Abstract
The objective of this study was to design a user-centered mobile health (mHealth) application for individuals with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and evaluate its design features and effectiveness for use by doctors. Prior to designing, our team undertook a discovery process that involved creating personas, conducting a competitor analysis and heuristic evaluation of existing apps, along with interviews with acid reflux patients. Then, we created a low-fidelity prototype, which was revised on the basis of several rounds of user testing. During the design phase, each round of user testing included a mix of surveys, concurrent think-alouds, and interviews to gather user feedback on the prototypes. Lastly, an evaluation phase consisting of gathering feedback on the user-centered design approach from user experience experts and medical doctors specialized in GERD was conducted. Overall, the final GERD app includes important features for tracking symptoms and triggers, analytics, data export, and community information, while promoting individualization, accessibility, and usability. The documentation of the design process of this app serves as a reference point for future medical app developers as it followed an empirically supported user-centered design strategy and resulted in an app which received positive feedback from users and human factors experts. We also intend to share some of the limitations due to the constrained resources, as well as potential ways to strengthen the design process for mHealth applications.
Highlights
Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is a medical condition related to reflux of stomach contents into the esophagus [1,2]
Consumers Design Competition was the product of direct user feedback and an empirically Consumers Design Competition was the product of direct user feedback and an emp validated iterative design process
Despite all the app-specific limitations and mobile app limitations, the GerdHelper app provides valuable insights that can be utilized for future app development for chronic conditions such as GERD
Summary
Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is a medical condition related to reflux of stomach contents into the esophagus [1,2]. But may manifest via atypical symptoms, such as chronic cough, cardiac arrhythmias, or sleep apnea [1]. Both the causes and course of GERD are complex and vary from patient to patient, with diverse clinical histories, endoscopic test results, ambulatory reflux text results, and esophageal characteristics interacting to produce more than 50 phenotypic classifications of GERD that may respond optimally to unique treatment protocols [2]. Advanced age is associated with an increase in GERD risk. Though, indicates that the overall proportion of GERD patients between the ages of 30 and 39 increased significantly between 2006 and 2016 [4], perhaps due to increased exposure across the lifespan to GERD risk factors
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