Objectively Assessing and Comparing the User Experience of Two Thousand Digital Health Apps

Abstract

There are more than 350,000 digital health apps in the app stores today. There is an average of around 250 digital health apps being added daily to the app stores. This indicates a public appetite to consume digital health apps, and a potential to decrease the pressure on healthcare providers by promoting digital technology. However, for this to be a viable option, digital health apps must be effective and safe to use. The quality, defined as “compliance with best practice standards”, of such apps must be of the highest standard for these to be recommended by healthcare professionals. One crucially important aspect of the quality of an app is user experience (UX). The UX of digital health apps is important to assure that the technology is being used safely and as intended. The objective of this study was to describe common practices related to the UX for digital health app design. This study analysed a sample of 2,053 digital health apps with a focus on the UX practices in the digital health app design. The data included in this study was collected using the Organisation for the Review of Care and Health Applications (ORCHA) assessment tool. ORCHA is a United Kingdom (UK) based digital health compliance company that specialises in assessing the quality of digital health apps, which includes UX. The ORCHA UX assessment consists of 15 polar questions (Yes/No) and 3 multiple selection questions. A score of 65 is considered a ‘threshold score’ and a starting point, based on answers this score will increase, decrease, or stay the same.