Course
overview
and structure
Mobile
User Experience
Dates: May 23-June 20, no class May 28
Times: 5:30-8:30pm ET + team meetings
What to do if missing all or part of class?
Meet in person: for class session, separately, or not at all?
Twitter and other social media
Social media survey
Online course feedback: you are not guinea pigs!
Questions:
Lisa Gualtieri, PhD, ScM
Tufts University School of Medicine
lisa.gualtieri@tufts.edu
@lisagualtieri
l.gualtieri@tufts.edu, cell: 781-330-9456
dickie.wallace@tufts.edu, cell 413-335-3803
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141st APHA Annual Meeting
(November 2 - 6, 2013) in Boston
• Integration of evidence-based guidelines and
transtheoretical model of change into mobile
health app design
• SMS to increase adherence in diabetes
patients in India
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Mobile user experience
• What got me thinking about the entire
experience of learning about, downloading, and
using apps
• Dimensions of mobile design
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Saugus, MA
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Kowloon app
Everyone wants
to have or think
they need an
app – like web
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Mobile design is the entire experience
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Having a need and/or learning about an app
Deciding to download
Deciding to try - initial use
Sustained or ongoing use
Participatory or shared use
Not a continuum
May be dips
Can an app be successful with only initial or sporadic use?
Are incentives necessary and which work?
Is trust necessary and at which point(s)?
How is health different from commerce or entertainment?
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Mobile design is the entire
experience
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Having a need and/or learning about an app
Deciding to download
Deciding to try - initial use
Sustained or ongoing use
Participatory or shared use
Not a continuum
May be dips
Can an app be successful with only initial or
sporadic use?
• Are incentives necessary and which work?
• Is trust necessary and at which point(s)?
• How is health different from commerce or
entertainment?
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How do people learn about apps?
• Pre-downloaded
• Signs on doors
• App stores
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Search based on categories, cost, featured, etc.
Easier for iPhone because similar to iPod music?
Android Market to Google Play
Many of these provide ratings and reviews
• Participation is spotty
• Review sites
• Recommendations and word-of-mouth
• Ads, pop-ups, product packaging, TV, etc.
Why do people decide to try an app?
• Low barriers
• Hope to improve or simplify one’s life
– Entertainment
– Satisfy unmet need
– Satisfy unidentified need
• Commerce?
– Accomplish something otherwise not possible
– Accomplish something more easily than before
• Convenience
– Integrate disparate aspects of life
– Smart and/or innovative
Designing mobile user experience
• Smartphone capabilities
– Also smartphone limitations relative to
desktop/laptop and to what people accustomed to
• Smartphone layout and patterns
– De facto standards are emerging
• Apps are changing what people do and their
expectations
– Does the existence of an app create an impression?
• Does one domain spill over into another?
– Overall, “yes”
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Smartphone in contrast to desktop/laptop
• Screen size and proportions
– Less screen real estate and more variety in screen proportions
• Direct interaction with screen
– No mouse so no roll-overs or tool-tips
– Only some have keyboard so users interact directly with the
screen
• Variable orientation
– Quick orientation switching
• Single-screen environment
– Hard to use multiple apps simultaneously even when possible
• Established device standards
– As market matures, consistent UI patterns are forming
• Limited resources
– Smartphones are limited by connection quality, battery life,
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processing power, and onboard memory
Touchscreen inputs
• Touchscreen inputs include:
– Single tap: used in place of a standard mouse click
– Drag: scrolling or panning
– Flick: scroll of pan quickly
– Swipe: make selection, evoke a contextual menu, or
as part of a two step process like delete
– Pinch (open & close): zooming in/out
– Press and hold: make a selection or evoke a
contextual menu
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Smartphone controls and capabilities
• Smartphone controls and capabilities for input/output
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Visual: high resolution screen
Audible: speaker, headphone jack
Physical: vibration for alerts, haptic feedback
Dedicated keys: Volume control, Back, Search, Menu,
Power/Lock, Home
Physical keyboards: shortcuts, text input
Accelerometers: track motion and orientation
GPS
Backlight
Microphone: voice commands, ambient audio, music
Camera: photos and visual codes
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Mobile design patterns:
de facto standards have emerged
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Activity Feeds
Check-in Screens
Comment Detail
Custom Tab Navigation
Dashboard Navigation
Edu Walk-Throughs
Empty Data Sets
Find Friends
Grouped Table Views
Lists
Maps
Notifications
Search
Settings
Sign Up Flows
Splash Screens
UI that I Heart
User Profiles
Venue Detail
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Mobile design patterns for navigation
• Important because it is the most visible screen and therefore
needs to be appealing and usable
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Springboard (Facebook)
Simple or expanding list menu (Blackboard)
Tab menu (Foursquare)
Gallery (Android gallery)
Dashboard
Metaphor
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Design rules apply – even more so
• Make first experience positive
• Make subsequent experiences helpful and
compelling
• Consistency between screens
• Similar metaphors to other apps, as appropriate
• Well-written text
• Judicious use of imagery
• Name and branding
• Creative use of mobile capabilities!
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Applying user experience design
to apps – and the app store!
• Appeal
– Immediate reaction
– Recommend to friend
– Rate or review
• Usability
– Easy to accomplish tasks
and know capabilities
• Effectiveness
– Accomplish goals
– Sustain use
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4 dimensions of mobile design
Context
• Mobile users use their mobile device in any
location no matter what else they are doing
Immediacy
• Mobile users use their mobile device at a
moment’s notice including for urgent needs
Affinity
• Mobile users have an ongoing intimate and
personalized relationship with their digital
appendage and, through it, with others
Personalization
• “Big data” and predictive analytics offers
extensive personalization and tailoring (but
too invasive?)
Smartphone use for health is not just apps
• Opportunities through
– Social networking
– SMS/texting
– Mobile browser
– Sensors
• Standalone and integrated apps
Research questions for later discussion
• How do you define app success and learn from experiences?
• Is facilitation of social support through mobile devices enough
in of itself?
• Do existing evidence-based guidelines apply to mobile devices
as is and, if not, how can they be “adjusted” or reframed?
• Where do theoretical frameworks fit into app design?
• Are new techniques needed to evaluate apps?
– Not successful for web yet – HONcode, URAC
• Are mobile literacy skills needed?
– Are mobile health literacy skills needed too?
• How can health and public health organizations get a foothold
with increasingly commercially-driven approaches?
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Mobile First
• Designing for mobile first instead of retrofitting
existing practices into mobile format
• Is what is best for people what is most successful
in the marketplace?
– Evaluation and market research only go so far
– My apps were mobile first
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App challenges
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My app design
• Business travelers
have increased rates
of poor health and
health risk factors,
including obesity
and high blood
pressure
• Many apps help
locate restaurants
based on cost,
location, and
ethnicity
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Team project (revisited)
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Mobile devices are rarely used in a doctor’s office. They may be used prior to a doctor’s
appointment, in the waiting room, and following an appointment. The class project is to
design an app that will be used by a patient in a doctor’s office that is perceived as beneficial
by both patient and doctor
During an appointment: is not disruptive, doesn’t interfere with a physician’s protocol, and
doesn’t add to the length of an appointment
Preparing for an appointment: making sure that important information or questions are
recorded or prepared in some way prior to an appointment, in the waiting room, or between
appointments
Following an appointment: aids patient with retention, education,
communication/connection with doctor or others, tracking and self-management, and/or
reminders
The app can be for all patients or target a specific demographic or disease. It should
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Exploit or at least utilize mobile device capabilities
Be simpler, better, smarter, and/or easier to use than similar apps, if any exist
Provide tailoring and/or personalization to user preferences and health issues
Help patients, in particular, those with poor health literacy skills, to develop skills and improve knowledge
and behaviors
Focus on
– Creativity and innovation to accomplish tasks more efficiently or easily or to transform existing practices
– Appeal, usability, and impact
– How evidence-based guidelines and theoretical frameworks can be used or adapted for the app
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What teams will produce
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Team project paper and presentation:
– Overview
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Name of app
Organization
Goal(s)
Concept statement: what does it do, who benefits, and how (lower costs, increased adherence, etc.)
– Background
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Supporting research
– Needs assessment
• Define target audiences, target audiences’ needs, and how app addresses needs
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Personas and scenarios
Design implications
– Competitive analysis and design/marketing implications
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Competitive analysis of four other similar apps including how located
Design implications
– App design
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Description of app
Scenario(s) of app use depicting benefits
Map of app structure
Wireframes: initial screen and at least two paths users can take
Development plan
Evaluation plan
Marketing plan: platform, price, and promotion
Limitations
Next steps
June 5
June 5
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Next steps
• Define organization, goal(s), concept statement,
and target audience
– Some already provided 
• Example: AllergyHome.org decides to design an
app for parents of children with food allergies up
to age 5
– What is different if instead it is a non-medical
individual, an MD, a health plan, BCBS, NIH, CDC,
WebMD, or MA DPH?
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Ask strategic questions to develop
meaningful goals
in support of organization’s mission
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What do we want to improve?
Who do we want to reach?
Which products and services can we offer?
Will they be integrated, and, if so, how?
How will content be created or obtained?
Should we charge or seek sponsors or ads?
Is the commitment short- or long-term?
How will we know we have been successful or need
to change direction?
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Goals generally focus on
better, faster, or more
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Increase healthy behaviors
Acquire new audiences
Retain current audience
Increase loyalty/page views/followers/etc.
Increase word-of-mouth and viral promotions
Improve branding and awareness
Reduce content creation costs
Decrease content creation time
Respond rapidly to crises
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Identify internal and external constraints
and consider how to address
• Organization
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Alignment with mission
Leadership
Budget
Technological knowledge
Fear
• Target audiences
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Technological knowledge and platforms
Health literacy skills
Time
Health conditions
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Evaluate and prioritize goals
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Are goals realistic and achievable?
How will success be meaningfully measured?
What else do we need to know?
Prioritize goals based on potential impact and
ease of implementing
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For June 5
• Final project for teams: define
– Organization
– Goal(s) for app
– Concept statement: what does it do, who benefits,
and how (lower costs, increased adherence, etc.)
– Define target audiences, target audiences’
needs, and how app addresses needs
• Next: personas and scenarios
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