reduce the risk of chronic illness. Women’s walking preferences, beliefs around their walking behaviors, and their perceived importance of the features of a future mobile app for walking designed specifically for women showed significant variation according to age. When asked about the importance of features for a mobile app, women aged 21-49 years indicated a significantly higher number of positive responses for the following features: digital community support, rewards or point system, and seeing a daily or weekly or monthly progress chart.ConclusionsOur findings indicate that barriers, motivators, and beliefs around daily walking and the importance of preferred features of a mobile app vary according to women’s ages. Messaging and app features should be tailored to different age groups of women. These study results can be viewed as a foundation for future research and development of mobile health interventions to effectively increase daily walking among women of all ages.

This research examines how digital marketing and mobile app development enable service innovation in German companies during the period of 2005- 2024. Using firm-level panel data from the Moody’s Orbis database, firm-level panel data examines the relationships between social media advertising expenses, mobile app features, educational campaigns, total customers, and the rate of active digital users (used to approximate service innovation). By applying a Random Effects panel regression model, findings indicate that social media advertising, mobile app functionality, educational campaigns, and total customers have a significant and positive influence on firms’ rate of digital innovation performance. Findings show that consistently investing in digital engagement strategies and technological capabilities increases firms’ ability to innovate services, acquire customers, and build competitiveness within the changing digital economy in Germany. The present study provides new firm-level evidence for the digital transformation literature, as it illustrates that marketing and mobile technology work together to drive service innovation in advanced economies.

The emergence of smartphone applications has affected all types of industries. Rapid smartphone adoption has introduced a variety of mobile applications into the consumer market, transforming the way consumers perform various daily tasks and activities. As is the case in the tourism industry, through the positive features provided by smart phone applications, the tourism sector constitutes a major factor in Jordanian national income. Today, Jordan has the highest percentage of mobile application users, with high usage rates of mobile application features. However, tourism in Jordan is still suffering. Therefore, this study was conducted to examine the influence of smartphone application features, perceived usefulness, ease of use, and word of mouth (WOM) on the intention to use mobile applications in the Jordanian tourism industry. This study adopted a quantitative approach. It was based on a sample collected from tourists in Jordan using a self-administered questionnaire. A total of 420 copies of the questionnaires were distributed. The research model was empirically tested using structural equation modeling (SEM). SEM findings revealed that approximately 80% of the variance in intention to use mobile apps was accounted for by mobile app features, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and positive WOM. The results showed that perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use were significantly related to WOM. The results of this research provide managerial guidelines for developing effective strategies for mobile applications in the Jordanian tourism industry.