A survey by researchers at New York University School of Medicine’s Population Health department of more than 1,600 smartphone users, mainly around Los Angeles and New York City, assessed their experience downloading health apps. Their findings show that mobile health app developers still have a lot to learn about their target users’ needs.
The most damning insight comes from the question of why they stopped using the apps they downloaded. Nearly half, or 44 percent, said it took too much time to enter data. Another 40 percent said loss of interest was a factor and 36 percent pointed to hidden costs (shame on you!). More than one-third said the apps were confusing to use and 30 percent said they did not like that the apps shared their data with friends.
Intuitive, user-centric design is something that some digital health companies pride themselves on, but not nearly enough execute.
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“The field of mobile health apps is still in a nascent stage and is characterized by a number of limitations, both in terms of sophistication of the apps themselves as well as in knowledge of consumer profiles,” the report read. “Most health apps have not been designed with input from health care and behavior change professionals.”
Among some of the other findings:
- Fitness and nutrition were the most common categories of health apps used, with most respondents using them at least daily.
- Among apps classified as “health and fitness” or “medical,” only one-fifth offered the possibility of facilitating actual behavioral or physical changes versus nonevidence-based gimmicks or simple information provision.
- The most frequent reasons people had for downloading health apps were to:
- Track how much physical activity they were getting (53 percent);
- Track what they ate (48 percent);
- Lose weight (47 percent);
- Learn exercises (34 percent).
- 65 percent opened their health apps at least once per day;
- 44 percent used their apps for 1-10 minutes.
- 44 percent said they had moderate and 34 percent said they were very much trusted their apps’ data security.
