Mobile App Development Research Articles

Cross-Platform Mobile Development Approaches and Frameworks

The use of mobile applications is rapidly increasing, due to rapid development of smartphones. Mobile apps, on the other hand, are platform-specific, making development more difficult and expensive. Cross platform or multiplatform application development is a fairly new idea in which developers apply a single code to create apps for several platforms like Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, iOS etc. With the rising usage of these frameworks, it is important to comprehend both contributions and limitations in this emerging field. This paper presents a systematic literature review (SLR) of the research studies in the field of cross platform mobile app Development including approaches and tools. The SLR has been compiled by reviewing the research studies published between 2012-2022 in reputed venues. A Total of 22 studies has been selected and classified by using systematic process. The review has been presented on cross platform approaches, tools and challenges. Further an approach has been proposed for cross platform mobile application development. Finally, open issues and challenges in the field of cross platform have been presented to provide future direction to the researchers.

Development and Feasibility of a Mobile Asthma App for Children and Their Caregivers: Mixed Methods Study.

BackgroundMobile health apps can support the self-management of pediatric asthma. Previous studies on mobile apps for children aged >7 years with asthma are limited, and most reports on asthma apps do not consider interactions between the children and their caregivers. Therefore, we developed an asthma app for children aged 0-12 years and their caregivers based on the results of our previous study regarding user needs.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of a developed mobile app for children with asthma and their caregivers and to modify and complete the app according to the feasibility results.MethodsWe recruited children diagnosed with persistent asthma by an allergy specialist at 2 children’s hospitals, 1 university hospital, 2 general hospitals, and 1 pediatric clinic. Thereafter, the app usage was assessed, and questionnaires were administered. This study used convergent mixed methods, including providing user feedback about the pediatric asthma app, completing questionnaire surveys regarding preferences, and obtaining quantitative data about app usage. Quantitative data were analyzed based on the ratings provided for the app features used by the participants, and the usage of the app features was analyzed using descriptive statistics. Qualitative data were analyzed via a descriptive qualitative research analysis and were used to identify codes from the content-characteristic words.ResultsIn total, 30 pairs of children aged 2-12 years and their caregivers responded to the 3-month survey, and 20 pairs of children aged 4-12 years and their caregivers responded to the 6-month survey. In the 3- and 6-month surveys, “record” was the most commonly used feature by both caregivers and children. The average access logs per month among the 20 pairs ranged from 50 to 79 in the 6-month survey. The number of access logs decreased over time. In the qualitative results, app utilization difficulties were identified for 6 categories: record, preparing, alert settings, change settings, mobile phone owner, and display and motivation. Regarding app feasibility, 60% (12/20) of the caregivers strongly agreed or agreed for all evaluation items, while 63% (7/11) of the children strongly agreed or agreed for 6 items, excluding satisfaction. In the qualitative results, feasibility evaluation of the app was classified into 3 categories: high feasibility of the app, improvement points for the app, and personal factors preventing app utilization. Based on the results of the feasibility analysis, the final version of the app was modified and completed.ConclusionsThe app feasibility among children with asthma and their caregivers was generally good. Children aged 7-12 years used elements such as record, quiz, and manga. This app can support the continuous self-management of pediatric asthma. However, efforts must be taken to maintain and improve the app quality.Trial RegistrationUMIN Clinical Trials Registry UMIN000039058; https://tinyurl.com/3na9zyf8

Evidence-Based Mobile Wound Application to Support Professionals in State-of-the-Art Chronic Wound Treatment.

One of the most important tasks within wound management and the basis of successful wound care is a clear and accurate nursing documentation which can be created in various ways. However, this documentation is only partially standardized mainly due to the interdisciplinarity of this task. The goal is to overcome interdisciplinary boundaries in home care between health professionals, and to increase the patient's motivation to actively participate in wound healing by providing consistent structure and guidance. In this paper, the development of a mobile wound documentation application is described. Comprehensive literature reviews were conducted on state-of-the-art wound documentation as well as on machine learning frameworks, databases and mobile app development technologies. As a result, a mobile wound application with Flutter, SQLite and Tensorflow Lite was developed. During the development process interoperability was considered to enable future extensibility. Further development in respect of backend and API is planned, involving user field tests.

Affinity and foreign users’ perception about Chinese mobile apps: An integrated view of affective contagion and value-based perspectives

• Affective contagion and value-based perspectives explain foreign user satisfaction. • Culture affinity positively affects foreign users’ satisfaction. • Culture affinity affects foreign users and mobile apps with high cultural context. • Utility and enjoyment mediate culture affinity effect on satisfaction. Cross-cultural user experience with mobile apps is a vital topic for international digital marketers. By integrating the affective contagion and the value-based perspectives, this study theorizes and validates the role of affinity in foreign users’ satisfaction with local mobile apps. We further propose that the effect of affinity via the affective contagion mechanism is contingent on cultural context and is mediated by foreign users’ value perception of local mobile apps. The proposed model is empirically tested by two samples of foreign users in China. By controlling a comprehensive set of extraneous variables, we find that culture affinity has a positive impact on foreign users’ satisfaction with local mobile apps, but people affinity has an insignificant effect. The results also indicate that the effect of culture affinity on satisfaction is stronger for foreign users from a high cultural context and mobile apps with a high cultural context. In addition, the proposed effect is mediated by perceived value in terms of enjoyment and utility. The findings support affective contagion effects in cross-national mobile apps adoption and improve our understanding of affinity on foreign users’ satisfaction and value perception. Specific guidelines are provided for mobile marketers and app developers in global markets.

모바일 앱 포트폴리오 전략이 모바일 개발자의 성과에 미치는 영향

What mobile app development strategy should the developer consider to survive and grow in hypercompetitive mobile application market? Mobile app market is one of the most rapidly growing segment in software market. Although mobile app market is a promising area, this positive perspective is not consistently applicable to app developers. In extremely competitive mobile app market, application developers would need to carefully consider and formulate app development strategies for success. To define the strategies, product portfolio management composing with app development speed, diversification speed, and switch speed is introduced. Quantitative analysis validating the statistical relationship between portfolio strategies and app developer’s financial performance is conducted. For this analysis, data from app developers with worldwide cumulative revenue estimate of over $100,000 were collected. As a result of data analysis, positive relationship between app development speed and developer’s financial performance was supported whereas diversification speed and switch speed had negative relationship with revenue. Theoretically, this research differs from the previous mobile app related studies. While previous studies used app ranking or user ratings as proxy for app performance, this study uses estimated sales volume as dependent variable which reflects more accurate and empirical performance.

Mobile Application Development Using MIT App Inventor: An Experiment at Raman Research Institute Library

App Inventor for Android is a no-code open platform for mobile app development using the drag-and-drop approach. In this paper, the authors explore the MIT App Inventor, its salient features, and how library professionals can use the tool to develop apps for their library. The article also gives glimpses of the Mobile Application developed by the authors using the MIT App Inventor app developing platform.

Development of A Hybrid Mobile App for Student Management System

In the event that the school or college has a large number of employees and students. Courses, student requirements, and time management are all issues that managers face on a daily basis. As a result, the proposed system in this study aims to create a student management system that utilizes a hybrid mobile application to manage student registration activities in schools. Flutter framework and Firebase database were used to create the hybrid app. This project can assist teachers, managers, and students in any school or institute in setting, selecting, and identifying a suitable time for their courses, as determined by the schedule. This project also provides significant benefits to managers in terms of managing student registrations and information.

Carbulin: A Comprehensive Mobile Application for Advanced Carbohydrate Counting and Diet- and Insulin-Regimen Planning for Type 1 Diabetic Patients

Nowadays, the introduction of the so-called ‘diabetes technology’, either hardware/device or software, to different aspects of day-to-day living in patients with diabetes aims to improve blood glucose control and various lifestyle features. The coordination of vast context of diabetes education/training, particularly in the area of medical nutrition therapy, is considered as a great concern. On the other hand, Iranian food culture consists of a set of traditional dietary patterns and food consumption habit. The study was aimed to develop “the Comprehensive Mobile Application of Advanced Carbohydrate Counting and Diet- and Insulin-Regimen Planning” to help type 1 diabetic patients, improving their health status. The programming language of Kotlin, JavaScript, Node JS, and HTML5 was used for the mobile app development. The app was developed with the following abilities: 1) educating users on different aspects of disease control including, updated general treatment guidelines on physical activity, medical nutrition and insulin therapy, stress management, and the patient’s specific goals and dietary needs, 2) performing advanced carbohydrate counting using both picture-represented and kitchen-scale of carbohydrate foods as well as traditional Iranian foods, 3) recommending the patient’s specific insulin dose, either short- or rapid-acting, based on the carbohydrate content of the selected meal or the selected amount of Iranian foods, 4) recommending the personalized insulin dose needed for decreasing the high blood glucose levels, and 5) performing 3 and 4 simultaneously. Developing Carbulin was an effort to increase type 1 diabetes self-management using the traditional Iranian dietary pattern and menu.

Development of a Mobile App for Clinical Research: Challenges and Implications for Investigators.

Advances in mobile app technologies offer opportunities for researchers to feasibly collect a large amount of patient data that were previously inaccessible through traditional clinical research methods. Collection of data via mobile devices allows for several advantages, such as the ability to continuously gather data outside of research facilities and produce a greater quantity of data, making these data much more valuable to researchers. Health services research is increasingly incorporating mobile health (mHealth), but collecting these data in current research institutions is not without its challenges. Our paper uses a specific example to depict specific challenges of mHealth research and provides recommendations for investigators looking to incorporate digital app technologies and patient-collected digital data into their studies. Our experience describes how clinical researchers should be prepared to work with variable software and mobile app development timelines; research institutions that are interested in participating in mHealth research need to invest in supporting information technology infrastructures in order to be a part of the growing field of mHealth and gain access to valuable patient-collected data.

Technopreneurship Mobile Application (TMA): A Support Mechanism for Flexible Learning Delivery System

Mobile phones are essential in our daily lives because of their benefits in communication, entertainment, and education. Students use their mobile phones in teaching-learning engagement, both synchronous and asynchronous. The study focused on developing and validating Technopreneurship Mobile Application (TMA) in its functionality, reliability, usability, efficiency, and User interface/user experience. The study engaged with developmental research using the mobile app development cycle, including requirement specification, development modeling, design and development, testing, and deployment. Online data gathering and analysis were used for mobile application validation, evaluation performance, and mobile deployment. A total of 95 information technology students evaluated the application. The results showed that the application is functional, reliable, usable, efficient, and the user interface is helpful. The overall results obtained a 4.20 with an excellent evaluation that shows that developing a mobile application can be a great tool in the flexible learning delivery for students due to its accessibility and usefulness.

Designing a Cancer Prevention Collaborative Goal-Setting Mobile App for Non-Hispanic Black Primary Care Patients: An Iterative, Qualitative Patient-Led Process.

BackgroundThere remains a need to engage at-risk primary care populations in cancer prevention behaviors, yet primary care physicians often lack the time or resources to discuss these behaviors with their patients.ObjectiveThe objective of this study is to evaluate the content, usability, and acceptability of a mobile app that leverages insights from goal-setting and social network literature to facilitate cancer prevention goal setting, tracking, and sharing between non-Hispanic Black primary care patients and their social ties.MethodsWe recruited eligible non-Hispanic Black primary care patients (aged ≥18 years) from 2 practice sites in West Philadelphia, using nonprobabilistic purposive sampling. We conducted semistructured interviews with 5 to 7 participants over 3 weeks to solicit feedback on paper mock-ups of the app, iteratively adapting these mock-ups after each set of interviews. Thereafter, and informed by initial feedback, we created an electronic beta version of the app and sought acceptability and usability feedback from a different set of participants. Then, we conducted content analysis of all user responses to search for unifying themes on acceptability and usability of both the initial mock-ups and beta version of the app. We further assessed app usability using questions derived from the System Usability Scale.ResultsA total of 33 non-Hispanic Black primary care patients participated in this study. The mean age was 49 (SD 13) years, and 26 (79%) out of 33 participants identified as female. Semistructured interviews revealed three primary generalizable insights from our target population: the framing of each goal and its relevance to cancer impacted the likelihood that the goal would be chosen, participants thought that sharing health goals with others facilitates health behaviors, and most participants found it motivating to see other users’ goal progress, while still collaborating with these users on their health goals. An overarching insight that permeated across each theme was the participants’ desire to customize and personalize the app. Usability testing revealed that 100% (33/33) of participants found the app easy to use, and 76% (25/33) of participants reported that they would like to use this app frequently.ConclusionsCancer prevention in the modern era must include options that are accessible to all, but this does not mean that all options must be universal. This study’s iterative process led to the development of a cancer prevention mobile app that non-Hispanic Black primary care patients deemed usable and acceptable and yielded noteworthy insights about what intended end users value in setting and accomplishing health goals.

Persuasive Technology in an mHealth App Designed for Pelvic Floor Muscle Training Among Women: Systematic Review.

BackgroundPelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) is one of the first-line treatments for stress urinary incontinence among pregnant women. Mobile health (mHealth) technology is potentially effective for delivering PFMT to pregnant women. Persuasive technology in the development of such mobile apps may facilitate behavior change by improving adherence to the exercises. The Capability, Opportunity, and Motivation–Behavior (COM-B) model is potentially useful in selecting the appropriate interventions to be incorporated into the apps.ObjectiveThis review of mHealth apps for PFMT aims to describe the principles of persuasion used for each app and to propose mHealth app design features based on the COM-B model.MethodsA systematic literature search was conducted to answer three main research questions: what are the available mHealth apps for PFMT in the published literature, what persuasive strategies were used in their studies how were they mapped to the COM-B model, and how effective were the selected persuasive strategies for PFMT adherence? We searched PubMed, CINAHL, Web of Science, Scopus, and local Malaysian databases such as MyCite and MyMedR for articles reporting mHealth apps used for the delivery of PFMT. We included original articles reporting experimental and cross-sectional studies, including pilot or feasibility trials. Systematic and narrative reviews were excluded. Narrative and thematic syntheses were conducted on the eligible articles based on the research questions. The Cochrane risk of bias tool and the Risk of Bias Assessment Tool for Non-randomized Studies were used to assess study bias.ResultsOf the 169 records from the initial search, 10 (5.9%) articles meeting the selection criteria were included in this review. There were 8 mHealth apps designed for the delivery of PFMT. The Tät, which used 3 categories of persuasive system design, improved PFMT adherence and was cost-effective. Only 1 app, the iBall app, used all categories of persuasive system design, by including social support such as "competition" in its design. The Diário Saúde app was the only app developed using operant conditioning. All apps incorporated Tailoring and Expertise as part of their PSD strategies. Only 3 apps, the Diário Saúde, Tät, and Pen Yi Kang demonstrated improved PFMT adherence.ConclusionsPersuasive technology used in mobile apps may target desired behavior change more effectively. The persuasive system design can be mapped to the COM-B model to explain its effectiveness on behaviour change outcomes.

Classification of Mobile App Users in Multi-Channel Retail—an Exploratory Analysis

The retail industry is facing the challenge of digitization. On the one hand, the share of online shopping in total retail sales is increasing. On the other hand, consumers increasingly expect digital services. At the same time, the spread of smartphones and therefore also mobile apps has been growing for years. More and more retailers are therefore offering mobile apps, which as multi-channel apps combine aspects of online shopping and stationary retail. While the acceptance and use of mobile apps has already been extensively researched, there is little knowledge about the users themselves and user-types. This explorative research classifies users of mobile apps in multi-channel retail. Based on a survey of 101 consumers who were asked to assess the personal relevance of various app functions in a multi-channel retail context, four user types can be identified with the help of a cluster analysis. The results provide practitioners with important information for the future development of mobile apps in retail.

A Conceptual Framework for Determining Quality Requirements for Mobile Learning Applications Using Delphi Method

The development of mobile learning apps might fail due to poor selection of the suitable technical requirements for mobile devices. This will affect the quality of mobile learning applications and, thus, will increase the development cost of mobile learning apps. Due to the above issues, we need to determine the most appropriate technical quality requirements for the development of mobile learning apps that meet user requirements. To achieve that, we propose a comprehensive framework to capture the most suitable technical quality requirements for mobile learning apps. A Delphi method was used to collect, evaluate, and analyze the data for this study. As a result of our Delphi study, we have identified nineteen technical quality requirements, divided into six quality dimensions, for the development of mobile learning applications. The proposed framework is expected to be a guideline for mobile apps designers and developers to successfully develop mobile learning apps.

A Novel Framework to Monitor and Test the Performance of Mobile Applications

Mobile applications (apps) are being widely used around the world. The long-term success and diffusion of a mobile app depends on it being well-tested, with respect to its performance and its reliability. Mobile app testing is typically carried out in multiple stages. An app is first tested for performance and reliability in a controlled lab-like environment during its development. However, the heterogeneity of in-the-field environments (including many device profiles, network speeds, etc.) is far greater than in a lab setting, with a small group of users. For this reason, a so-called Beta version of the app is typically rolled-out to a limited number of users, to get deeper insights into its performance and reliability in the field. After the Beta test results are analyzed, and refinements are incorporated, the application is released to all of its intended users. However, this work is based on a belief that field testing should be an automatic and ongoing process. Field test data, representing the actual performance and reliability of the app in the field, should be continuously fed back to the developer. To accomplish this, this paper proposes a framework for ongoing monitoring and field testing of mobile apps. This framework includes a library that mobile app developers can use to collect performance and reliability data during ongoing extensive field testing. These data are collected and presented using a web form to inform developers about the performance and reliability of their apps as they are being used by end-users in the field.

SCALABLE AR FOR BIM ON TELECOMMUNICATION NETWORK SITES

Abstract. A growing number of research works, experiments and applications is investigating the potential at the intersection of augmented reality (AR) and the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. Project management, project communication, collaborative design, maintenance and construction progress documentation, construction site safety, and training are some of the cases that can benefit from blending real and virtual views through mobile devices. In recent years, research also highlighted how mixed reality and building information modeling (BIM) could cooperate to provide effective communication between multiple agents and closer interaction between digital information and the building site. Nevertheless, consolidated applications in these fields are still limited, especially when compared to other areas of AR adoption. This paper presents the development of an AR-based mobile app for exploring telecommunications tower sites and interacting with a related BIM database. The project aims to provide easy-to-use tools to maintain both the physical assets and an up-to-date model. We discuss critical issues in developing a scalable and interoperable application, supporting the feasibility study of similar solutions in the AEC sector.

Design and Development of a Mobile Application for Teaching Triple Multiplication to Preschool Children.

Due to the difficult educational condition caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the design and development of mobile phone apps and technologies for teaching and learning are being more considered. Moreover, technology-based infrastructure for the use of distance education is developing rapidly. In this paper, an Android application called Triangular App (TriApp) was designed for teaching multiplication to preschool children. This application uses the Triple Multiplication method in which three numbers (including two numbers, and the product of multiplication of these two numbers) are considered as a group. By repeating and memorizing this group, if any of the numbers are not displayed, the child can guess the missed number. With TriApp, in addition to multiplication, children can also learn division. There is a test and competition section in which the child receives points by giving the correct answers, which increases the children's desire to learn. To evaluate the effectiveness of the TriApp, two preschool children groups were examined in 10 days. The former learned multiplication using TriApp and the later learned it using the multiplication table (repeated additions). The results showed that during test, 100% of the children that used the TriApp could answer asked multiplications correctly and only 40–70% of the children who were trained through multiplication table could answer asked multiplications correctly. Also, the children were satisfied 94% with the application, whereas, they were satisfied only 60% with the multiplication table. This mobile application was developed using Java programming language, Eclipse IDE, and SQLite database.

Volunteered geographic information mobile application for participatory landslide inventory mapping

Participatory landslide inventory mapping using the Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) mobile app is a promising method to produce a landslide inventory map. The aim of this research is to describe the development and implementation of the VGI mobile app for participatory landslide inventory mapping. The architecture VGI mobile app is developed on the basis of Free Open-source Software for Geospatial Application server-client software to ensure reproducibility and flexibility, and to reduce cost. Anyone can reproduce, modify, and share the code, which suggests improvement in the collective ability to use, prepare, and landslide inventory update. Landslide inventory using VGI mobile app shows that the tool and method successfully map landslides in the landslide prone area (Magelang Regency, Central Java Province, Indonesia) with fairly high levels of effectiveness and convenience. Magelang Regency, one of the landslide prone areas in Java, is located in the intermountain basin surrounded by Menoreh Mountain, Merapi, Merbabu, Suropati-Telomoyo Complex, and Sumbing Volcano. In this study, landslide inventory mapping using VGI mobile app was applied in Magelang Regency by 17 volunteers from BPBD (Regional Agency for Disaster Management) Magelang Regency for three days. Landslides area occurred from 2017 to 2019 were properly identified and mapped by the volunteers. The sizes of landslides varied from 5.2 m2 to 4,632.5 m2, and the average was 208.2 m2. A team of volunteer was able to map 7-10 landslides per day. Participatory mapping using VGI mobile app reduces the time in transferring field data to a GIS database, in contrast to conventional participatory landslide inventory mapping. VGI mobile app allows users to provide new geographical landslide data, share landslide data rapidly, ensure consistency of landslide data, and improve accessibility of landslide data. The use of the VGI mobile app for participatory landslide inventory mapping provides new opportunities to improve risk assessment, preparedness, and early action and warning to landslide hazard.

Data handling practices and commercial features of apps related to children: a scoping review of content analyses

BackgroundChild interaction (including via parent proxy) with mobile apps is common, generating concern about children’s privacy and vulnerability to advertising and other commercial interests. Researchers have conducted numerous app content...

Barriers and Drivers Regarding the Use of Mobile Health Apps Among Patients With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in the Netherlands: Explanatory Sequential Design Study.

BackgroundSelf-monitoring of blood glucose levels, food intake, and physical activity supports self-management of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). There has been an increase in the development and availability of mobile health apps for T2DM.ObjectiveThe aim of this study is to explore the actual use of mobile health apps for diabetes among patients with T2DM and the main barriers and drivers among app users and nonusers.MethodsAn explanatory sequential design was applied, starting with a web-based questionnaire followed by semistructured in-depth interviews. Data were collected between July and December 2020. Questionnaire data from 103 respondents were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics (version 25.0). Descriptive statistics were performed for the actual use of apps and items of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). The UTAUT includes 4 key constructs: performance expectancy (the belief that an app will help improve health performance), effort expectancy (level of ease associated with using an app), social influence (social support), and facilitating conditions (infrastructural support). Differences between users and nonusers were analyzed using chi-square tests for individual items. Independent 2-tailed t tests were performed to test for differences in mean scores per the UTAUT construct. In total, 16 respondents participated in the interviews (10 users and 6 nonusers of apps for T2DM). We performed content analysis using a deductive approach on all transcripts, guided by the UTAUT.ResultsRegarding actual use, 55.3% (57/103) were nonusers and 44.7% (46/103) were users of apps for T2DM. The main driver for the use of apps was the belief that using apps for managing diabetes would result in better personal health and well-being. The time and energy required to keep track of the data and understand the app were mentioned as barriers. Mean scores were significantly higher among users compared with nonusers of apps for T2DM for the constructs performance expectancy (4.06, SD 0.64 vs 3.29, SD 0.89; P<.001), effort expectancy (4.04, SD 0.62 vs 3.50, SD 0.82; P<.001), social influence (3.59, SD 0.55 vs 3.29, SD 0.54; P=.007), and facilitating conditions (4.22, SD 0.48 vs 3.65, SD 0.70; P<.001). On the basis of 16 in-depth interviews, it was recognized that health care professionals play an important role in supporting patients with T2DM in using apps. However, respondents noticed that their health care professionals were often not supportive of the use of apps for managing diabetes, did not show interest, or did not talk about apps. Reimbursement by insurance companies was mentioned as a missing facilitator.ConclusionsEmpowering health care professionals’ engagement is of utmost importance in supporting patients with T2DM in the use of apps. Insurance companies can play a role in facilitating the use of diabetes apps by ensuring reimbursement.